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<h1>Carrie Lam dodges question on Cantonese</h1>
<span class="gmail-pull-left"><a href="http://www.thestandard.com.hk/sections_news_list.php?sid=4">Local</a> | 3 May 2018 1:52 pm</span>
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<p>Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor today refused to be
drawn into a row about the status of Cantonese in Hong Kong, dodging a
question in Legco about whether the language – or dialect – is her
mother tongue.</p> <p>
Social Welfare sector lawmaker Shiu Ka-chun raised concerns about an
Education Bureau document which quotes a mainland official as saying
that Cantonese is only a dialect and therefore it cannot be someone's
mother tongue, RTHK reported.</p> <p>
Shiu asked Lam during a CE question-and-answer session what her mother
tongue is. But she refused to give an answer, saying the question was
"frivolous".</p> <p>
Lam went on to say that some people have been hyping up the issue by
focusing on just two or three lines of a 2013 Education Bureau document.
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She said Hong Kong people speak Cantonese every day and therefore the
issue is a non-starter and society should not waste time debating it,
adding that the government has no plans to change the city’s language
policy in schools. </p> <p>
Lam also said that there is room for improvement in English standards in
the city, urging people to read more books in the language.</p></div>
<br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature">=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+<br><br> Harold F. Schiffman<br><br>Professor Emeritus of <br> Dravidian Linguistics and Culture <br>Dept. of South Asia Studies <br>University of Pennsylvania<br>Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305<br><br>Phone: (215) 898-7475<br>Fax: (215) 573-2138 <br><br>Email: <a href="mailto:haroldfs@gmail.com" target="_blank">haroldfs@gmail.com</a><br><a href="http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/" target="_blank">http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/</a> <br><br>-------------------------------------------------</div>
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