Job Discussion Forums

[gryffindor]

[briandwest]

Our local wet market has a hand-sanitisation machine in its entrance that is labelled:
'Self-serving Hand Sanitiser'

It's a selfish little blighter that never, ever helps you clean your hands...

[hkteach]

On my ferry there's a sign that can be displayed as and when required:
"Clean work in progress." Not as interesting as dirty work in progress eh?

[11:59]

They always make 'to relax' a reflexive verb, especially in the imperative mood. Thus, instead of simply 'relax', they invariably say 'relax yourself'.

Also, as regards pronunciation, I'm yet to meet a Hong Kong student who can say 'Z', i.e., /zed/, or 'X', i.e., /eks/ in anything approaching a native-like fashion. Instead, they always produce them as /'i:zed/ and /eks'si:/ respectively.

[Pieface]

'is girlfriend?!...she is a Hong Kong people?'

Hmmm where do I start with this one?

[11:59]

And of course let's not forget 'Okay-lahhh'.

[11:59]

[11:59]

[anninhk]

Just posted a letter in my local post office. There was a notice which said that service would be slow in peak hours i.e 9.30 - 11.00 and 1.00-4-00 on weekdays and 9.30 - 11.30 on Saturday which is virtually the whole time they are open!

[hkteach]

How about this?
(When talking about a future event)

Me: "When will the video begin?"
HK colleague: "5 minutes later"

[11:59]

Yes, or, '5 minutes after'. I also find myself immediately asking 'After what?' Why can't they just learn and then say and write 'In 5 minutes' or '5 minutes from now'? What, exactly, is the problem? In other countries I've taught in this is one of those aspects of English that is dealt with in about ten seconds, no matter what the L1(s). This is why I believe that appeals to the L1 are a real red herring; � it has little if anything to do with the L1, but rather has everything to do with the speaker of the L1, that is, their attitude, aptitude, and mental agility.

Notice also that this seems to confirm that language students, at least in HK, do not follow the common assumption � held for generations by philosophers of an empiricist ilk, language teachers, speech therapists, and laymen alike � that learners of a language initially learn to speak that language by simply emulating the speech of the native speakers around them. After all, no native speaker of English has ever said '5 minutes later' or '5 minutes after' in this context. But, unfortunately, this also shows just how utterly unprepared and unwilling the HK Chinese are to ever actually modify, alter, or adjust their set-in-stone behaviour, whether it be physical, cognitive, or verbal in nature. This is most likely why I have actually had local, HK Chinese teachers (i.e., non-native speakers of English) inform me that (they were told by their non-English-native-speaking primary school teacher that) 'on the bus' is incorrect, it should be 'in the bus' because 'on the bus' would mean to be on top of the bus. What was that about employing NETs to act, among other things, as language-oriented human resources?

Why, pray tell, can't they just monitor and then begin to mirror native speakers of English? Why, when they encounter expressions such as 'In 5 minutes', 'In 5 minutes time', and '5 minutes from now' (i.e., expressions which would seem to conflict with their internalised grammar), do they seem wholly incapable of reorganising their interlanguage grammar and beginning to express themselves differently, that is in a native-like standard fashion? Without exception that's what my students in Scandinavia did, including Finns whose L1 is not even Indo-European. Why is it such a problem here in HK?

And of course there's one more widespread HK colloquialism, and we hear it a lot upon leaving shops: 'Welcome again!'

[kowlooner]

[11:59]

[hkteach]

Yes kowlooner, point taken - perhaps our Cantonese is pretty bad BUT
1. The English usage I quote does not come from students - it is how local ENGLISH teachers speak English.

2. Errrr... I wasn't aware that we foreigners were here to learn Cantonese - that is not our purpose for being here at all. To the contrary, we were brought here to teach the locals how to improve the quality of their English teaching, so not being able to speak Cantonese correctly or otherwise is irrelevant to this discussion.

[once again]