I posted in other sites also. However, many of them can't understand English. I find it strange because HKer start learning English from kindergarten. Many of the HKers don't get a chance by practicing unless they interact with English speaking people at work. Still, they should be able to read and write without any problem.

Being able to communicate through English is a special characteristic of being a HKer because many other Chinese don't, since English isn't the official language to them.

huh??

and your point is ...................................................

probable he's just confused why there is so many hongkies that can't understand english very well...

That's exactly my point. Why oh why?

instead of "hongkies" ; is there another term that we can use;
perhaps Hongkong people, local, etc

Hong Konger?

have to ask the locals; I am no objections since I am not one;

Cantonese is what I have always been told.

But I like Honkies! that's just funny!!!  

I think Hongkonger is the correct term.

I seem to notice that the standard of English in Hong Kong has been dropping in recent years... it seems that the current generation of teenagers have English standards not much better than those in other southeast asian countries like malaysia, indonesia and thailand.... I guess they prefer to learn Mandarin over English....

English is no longer a standard language in HK, as the focus turns towards China. Not that the standard of English was all that great here to begin with. You can't blame us for that though. English isn't our first language, and its nothing like our mother tongue so its hard to learn. Plus the educational system here in Hong Kong is crap. English teaching happens mostly at tutoring centers now rather than the schools.

Just take into consideration though...
For a Chinese (or Asian in general) to know more than one language including English, is not uncommon, especially the well traveled ones. But for a foreigner living in Hong Kong, regardless of where they're from, to be fluent in Chinese is a very rare thing. Especially those that have lived in Hong Kong for a long time.

very soon, Mandarin will replace English in conversations  ....................

When I first visited HK in 78, NOBODY spoke Mandarin. I'd spent a couple of years in Taiwan practically living in the library trying to get the language down, and I come to HK thinking maybe I'll get a little respect from the locals, with the result that everybody treated me like I was some hopelessly clueless twit who didn't realize that Mandarin was the language of the dumb mainland yokels. It took me about 30 mins to realize that if I wanted anything, English was the way to go.

Now nearly everybody speaks some Mandarin; and if they don't they're embarrassed! And finally all that study has led to something - great sex with all these incredible mainland girls So you see children, study hard now so that when you grow up you'll get somewhere important in life.

If Mandarin is becoming the educational priority for the HKers, that just reflects the new economic reality over here - it's not newly discovered love of the mother land.

20 yrs ago, in high school (grades 9-12) in the States, nobody studied Asian languages. Then Japanese became popular in the Universities and moved into the curriculum of rich kid prep schools. Now Mandarin is everywhere. It was inevitable; if it wasn't for unfortunate political decisions made by Chinese leaders from late Ching until Deng Xiaoping, Chinese would be an important world language by now.

What's happened to English is very interesting from a linguistic point of view. It's become so widespread that there is no standard English anymore; even syntax is breaking down into strange variants used in places like India, Nigeria, Singapore, Japan, etc. However, there is no credible threat to English as the world's dominant means of communication. English rules the media and the internet, and now that no culture exists in isolation from any other, English has become unstoppable.

[ Last edited by  Marsupial at 9-10-2007 13:13 ]

one of the reasons that Putonghua was pushed because of the difficulties faced by the Chinese;
The Chinese had problems in communicating with each other within China. I don't know how many dialects are there in China, but I can understand simple phrases from at least 8.

English will remain as the main language for written purposes; But frankly I have difficulties in understanding the new language used by the younger generation; Cn U Rd Ths?  Would English be a much easily language to master without the vowels ?

Personally, my preference is still English for the Internet; I am not sure whether the Chinese are going ahead with using the characters for the domains, but the jokers in Thailand insist on using Thai characters for domains as well as a Thai interface for applications. With only a population of 60 million, I don't think it will be feasible since the number of Internet users is less than a million and I am guessing that more than half are not even Thais.  I have encouraged many webmasters to include an English version so as to reach out to the rest of the world, but sadly they lack the expertise and will to do it.

I am pretty sure the tourist industry is still a significant (if not major) income for HK. Hotel is hella expensive in HK. Not only the tourist spends money in the restuarant and the hotel. They also have to spend money on consumer goods, transportation fare, etc.

And how many of us can speak Farsi, Arabian, Hindu, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Tagalog, Thai, etc fluently? However, it's more feasible to communicate through English instead of hundreds other languages with the tourists.

However, I am not discrediting the need to learn Mandarin, as the need dealing with mainland rises day by day. As an international city, Hongkonger shouldn't slack off on maintaining the ability to speak decent English. In order to stay competitive and preparing for the globalized world's markets, the ability to speak English has become more essential.

Just throw it out there, why many of the tech support jobs from the US are outsourced to India instead of Hong Kong?

It's always a good reason to learn another language if you move to the place. You never lose by learning something new.

because of low wages ................................................

especially if the tutoress is a young and attractive lady

Agree. You will NEVER understand a foreign culture unless you speak the language. It's one reason why native English speakers often seem so ignorant of other peoples: finding it unnecessary to learn the language, they never get beyond the tourist stage.

How often have you overheard some dumb American/English tourist making fun of some poor guys English, when they themselves speak only the language they were born with?

Of course a traveler can't be expected to learn the language of every country he goes to, but visiting a country and complaining that they don't speak English well is both arrogant and dumb.

Mind u, here in australia, with all the diversities of people around it, people still complain in a "vent ur spleen" section in papers, about people using their own language to talk to their friends, and insist they should be talking in english, and it's rude of them to talk so loud, and him/her can't understand them.
there r people who is dumb, but these people are just simply too ignorant.