New Immigrants in Hong Kong
LCOM3001
New immigrants working in Hong Kong
Among the new immigrants in Hong Kong, nearly half of them work here. These new immigrants speak mainly Putonghua as their mother tongue. How do they feel working in Hong Kong? While working in a workplace dominated by different languages, these new immigrants might encounter challenges just because they do not speak the same langauge as others.
Below we have 3 working ladies who talked to us about their work and life in Hong Kong. Let's see what they have to say!
Sharon is a working mother in Hong Kong who came from Mainland China. Though she came 9 years ago, (which does not make her a "new" immigrant anymore) she gives us some different views on language use in Hong Kong. She speaks Putonghua as her mother tongue, yet she learnt some Cantonese after she moved to Hong Kong. She can also use some English as she learnt it at school.
She feels that Cantonese is very essential to her life and work here in Hong Kong. Though she can sometimes use Putonghua and English to communicate with people in her community, it is inevitable that she needs to use Cantonese to communicate with locals. She sees Cantonese as the most economically valued language in Hong Kong, as this is the major lingua franca used here. She reported that she can communicate with colleagues in Putonghua and English, and now she would try her best to talk to them in Cantonese as one of her ways to practise Cantonese. Being a manager working with local Hong Kong team members, Sharon finds it the best way to communicate efficiently, i.e. mainly uses Cantonese while sometimes with help of Putonghua and English.
In view of this, she started learning Cantonese and English as she thinks that they are of high economic value in society. She finds learning both languages is difficult as she has not beening receiving much help. She mainly learns the languages through daily life, online resources and seek assistance from friends and colleagues. Apart from self-learning mentioned she says she did go to English classes yet she didn't find it feasible, "When you work full-time and you have a child at home to take care, you don't have time to search for assistance and go to classes for both languages."
Su is a young lady who works half time as a tutor while half time as a postgraduate student in Hong Kong. She has been living in Hong Kong for only 6 months. She mainly uses Putonghua and Wu dialect before she came to Hong Kong from Shanghai.
It is interesting to see that Su's patterns of language usage before and after coming to Hong Kong do not change much. She mainly uses her home dialect with family members, English with people she met at school, and Putonghua with other people. She reckons that she cannot speak Cantonese very well, yet she feels there is no language barriers living in Hong Kong.
"I don't feel I need to change how I use languages here as everybody in Hong Kong speaks Putonghua, even if they do not speak very well Putonghua, I can talk to them in Engilsh."
Su does not feel it is essential for her to adapt to the Cantonese linguistic environment for now as she thinks that Putonghua and English would be enough for her to communicate with most of the people she met here. As her current work and study mainly focus on Chinese literature and language, she thinks that using Putonghua is actually more of an advantage than a disadvantage in Hong Kong in terms of her current situation. "Students who are interested in this field are willing to take classes in Putonghua. Scholars come mostly from Mainland, and hence they think having tutorials in Putonghua with native Putonghua speakers can enhance their Putonghua language ability."
Thinking that Cantonese is quite essential to her work and daily life in the future, she puts some efforts into learning Cantonese here in case she wants to pursue another job in Hong Kong after study. She goes to Cantonese group practices offered by the University and tries her very best to listen to Canton music and read Hong Kong newspaper.
Having a child in Hong Kong, Sharon puts quite a lot of efforts in developing the child's language skills. While she shows that she wants her child to speak native Cantonese and Putonghua, she also hires private tutors for the child's English. "Putonghua is now growing in importance in Hong Kong, and it is my mother tongue so I want her (the child) to speak Putonghua."
As for Engilsh, Sharon reports that her child actually performs better in English than in Chinese, but she is more worried about English ability rather than Chinese. "English is now an international language, and she studies in an EMI school, she learns all other subjects in English. I don't know what will happen in the future but I am sure that good English would help her academic work now. English is more important than Putonghua in Hong Kong nowadays, and I can help with her Chinese/ Putonghua but not English."
Fendy Li, 25, has moved to Hong Kong from Shanghai for 5 years. Before that she was a native speaker of Putonghua and Shanghainese. After finishing a bachelor degree at the University of Hong Kong, she stayed in Hong Kong and worked in the exchange office of the University. She can now speak fluent Cantonese, but not native-like, with an accent and sometimes unnatural word usage.
In her working place, Fendy usually uses English to communicate with exchange students and overseas institutes. Her colleagues are from diversified regions, other than Hong Kong locals there are Malaysians and Indonesians. English serves as a lingua franca. However, if talking to her supervisor and colleagues from Hong Kong, Fendy tends to use Cantonese that she is quite confident on it. Speaking to her great improvement in Cantonese, Fendy expresses that staying in a University’s residential hall helps a lot. She has many opportunities to chat with local hallmates and experienced local lifestyle, though quite often local students feel very natural to chat with her in Putonghua. She also hangs around with the mainland hallmates and they keep using Putonghua for communication. Fendy loves Korean and Japanese pop-cultures very much but seldom listens to Canton songs or watching dramas from Hong Kong. Fendy believes that frequent interactions with the locals is the most effective means of learning Cantonese.
Despite her success in the learning process, Fendy does not think that Cantonese is in high importance for study and work. “Everyone in Hong Kong knows English and Putonghua. You can survive in Hong Kong without knowing much Cantonese.” She expresses that Cantonese is more important for the communications outside campus. In Fendy’s case, language is not a big barrier hindering her from adapting to the living in Hong Kong. In university’s study, most of the courses are conducted in English, except one Cantonese course which is compulsory for non-local students. Almost all university students and her hallmates are fluent in English and Putonghua. “Is Cantonese difficult to learn?” “Absolutely.” Because of the tones and plenty of colloquial utterances, Fendy indeed had gone through a hard time before being able to communicate effectively in Cantonese.
Considering staying in Hong Kong for next 10 or 20 years, Fendy believes that her Cantonese level is more than enough for another job outside campus because she can speak fluent English and native Putonghua. Putonghua becomes more and more significant for business world and Cantonese mainly serves as a more effective communicative vehicle when working with local colleagues.
