SOME discussion about English language education in Hong Kong has appeared in the media since I wrote about the subject in this column two weeks ago.
My basic observation is that the existing paradigm in our language education mistakes English as a second language in the territory, which is why we spend so much on teaching the language, yet achieve so little.
In fact, English has never been, and never will be, anywhere near a second language in Hong Kong, and only when it is truly recognised as a foreign language can there be any hope of it being taught and learned properly.
Let me now point out one significant implication of this observation.
It is inconceivable that one can teach a foreign language efficiently if one cannot communicate in the mother tongue of the learner. We could hardly entrust our English language education to ''experts'' from abroad who cannot understand written and spoken Chinese after working in Hong Kong for years.
Either they lack the enthusiasm to get to know their pupils, which makes them poor teachers, or learning Chinese is simply beyond their capacity, which calls into question their knowledge and skills in acquiring a foreign language.