Benefits of knowing three languages speak for themselves

It goes without saying that Cantonese is the mother tongue of Hong Kong Chinese.

Intriguingly, an article on the Education Bureau website argues that it should be Mandarin instead. The issue in question is perhaps a topic of interest to language experts.

But debate of such kind is uncalled for, especially when Cantonese and Mandarin are unnecessarily placed against each other in an increasingly politicised context. What matters most is that our official policy of biliterate – Chinese and English – and trilingual – English, Mandarin and Cantonese – shall continue.

The controversy arose when the article, written by a former official of the central government’s State Language Commission and uploaded to the bureau’s website along with 24 others some time ago, was singled out for criticism in an online forum recently.

Secretary for Education Kevin Yeung Yun-hung said the article was meant to provide different views of Mandarin teaching and did not represent the government’s position. But amid growing tension between the city and the mainland, conspiracy theories abound.

This is not the first time that Cantonese has been seen as belittled by the authorities. The bureau came under fire four years ago with another article arguing that Cantonese was just a dialect rather than an official language.