Just Saying | Hong Kong’s sad state of English: How our readers see it

My column last Friday on Hong Kong’s appalling English standards sparked quite a debate on our website and on social media, reflecting how strongly people in this city feel about the issue. Having shunned Facebook and Twitter all these years, I found myself receiving an education on the significance of the thousands of “likes” the article received.

So this week, instead of going on my usual rant, I’m doing something different and highlighting some of the feedback we received. I admit this is a dangerous game, considering some of the haters and trolls on the prowl in cyberspace, but most of it was genuinely constructive or thoughtful commentary, and I found a wealth of information in the emails and messages we received. I think they reflect our society’s attitude to the problem, analyse the causes and even offer solutions worth noting.

“Yingnam Fong” has an interesting take on a “sort of class system” in the past dominated by English-speaking expatriates and local elite which is now outdated after Hong Kong’s return to Chinese sovereignty: “Hong Kong is not Singapore. The Hongkongers can live the same life without the need to learn or speak the language.”

Then he gets into an argument with someone over why the word “expatriate” is selectively used to describe Westerners and well-heeled immigrants, and the original topic is forgotten.