Since the handover of Hong Kong in 1997,
Chinese and English have been the official languages in Hong Kong, in which
bi-literacy and tri-lingualism were adopted. According to the Hong Kong
yearbook of 2006, this official language policy is used to maintain and develop
the Chinese-English proficient civil service, where Chinese and English are the
written forms, while Cantonese, Putonghua and English are the spoken forms. It
is also believed that another of the aim of this policy emerged after the
resumption of sovereignty in 1997 was to strike a balance between the status of
English, Cantonese and Putonghua.(Hu, 2007) However, after the official language
policy was being used for around 25 years, were the expected outcomes being
fulfilled? How did the official language policy affect the language uses in our
society? Did the transition cause any problems? To discuss these interesting
questions, it is necessary to dig into this issues through various aspects,
namely through workplaces, the government, media and also social interactions.
In our modern society, the language capability
to communicate in Chinese and English is indispensably important and is of
great demand. Thus, not only privates institutions, even some local community
centers as well as the government help promote the importance and uses of
Chinese and English through offering courses or even some campaigns. Both official languages were
used in different official websites, telephone hotlines, seminars, competitions
and also guidebooks on English-Chinese glossaries and Chinese-English
glossaries of terms often used in government departments.(Yearbook of 2006)
There are Chinese courses provided for foreigners and
also Putonghua courses and qualification examinations, but the majority of them
are English courses aimed at improving the writing, listening, reading and
speaking skills of participants so as to assist them on their career paths,
workplace adaptations or communications in daily lives. For instance, the Elder Academy
held events of “Speak English” to provide elderly to be given an opportunity to
learn English and to apply what they have learnt. As in the case of the
government, to consolidate the competitiveness and the status of Hong Kong as
an international city emphasizing commerce, economics and tourism, Workplace
English Campaign was implemented in the year of 2000. The education and
promotion of this campaign came in a diverse format, television programs such
as “English Made Easy” and “English Everywhere – Work Chat” were some of the
examples. More information can be found through the following links:
The
above activities seems to point out that Hong Kong people has the need to
improve their language proficiencies, is that actually a need or simply a
facilitation?
As I
mentioned before, we have to look into the issue in depth, the workplace will
be an aspect to start with. It is found that most public settings value
language ability of employees, similarly, in the general entrance requirement
of the government, one has to prove her capability of both Chinese and English
languages through passing a certain levels in the entrance papers of Chinese
and English languages applications. Some other qualifications from GCE A
levels, GCE A Level English Language or IELTS were also accepted. While
different occupations and positions have different criteria on the levels
required to attend. However, what is worth-noting is that some specific
occupations are discovered to have differences on the English and Chinese
levels requirement. More specifically, some occupations like government
lawyers, legal aid lawyers and lawyers are required to attend an English level
of 2 and a Chinese level of 1. Although it is understandable that English uses
in higher level environment like the courts are more advanced and
sophisticated, thus demand a higher level of English proficiency, however,
Chinese is at the same time a vital language in the courts if hearings are
conducted in Chinese. The above imbalance of language requirements suggests the
society somehow value more on English standards in the ways that concern its
coverage and depth. Apart from that, private enterprises of various professions
ranging from tourism, medical field, international companies, service sectors
like restaurants, logistic, religious institutes, technological industry and
banking sectors also explore self-initiated English enhancement programs and
tests for employees to join. Swire Travel Limited, IDS logistics, Tai Hing
Roast Restaurant Group are some of the above. In which, the language courses
bias towards English.
Beyond
the influence over the workplace is the government, which the judicial system
in Hong Kong will be focused. One of the biggest changes from the hand-over occurred
in the judicial system under the intervention of the government. Introducing of
Chinese into the official language in the territory in 1974 and enactment of
the Official Language Ordinance in July 1995 set off the usage of either
English or Chinese at all levels of courts.( Legislative Council Secretariat,
2012) Numerous arrangements have been made to introduce Chinese into the
judicial system. English-Chinese and Chines-English Glossary of Legal Terms
intended to provide handy reference tools in locating bilingual legal terms in
legislation were published in 2004 and 1999. Up till 31 October 2011, the
number of fully bilingual court judges were 115 out of 150 so as to ensure they
can master the skills in preparing, delivering and conducting the hearings in
Chinese.( Legislative Council Secretariat, 2012) The system of introducing
court interpreters were also made to ensure proper process during the hearings.
