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Hong Kong:
The Trilingual City?

Language skills have never been as important for Hong Kong's development as today, writes ANTHONY BEHAN

Hong Kong needs to become a trilingual city where the majority of its citizens are fluent in English, Putonghua and Cantonese if it hopes to compete and integrate successfully with the emergent Chinese economy.

The two most widely spoken languages in the world today are English and Putonghua (Mandarin). There are 1.3 billion speakers of English and also 1.3 billion speakers of Putonghua. The major difference between the two languages is that English is an international language and Putonghua at the moment is largely confined to the Mainland and Taiwan. However with China's growing economic power on the world stage, Putonghua is increasingly taking on a global significance. Learning Putonghua is fast becoming the latest craze on American and European university campuses. By way of comparison, Cantonese has only 80 million speakers, largely in Guangdong Province.

In order for Hong Kong to become Asia's "World City" and remain China's major international financial centre, two major problems need to be addressed.

Low Standard of Putonghua in Hong Kong

Michael Tien Puk-sun, Chairman of the Standing Committee on Language Education and Research (SCOLAR) said recently that Hong Kong had become very Cantonese driven since the 1980s due to the popularity of Canto-pop and Canto-films. This has had a major impact on young people in Hong Kong, who nowadays seem less interested in learning English. However, it also seems that young people are not too interested in learning their national language -- Putonghua.

In Hong Kong, it is estimated that only 30 percent of people have any working knowledge of Putonghua. With Hong Kong's economy now linked inextricably to the Pearl River Delta (PRD) and in competition with the Yangtze River Delta (YRD), the need for Hong Kong's business people and workers to speak Putonghua has become much more important. A large number of Hong Kong-based companies are increasingly using Hong Kong as a springboard to get into business in China, particularly in Shanghai. Hence the need for all levels of staff to be competent in Putonghua.

But doesn't everyone speak Cantonese in the Pearl River Delta? Though the first language of everyone born in the PRD is Cantonese, the language of government, business and education is Putonghua. In addition there are large numbers of people from other parts of China living in Guangdong. In 1982 Shenzhen had a population of 30,000; in 2002 the population had risen to 4.69 million, of whom 3.37 million (71 percent) have temporary resident permits. These people come from all over China. In Guangzhou, a city of 9.94 million, 2.91 million people (29 percent) also have temporary resident permits. The lingua franca for most of these people is Putonghua.

Tourism and Putonghua

The Hong Kong tourist economy is now heavily dependent upon visitors from the Mainland. Mainland tourists' total spending in Hong Kong increased 32 percent to HK$30 billion in 2002. This figure is based on the 6.8 million Mainland visitors who arrived in Hong Kong last year, with each spending an average of about HK$5,000. From January to October last year alone, 6.5 million Mainland tourists visited Hong Kong. Mainland arrivals -- Mainland tourists account for about 41 percent of total arrivals with Taiwan visitors representing about 15 percent. Another 13,000 additional hotel rooms need to be built by 2006 when the Disneyland theme park, which will rely heavily on Mainland tourists, opens on Lantau.

It would seem obvious that if the Hong Kong economy is going to rely more heavily on Mainland tourists, the Putonghua skills of at least people in the front-line of the tourist industry, e.g. the travel agents, tour guides, hotel staff and retailers, need rapid improvement.

Low Standard of English

Whether or not the standard of English has declined in Hong Kong is an academic issue. From a business point of view, it is clear that the supply of competent English speakers is not meeting the demand. More international companies are setting up offices in Hong Kong either as their regional headquarters or as a stepping-stone to opening in China. In general, foreign companies are much more optimistic about the business environment in the year ahead. However, low English standards weigh heavily on the minds of executives.

In the Chamber's recent Business Prospects Survey unveiled in December 2003, respondents predict overall business conditions in 2004 will be satisfactory to very good and continue to gain momentum in 2005. However, 40.9 percent expect Hong Kong's level of competitiveness to decline over the next three to five years, with languages being one of the main stumbling blocks. A total of 76.2 percent of respondents said they were dissatisfied with the standard of English language skills in the territory, while 77.2 percent of businesses polled said they were not satisfied by the level of Putonghua. Clearly there is plenty of work to be done in the field of English and Putonghua language training.

