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<h1 class="" id="page-title">Relax civil service language policy to attract best talent</h1> </div>
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<div class=""><p>Richard Sheung says language requirements constitute radical localisation</p>
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<div class="" datetime="2014-08-11T16:59:13+08:00">PUBLISHED : Monday, 11 August, 2014, 4:59pm</div><div class="">UPDATED : Tuesday, 12 August, 2014, 1:42am</div> </div>
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<div class=""><p>Richard Sheung</p>
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<a href="http://www.scmp.com/sites/default/files/styles/980w/public/2014/08/11/hk_government_documents.jpg?itok=4_z7P_2l" title="Policy papers and public speeches that are primarily intended for a local audience are originally drafted in Chinese, with an English translation that may carry less weight. Photo: Reuters" class="" rel="gallery-[field_images-1571376]"><img src="http://www.scmp.com/sites/default/files/styles/486x302/public/2014/08/11/hk_government_documents.jpg?itok=d8qB802R" style="display: inline;" class="" alt="hk_government_documents.jpg" title="Policy papers and public speeches that are primarily intended for a local audience are originally drafted in Chinese, with an English translation that may carry less weight. Photo: Reuters" height="302" width="486"></a> </li>
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<div class="">Policy papers and public
speeches that are primarily intended for a local audience are originally
drafted in Chinese, with an English translation that may carry less
weight. Photo: Reuters</div>
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<div class=""><p>As
one of the newly recruited government translators back in the early
eighties, I can still remember that we were bemused by the quaint title
of our post "Chinese Language Officer". It was not as though Chinese was
the only language that we knew, nor were we the only officers who knew
Chinese.</p>
<p>It was shortly before the signing of the Joint Declaration and the
colonial government was still dominated by expatriate officers at the
more senior levels. English was indisputably the working language of the
civil service. But, back then, English was the only language
requirement for officers, local and expatriate. This partly explained
why the translators, with their officially recognised Chinese skills,
were classed as Chinese Language Officers.</p>
<p>We provided translation and Chinese secretarial support to the
expatriate and local officers alike in dealing with the public, while,
internally, official business was conducted in English. The expatriate
officers had the advantage of English, but the local officers were
bilingual, and capable of direct communications with the public they
served.</p>
<p>If the usefulness of bilingualism was downplayed by the colonial
government, it is embraced with a vengeance by the SAR government.</p>
<p>All government officers must now have native Chinese competency as
well as a good command of English. Written communications with the
public are entirely in Chinese, unless the citizen prefers English.
Policy papers and public speeches that are primarily intended for a
local audience are originally drafted in Chinese, with greater care and
flair, with an English translation that may carry less weight.</p>
<p>All is as it should be. But if we seriously believe, rightly or
wrongly, that the official use of English is somehow the price for being
an international city, it is not difficult to see, too, that English is
now our greater postcolonial challenge.</p>
<p>How viable is English as a working language among its non-native
speakers who already have a shared mother tongue that they can use more
effectively and are expected, quite rightly, to use more extensively?
The new bilingual policy spells the most radical localisation, which
ironically bars even our local ethnic minorities, let alone the white
expatriates who used to be the international face of Hong Kong. To serve
in the SAR government is to be Chinese, or at least Chinese-literate.</p>
<p>Is it not time for us to rethink the whole idea of a bilingual civil
service and our bilingual heritage? Bilingualism is rarely the complete
and equal mastery of two languages. The point of being bilingual is so
we can use our second language advantageously, i.e., to broaden our
experience by dealing with people who don't speak our mother tongue.
Bilinguals should be ready and happy to work with speakers of other
languages, including, of course, the monolinguals.</p>
<p>The greater use of Chinese in government communications to achieve
greater clarity and cost efficiency is entirely reasonable. The
continued use of English in our civil service must be justified by the
continued advantage of international experience that may be gained by,
for example, opening a controlled percentage of its positions, which are
not politically sensitive, to a wider pool of talent. For, otherwise,
the English requirement serves no useful purpose but to deter those
among us who may equally qualify, but have inadequate English.</p>
<p>The SAR government can suitably relax its bilingual requirement so we
can recruit the best talent, despite their not already acceptable
Chinese or English. I need scarcely add that we already have able
government translators who can support a more linguistically diverse
civil service.</p>
<p><b>Richard Sheung was a translator with the Hong Kong government
before the handover. He teaches in the Department of Linguistics and
Translation at City University of Hong Kong</b></p>
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