The above amendments show that Chinese is increasingly being applicable after
once being the colonial of Britain. Yet, problems emerge as the renovation
proceeds, for instance, language barrier may occur when accused, litigants or
witnesses do not have adequate proficiency in the language chosen to be
conducted during the hearings. Not only this causes inconvenience, since the
expression may not be precise or accurate enough, this may lead to occurrence
of disadvantages. Other than that, the process of deciding whether to use
Chinese or English may lengthen the hearing process, which may in turns
increase the expenditures and increase the time consumed. These problems
reflect a situation that although the government has been making great efforts
on maintaining trilingualism smoothly, the effects show that revolution was not
thorough enough and more time is required.
Lastly,
under the influence of official language policy, both the usage of Cantonese
and English in Hong Kong are frequent, not only in our daily conversation, but
also in the Hong Kong media.(Lee, 1999) According to Regan(2003), unlike
Singapore and India who also adopted mutilingualism, Hong Kong is largely
monolinguistic and monocultural in daily life interactions along with the
English proposing a great effect due to education and utility of English as an
international language and auxiliary language in most sectors. Leading to phenomena
of code-mixing and code-switching, which mean the habit of some bilinguals of
using both Chinese and English while speaking or writing. He describes the
general phenomenon to be interspersion of English elements (usually single
words) into Cantonese. Besides, Chinglish is found to be unconsciously and
purposely used in daily life of Hong Kong people to the extent that even affect
their normal conversations and writings, indicating a drop in English proficiency
of some Hong Kong people.
More can be found out after watching the following video:
星期日檔案 「港」英文
http://video.online.hk/watch/26896
From the
South China Morning post(Lee, 2012), it indicated that the English proficiency
of Hong Kong people dropped from international ranking of 12th to 25th
out of 54 non-English-Speaking countries. It is alarming and reflective to how
Hong Kong is now experiencing a fall of English language skills and interfere
of code-mixing.
In light
of the above, the official language policy or in the other words the
bi-literacy and tri-lingualism of Hong Kong has already deeply embed into our
society, on one hand, some applications were not well developed enough as they
are moving forwards with the adaptation; on the other side, the blending of
Chinese and English can be confusing and may lead to misunderstanding during communication.
Meanwhile, in response to the earlier-raised questions, the effects of the
policy are in a flourishing trend, which means it is still undergoing modifications,
there are still problems to be alleviated. And they are mainly imbalance of
status and significances of Chinese and English, decrease in English
proficiency of Hong Kong people and also some other practical troubles
encountered, as in the situation of the judicial system.
The
following video is an episode of a political series show, this may give you
some new insights on the topic of how official language policy affect the
society. It has to be aware that the production team of this video has an
argument and opinion over this topic which is rather subjective, but
nevertheless it provides some provocative information and ideas.
References
Hong
Kong Yearbook. (2006).
Hu,
Liya. (2007). Language Policy, Practice
and Diglossia in Colonial and Post-Colonial Hong Kong. The Annual of Language &
Politics and Politics of Identity. roč. 1, č. s. 87-94.
Legislative
Council Secretariat. (2012). Use of Chinese in court
proceedings.
Lee,
Micky Pui Yin. (1999). Code-switching in Hong Kong popular magazines: a
critical discourse analysis of media texts. Department of English, City
University of Hong Kong.
Regan,
Peter Mark James. (2003). Current Attitudes Towards
Language and Code-mixing in Hong Kong. Australia- Asia: Research and Education Foundation. Issue 13. TESOL
Program, University of Tasmania.
Newspaper
Lee,
Ada. (2012). HK Drops in Global Survey of English Proficiency. South China Morning
Post.
Websites
Workplace
English Campaign
Workplace
English Campaign Channels
The
Government entrance requirement
