Does good English matter? It depends on whom you ask. If your interlocutor is a linguistic purist like Professor Higgins in British playwright George Bernard Shaw's popular classic Pygmalion, the answer would be a resounding yes: poor spoken English would condemn you forever to life in the gutter. Granted, Professor Higgins is a larger-than-life English snob, but his insistence that good English holds the key to upward social mobility is as relevant in today's Hong Kong as in Victorian England.
Like it or not, English is a world language. As The Economist reports, English is gaining ground in Europe. A recent survey shows that 15-to-24-year-olds in Europe are five times more likely to speak English as a foreign language than German or French.
English has left its mark not only on other 'sister' languages within the Indo-European family, but also on Chinese, Japanese and Hong Kong's brand of Cantonese, just to name a few far-flung tongues. The wide currency of English is a key reason behind the phenomenal success of cultural products like The Phantom of the Opera, an English-language musical. By comparison, despite the high artistic merit of Beijing opera in the eyes of the expert, the world will have a long way to go in mastering Putonghua, besides other artistic features of Beijing opera, before the latter could match English-language musicals in worldwide popularity.
There are, of course, sound, pragmatic reasons why good English is important. It is, by far, the international language of business, commerce and finance. If Hong Kong wants to maintain its status as a premier international business and financial centre, good command of English on the part of the government elite and business professionals is a prerequisite. It is an undeniable fact that the highest-paid and most prestigious jobs in the city generally require good English. That is why, although some millionaires might outwardly extol the virtues of mother-tongue education, their children - like the children of civil servants, legislators or others who can afford it - are sent to overseas boarding schools, international schools, direct subsidy schools or others that provide a higher standard of English-language education and a greater chance of admission to the world's best universities. Good English gives your child a better chance of becoming a global, not just local, elite. All aspiring parents know this, and they go about pursuing it relentlessly.
Knowledge of a foreign language, which is being promoted in American high schools and universities as a core requirement, is an important step towards promoting humility and respect for other cultures. To promote greater appreciation of Chinese culture and understanding of modern China, Beijing did absolutely the right thing a few years back in funding the introduction of Chinese as an 'advanced placement' subject in US high schools. Likewise, knowledge of English opens windows on western civilisation, from its classical roots to the forces that have shaped the modern world, prominently the development of democracy and capitalism.
In an increasingly interconnected, globalised world, a modern person cannot stay on top of wrenching changes without the ability to comprehend, through a mastery of English, events in distant lands that have an impact on our lives.