IN a smart Quarry Bay coffee shop, a half-dozen students from a school in Cheung Sha Wan sip soft drinks and chat easily with a chic businesswoman. The conversation is in English and roams over everything from the menu to local politics.
On a Saturday morning, teenagers in school uniforms regularly gather at the office of a computer service company. They meet a young executive who talks to them, in English, about local football games and events in Kosovo.
In 36 schools scattered over Hong Kong, teenagers from Britain, Canada, New Zealand, Australia and the United States mix easily with local students. They talk about what teenagers usually talk about. And they do it in English.
These are just some facets of a programme run by the little-known Chatteris Educational Foundation. All are aimed at helping to elevate the standard of English in Hong Kong; it is a vital need about which much has been said but little done. Here is a cost-effective way of getting concrete results.
With no fuss and little fanfare, the Chatteris Educational Foundation is acting while many others are merely, well, chattering. The vital need for a good standard of English if Hong Kong is to succeed as an international business city is recognised universally; lots of people talk about it but few do anything.
The organisation began more than a decade ago as a spontaneous charity formed by a small group of expatriate women. They gave up their time to talk to youngsters striving to improve their language skills. They needed a name: Chatteris was invented with the stress on 'chat'. That was what they did, chatted to young people in English to bolster confidence in their ability to carry on a conversation.