New Immigrants in Hong Kong

What do the interviews tell us?

 

Putting together the experiences and stories, we know the followings.

 

These new immigrants after coming to Hong Kong in fact do not experience much changes in their linguistic habits in daily life. Our interviewees all mention that one can easily communicate with Hong Kong people simply by using Putonghua or English. People they have encountered all have certain knowledge in the two languages. It is true that most educated people in Hong Kong would know Putonghua and English as HKSAR Government has a policy on education promoting "Biliteracy, Trilinguallism", which requires students to learn both Putonghua and English apart from their mother tongue, i.e. Cantonese.

 

Major changes in linguistic pattern can be observed in school-aged interviewees. As they receive education in Hong Kong, especially in an English as medium of instruction school, their language use at school changed from Putonghua to mostly English. They are more concerned of their English level rather than Cantonese level living in Hong Kong as poor English standards may mean poor academic results.

 

For working interviewees, attitudes of different languages in Hong Kong differ. There are people who view Putonghua positively as speaking Putonghua may lead people to think that they are economically privileged, while there are still some interviewees claiming that they are being looked down upon by locals because they speak Putonghua.

 

It is interesting to see that these new immigrants indeed do not feel Cantonese very essential for their survival in Hong Kong. Thanks to the widespread of Putonghua and English, they feel there is no language barrier here. New immigrants can live in Hong Kong without knowing Cantonese. However, for those who plan to stay in Hong Kong on a long-term basis, Cantonese becomes more essential to them, as well as English. English as an international language helps them with academic work and to climb up the social ladder; while for Cantonese, they view it as a cultural asset. New immigrants living in Hong Kong for long time might identify themselves as Hongkongers. By being able to speak Hong Kong Cantonese makes them see themselves as locals.