OpinionMonolingual madness: it’s time Hong Kong government and others did more in English

It is true, as another columnist in this newspaper recently pointed out, that people in Hong Kong like to complain about the alleged declining standard of English. It makes for a good opinion piece during a quiet news period, especially in the summer when Legco is in recess.

A good stirring of the pot can guarantee follow-up letters to the editor, thus proving that his column is read. I agree with him, too, that the complaint is to some extent exaggerated. After all at one time we had 1.1 million people working in manufacturing and few if any foreigners ever met them, so we simply didn’t realise they only spoke Cantonese. Now the manufacturing jobs have left, the people are serving in shops and restaurants or driving our taxis instead so we do get to meet them.

My beef is from a different angle: the declining use of English in many areas of public life. The chief executive makes one high-profile speech per year in English. A few weeks after his policy address – delivered in Cantonese only – he attends a luncheon in his honour hosted by the international business community and the main local chambers, and repeats the main points in the language of international business.

Similarly our financial secretary has one major set piece – his budget speech – always since 1997 in Cantonese only, followed a few weeks later by a similar address in front of the business community in English.

With those two exceptions, can you think of any other important speeches in Hong Kong by any of our top officials given in our second official language? What would be wrong in giving one of the two major set-piece speeches per year in English, with the other in Cantonese, and then swapping round the following year?

Have you noticed, too, that increasingly in ministerial stand-ups there is no sound bite in English and we have to make do on the TV or radio news with a voice-over?