Big rise in people speaking three languages
Hong Kong is fast becoming a multilingual society, according to a survey released today.
Kingsley Bolton, visiting professor at the University of Hong Kong's Department of Linguistics, and John Bacon-Shone, director of its Social Science Research Centre, will present the results of a community-wide survey to the International Symposium on Bilingualism held at HKU.
The survey, conducted by the centre, found close to four times as many people claimed to know Cantonese and some English and Putonghua as in a similar survey two decades earlier. In 2003, 63 per cent of respondents claimed some knowledge of the three languages, compared with 38 per cent in 1993 and 17 per cent in 1983.
The number of people claiming to know some English is also higher than ever. In 1983, 33 per cent said they didn't know the language at all. This dropped to 17 per cent in 1993 and 11 per cent in 2003. As many as 46 per cent claimed to know it 'quite well' or better, with 10 per cent knowing it 'well' and four per cent 'very well'.
Professor Bolton said: 'We can see over the last 20 years more and more people are speaking English well, but perhaps more people are also speaking it badly. That to some extent explains the concerns of the business community.'
He said that language standards had not fallen. 'But society and the economy have evolved. There is a much greater demand for high proficiency in English than 20 years ago.
'The absolute number of good English speakers has risen, but not fast enough to meet the expectations of the business community.'
There had been a similar improvement in Putonghua, with numbers claiming no knowledge of the language falling from 17 per cent in 1993 to 5 per cent in the latest survey. Forty-five per cent now say they know it at least 'quite well'.
He said the results showed that promoting trilingualism and biliteracy was working. Hong Kong, he added, should move away from a culture of complaint over its language abilities, to one of confidence.
He will also call for the government to embrace bilingualism in schooling. 'The government should consider rebranding its language policies away from English and Chinese medium opposition towards an enthusiastic commitment to biliterate and trilingual education.
'That would create a more positive environment for students and teachers.'
