I refer to the editorial headlined, 'Question of language' (South China Morning Post, March 22), which rightly observed the generally low level of fluency in English speaking in Hong Kong.
The failure of language education in Hong Kong epitomises the failure of the British to win the hearts of the local population.
If we compare Japan's experience in Taiwan, we may see why few tears are shed and little gratitude is shown to the British now that they are leaving.
In the 1940s, it was Japan's education policy in Taiwan that Taiwanese should learn to speak Japanese like native Japanese speakers.
Until the early 1980s, the Taiwanese Government had to strictly control the import of Japanese films and goods in order to discourage Japanese influence on the island.
Nowadays educated Taiwanese in their 70s and older still readily speak fluent Japanese among themselves.
But no such discouragement would be needed to control British influence in Hong Kong. The practice of segregation in Hong Kong education has been founded on a complex combination of apartheid and laissez-faire that has always kept the Chinese and the British in separate communities.