In the
following weeks, I will talk about how second language develop in different
country/ region. This week, I will be talking about how second language develop
in my home country, Hong Kong.
In Hong
Kong, it is clear that people who are bilingual are more than the number of people
who are monolingual. Most people in Hong Kong, especially the 80’s and 90’s,
can speak at least 3 languages, English, Mandarin and Cantonese. Cantonese is
the mother language of Hong Kong and everyone in Hong Kong learn it since they
were born. Before 1997, Hong Kong was still British’s colony and therefore,
English was mostly spoken by people in many different areas, but especially in
the business area.[1] Thus,
after China took back Hong Kong, English and Mandarin Chinese become the second
and third language that people learn in Hong Kong.
Although
not everyone in Hong Kong want to learn a second language, or they would like
to learn a different language instead of English and Mandarin, they still learn
it. Some people may wonder why learning English and Mandarin are so important
in Hong Kong. The main reason is that because the ability to understand English
and Mandarin Chinese in Hong Kong are essential. On the other hand, without
these skills, getting a good paid job and a better future is hard.
As the
Government of Hong Kong adopted the “biliterate and trilingual” policy,
it became a must to learn English and Mandarin in Hong Kong.[2]
Every school in Hong Kong must offer both English and Mandarin class from primary
school (year 1) until the first 3 years of secondary school (year 10). Some
kindergartens also offer English and Mandarin class for children to help them
learn the language better later in primary school[3].
Without
having the ability to speak, write and read English and Mandarin, the
possibility of getting a job is very low. As Hong Kong is an international
city, many tourists come to Hong Kong for travel every year. In 2011, there
were more than 42 million visitors from all over the world.[4]
Mainland China had the most visitors coming to Hong Kong again like it was
before. For the long-haul market, United States has continued to become the
largest visitor source.[5]
These data reveal that tourism is a big part of Hong Kong and people in Hong
Kong should at least have the basic skills of both languages so that they could
communicate with the tourists. It is also obvious that many jobs apart from the
tourists industry in Hong Kong actually need to use English or Mandarin to
communicate.[6] Therefore,
it is hard to get a job if people only know Cantonese.
To sum
up, Hong Kong is a bilingual city that most people can speak at least 3 languages,
Cantonese, English and Mandarin. As the society has become more globalised than
before, it seems to be a must to learn all these languages. No matter how much
a person does not want to learn, because of the Hong Kong Government policy,
most of us have at least the basic skills of these languages. Also in order to
achieve a better future, the ability to understand and speak these languages is
required.
In the
next blog entry, I will be talking about second language acquisition in Japan,
where most of my classmates are from.
[1] Boland, R.
(n.d). Do People in Hong Kong Speak English. Available:
http://gohongkong.about.com/od/travelplanner/a/englishinhk.htm. Last accessed
8th June 2012.
[2] The Hong Kong education and schooling system explained.
Available: http://www.tuition.com.hk/education-system.htm. Last accessed 8th
June 2012.
[3] ibid
[5] ibid
[6] Chen, TP.
(2012). mandarin overtakes english as hong kong's second language. Available:
http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2012/02/24/mandarin-overtakes-english-as-hong-kongs-second-language/.
Last accessed 9th June
2012.
Unlike Hong kong, most of korean are monolingual. Actually, to live in korea doesn't demand for citizen to have a english ability. Since all Korean don't feel any inconvenient to live. Yet to get a highly paid job, Korean, espcially students, is needed to have english ability. Unlike Hong kong, tourists industry isn't developed in Korea. instead of practical way such as business or tourists industry, it is for competitive power to compete with others for high salary job, good school, or reputation.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, does Honk kong also combine the different languages in one way? In other words, Do english and mandarin affects your mother tongue? For example, Korean had been affected by chinese a lot because of geograph and historical relation. And these days, Korean is also being changed swiftly by english after korean has tried to learn english. So whenever Korean use korean, there are lots of english and chinese factors in korean.
By what you commented, I realised one thing that Hong Kong is similar to Korea is that languages have become a competitive power to compete with others. People might not want to learn it, but because this is how our society has created the phenomenon that langauge is important in many aspects,it forced them to learn.
DeleteAnswering your question, English and Mandarin do affect our mother tongue. Many of the words of Cantonese come from the English or Mandarin words, for example, taxi, chocolate, the Cantonese of these words are originally from English. Also, when we speak, we can easily just combine English, Mandarin and Cantonese together in one sentence. So when you hear people speaking in Cantonese, it always have some English mixed in it! Hong Kong people (mostly the 80's and 90's) have also created lots of new words by themselves which are originated from English and Mandarin, and we call them "trendy langauge". Through this you can see English and Mandarin have been affecting our mother language.
the most korean words are come from chinese because korean use the meaning of the word. And wthese days the english is used as konglish.
ReplyDelete