Jake's View | Perspective helps with rare setback for English in Hong Kong

The Hong Kong government has been accused of increasingly neglecting the use of English in communicating with the media and public while showing a clear bias in favour of Chinese.

Back in my days as an investment analyst, I often made business trips to my native Netherlands, from which I was taken to Canada as an emigrant pre-schooler.

It was my regular custom on flights to Schiphol back then to practise my mantra for the railway ticket counter at the airport, just to make sure I would have it accent free this time - "Enkele naar Den Haag alsjeblieft" (One way to The Hague, please).

So there I would be a little later, shuffling forward in the queue and, when my turn came, I did my best to look bored and permanently aggrieved (a very Dutch look) and would say, "Enkele naar Den Haag alsjeblieft".

And every time the clerk at the ticket counter would answer, "Yes, Sir."