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[Liam]

There was a brief article a week or so ago (29th Sept, the national holiday) in the SCMP about gweilos learning Cantonese and the difficulties they face. The article was called something like "Getting rid of HK's linguistic ghettos". Don't know who wrote it but would really appreciate getting hold of a copy. If I can get a copy of it without having to sign up for an online subscription then that'd be great.

[munasa]

Wednesday September 29 2004

Tear down Hong Kong's linguistic ghettos

This time it was the elections that set it off; the never-ending debate, unique to Hong Kong, about whether foreigners settling here should learn the local dialect.

Following a recent complaint from an Englishman that immigration officials asked him if he was learning Cantonese - a natural question to ask someone settling in Hong Kong - there was a complaint about Legislative Council candidates' election material being written solely in Chinese. Off we went again with heated arguments from all sides.

Having been here for almost 16 years, I have seen all variations of the same arguments popping up each year. It's strange that there is a debate at all.

Of course everyone should speak the local dialect in the country they call home. Imagine the uproar if foreigners in Britain complained to the newspapers that they were being forced to learn English. Indeed, those immigrants who refuse to learn English, preferring to live in enclaves surrounded by their own people and language, are sneered at because they 'refuse to integrate' and live in 'ghettos'. Ironically, nobody calls Discovery Bay a ghetto.

Hong Kong seems to have an unspoken rule about the local dialect being impossible to learn for foreigners. Caucasian foreigners, that is. I never see Indians, Pakistanis, Filipinos, Thais or Indonesians having any trouble with it, nor those ubiquitous American Mormon missionaries. So it cannot be the case that only Chinese have the ability to speak it. Indeed, local Chinese expect the above-mentioned, as well as overseas Chinese of any distinction, to be able to fluently speak Cantonese after a certain amount of time, or upon arrival. Thus it is not the dialect itself that is 'too difficult' but locals' and Caucasians' perception of it. It probably started with local Chinese wanting Cantonese as their own secret dialect, out of reach of the British colonists. To avoid admitting this, they told their then masters that Cantonese was too difficult for them. This notion somehow stuck, and every Caucasian - without exception - on announcing she or he intends to learn Cantonese, is met with the same knee-jerk reaction: 'You'll never learn it! It's too difficult!' or 'Cantonese is useless. You should learn Putonghua instead.'

What's more amazing than locals uttering such absurdities, are foreigners believing them. How can a dialect be 'too difficult' for one skin colour but not another? And how does a native speaker know if his dialect is difficult or not? Using the English analogy again, how ludicrous, let alone patronising, would it be if foreigners settling in Britain and trying to learn the dialect were rejected by locals telling them it was too difficult - for them?

As for the 'uselessness' of Cantonese - almost 7 million people communicate solely in the dialect every day. It is interesting to note that many of those discouraging me from learning Cantonese have been unable to speak a word of English; in fact our entire conversation about why I shouldn't learn Cantonese have been in Cantonese. Still, they keep insisting that it is useless.

A lot has happened in 16 years. Instead of being laughed at for 'going native', I see fellow foreigners actively trying to use it, only to have locals rebutting their every effort and using English when a simple answer in Cantonese would be natural. It is no longer the case that foreigners are too lazy or intransigent to learn Cantonese, but the locals are simply not willing to let them practice.

With China's track record of swamping every territory she controls with Putonghua, it is important to keep Cantonese as a vibrant and evolving tool of communication. Locals should appreciate every foreigner's effort to keep the dialect alive.

This debate will probably continue to rage for decades to come, with as much ferocity and as little result.

Cecilie Gamst Berg is a teacher of Cantonese and Putonghua

foreigners and cantonese Cecilie Gamst Berg

I don't know what this last line is about. It was there when I looked up the archive, so I'll leave it in.

[Liam]

Munasa, thank you. That's the exact article I was looking for.

[Roger]

And now to your question as to WHERE you can get a copy of said article:

If you contact the SCMP, they will sell you a sample copy of the article, or they will send you the whole paper.

You can also go to a library - one is in CAUSEWAY BAY, one is next to the cityhall, and one is in Tsimshatsui; you can make your photocopy on a back issue.

[subwoofer]

Most Gweilo's in Hong Kong are incredibly lazy when it comes to learning Cantonese - if they can speak any phrases it's usually limited to 'Hello', 'Thank you' and ordering a beer.

In the 'grim mainland' Laowai's are forced to learn Mandarin otherwise life is much more frustrating than it usually is!

Also Hong Kong being an ex-British port there probably exists that 'old-colonial' attitude that 'all these damn natives should speak English'.

My reason for never wanting to learn it when I lived in HK was that it sounded like shite...