What's happening in China?

Learning English has become the latest craze! Of China's population of 1.3 billion people it is conservatively estimated that 300 million people are learning English. The largest group of learners is young people. Some 630 million people (half the population) are under 24 years old. Two years ago the Chinese Ministry of Education lowered the age at which children began to learn English from the third year of elementary school to the first year (ages 6-7).

With Beijing selected as the venue for the 2008 Olympics and China set for globalised trade through its World Trade Organisation membership, the city is now gripped by an officially sponsored craze for learning English. The goal is to produce 400,000 fluent English speakers among the city's 13 million residents by the time of the games, as well as a helpful ability among many more.

By 2008 five million Beijingers will have learned English to varying levels of competence. An estimated 3.12 million Beijing residents already speak some English, and 6,000 police officers will be required to have an intermediate level of written and spoken English by 2008.

China's former Premier, Zhu Rong-ji, told staff at his alma mater, Tsinghua University in Beijing, to use English as the medium of instruction on all business related courses at the university.

The government and private employers are encouraging staff to learn English, often giving time off work and paying for tuition. The result is a boom in private language schools, ranging from expensive courses for business executives costing as much as 30,000 yuan for one year's intensive tuition, to bucket-shop conversation classes costing a few hundred yuan a term.

The city government says about 2,000 foreigners are registered as resident language teachers, but several hundred more are thought to be teaching English in violation of their tourist visas.

Even the Lamas at the Punin Temple of Tibetan Buddhism in the rural areas of Chengde City in Hebei Province are learning English to cope with the 50,000 English-speaking tourists who visit the temple each year. In Guangzhou, the Guangzhou Personnel Bureau has decreed that city officials aged 45 and under are now required to learn basic English. The city hopes the initiative will raise the standards of its employees' English, allowing them to conduct basic exchanges and participate in foreign affairs work.

Futursted Asia Pacific President Rubin Sears said recently, "I can recruit better English-speaking high school graduates in Shanghai more cheaply and more quickly than I can in Hong Kong. English is necessary for people working in technology and e-commerce, which are sectors Hong Kong needs to develop. In the Mainland there has been a strong emphasis on proficiency in English in recent years. People are learning English so fast it would make your head spin."

Additionally, in Shanghai there is the "Starbucks Factor," with Shanghai's youth crowded into Starbucks and other similar venues to practise English. A foreigner sitting in a coffee shop and peacefully reading a newspaper in Shanghai will invariably be descended upon by a group of young people for a free English lesson. Those tourists who speak American English have a particularly high popularity rating. This type of initiative to practise English is almost unheard of in Hong Kong.

What is happening in Hong Kong?

The Hong Kong Federation of Education Workers, a pro-Beijing group was the first representative body invited by the then newly appointed Secretary for Education and Manpower Arthur Li Kwok-Cheung to give its views on educational issues in August 2002. The head of the group said, "People must stop seeing mother tongue education teaching as inferior and the government could start a change of attitude by converting elite English-medium schools to Chinese language. Mother-tongue teaching should be introduced in all schools." The mother tongue referred to is Cantonese not Putonghua and no mention is made of how to improve levels of English.

In conclusion Hong Kong needs to improve its Putonghua and English Language skills in the near future. A high degree of competence in English was perceived for many years as one of Hong Kong's major strengths. If steps are not taken to produce more competent speakers of the language, we will lose this advantage to China.

Hong Kong needs to improve its Putonghua language skills to:

1.  help with integration into the Mainland economy;

2. establish closer ties with Mainland government officials;

3. be perceived as part of China's rapid economical growth by the outside world; and,

4. deal effectively with the increasing number of Mainland tourists visiting Hong Kong.

Hong Kong needs to be a trilingual society with a high standard of English and Putonghua in addition to the local vernacular if it wants to be the financial centre for Greater China and Asia's "World City."

Anthony Behan is the Managing Director of The Communication Group Ltd., which specialises in providing corporate language training courses. He can be reached at tcgroup@netvigator.com.

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