Opinion/ Letters

Why more Mandarin in everyday Hong Kong life would be an asset

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Published: 3:07pm, 18 Apr, 2018

Updated: 12:34pm, 15 Oct, 2020

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Notices reading “Scrap the mandatory Mandarin module” on the “democracy wall” at Baptist University in Kowloon Tong, in January. Baptist students hit the headlines for their unruly behaviour while protesting against the course. Photo: Winson Wong

I am writing to express my views on why we should use Mandarin more in our daily lives, in response to the letter from Anthony Wong (“Why Mandarin makes some Hong Kong pupils uncomfortable”, April 12).

Mandarin is already widely spoken around the world and has become an important language. It would be useful for us Hongkongers to be able to speak it fluently.

First of all, Mandarin is a very easy language to learn to speak. It can make life more convenient. Nowadays, more people from the mainland are coming to Hong Kong. Becoming proficient in Mandarin would help us to communicate easily with them. Schools should also be teaching Mandarin well. Studies have shown that children who speak more than one language show an improvement not only in cognitive skills but also social abilities.

All in all, Mandarin is important for everyone today and we should make an effort to improve our Mandarin skills by using it more every day.

Yvette Ma, Tseung Kwan O