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<h1 class="gmail-title" id="gmail-page-title">Why Hong Kong needs a ‘one country, two languages’ policy on Cantonese and Mandarin</h1> </div>
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<div class="gmail-node-published" datetime="2018-10-13T08:01:02+08:00">PUBLISHED : Saturday, 13 October, 2018, 8:01am</div><div class="gmail-node-updated">UPDATED : Saturday, 13 October, 2018, 10:08pm</div> </div>
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<img alt="" title="Secretary for Education Kevin Yeung’s remarks about whether the Chinese language should be learned in Mandarin triggered a backlash, but Yeung has clarified that he had not meant Mandarin should replace Cantonese instruction in Hong Kong schools. Photo: Nora Tam" class="gmail-lazyload-processed gmail-loaded" src="https://cdn1.i-scmp.com/sites/default/files/styles/980x551/public/images/methode/2018/10/12/2dec9c8e-cde4-11e8-9460-2e07e264bd11_1280x720_200848.JPG?itok=fe-L-RPH" width="980" height="551">
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<p class="gmail-v2-processed">I am writing in response to Secretary for
Education Kevin Yeung Yun-hung’s controversial remarks about a wider use
of Mandarin in daily life and the advantages of learning Chinese in
Mandarin (“<a href="https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education/article/2167382/hong-kong-education-chief-forced-clarify-controversial" shape="rect">Cantonese teaching debate puts education chief under fire</a>”, October 7).</p><div class="gmail-scmp-inline-newsletter-subscription" style="height:83px"><form class="gmail-scmp-newsletter-subscription-form element-processed-processed gmail-newsletter-324679 gmail-ajax-form-processed" action="https://www.scmp.com/api/rest/public/v2/newsletter/subscribe.json" method="POST" id="gmail-scmp-newsletter-subscription-form-324679">
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<p class="gmail-v2-processed">Over the years, there have been extensive
discussions about whether Cantonese should be considered a language at
all. While some argue that Cantonese makes the cut because it is not
mutually intelligible with Mandarin, others disagree – mainly on
political grounds. Regardless of the categorisation, education
torch-bearers should seriously ponder what constitutes the essence of
education.</p>
<p class="gmail-v2-processed">Firstly, the proposal of using Mandarin to learn Chinese in schools is a far cry from the direction of the post-handover “<a href="https://www.edb.gov.hk/en/edu-system/primary-secondary/applicable-to-secondary/moi/support-and-resources-for-moi-policy/index-1.html" target="_self">medium of instruction</a>”
policy. The policy affirms that mother-tongue teaching can lift
language barriers and increase students’ understanding of what is
taught. Yeung’s proposal regresses to the colonial policy premised on
the importance of a language.</p>
<p class="gmail-v2-processed gmail-image gmail-no-float"><span class="gmail-image-caption-container gmail-image-caption-container-none" style="display:inline-block;width:660px;float:none;clear:none"><img title="Schools in Hong Kong are encouraged to teach students Mandarin, though Chief Executive Carrie Lam has rejected the idea of Mandarin replacing Cantonese as Hong Kong’s “mother tongue”. Photo: Handout" class="gmail-caption gmail-lazyload-processed gmail-magic-processed gmail-loaded" src="https://cdn4.i-scmp.com/sites/default/files/images/methode/2018/10/12/e767aa56-cde3-11e8-9460-2e07e264bd11_1320x770_200848.JPG" style="width: 660px; height: 385px;"><span style="display:block" class="gmail-image-caption gmail-hover-processed"></span></span></p>
<p class="gmail-v2-processed gmail-link"><a href="https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2130811/learning-mandarin-could-be-just-job" shape="rect" target="_self">Learning Mandarin could be just the job</a><br></p>
<p class="gmail-v2-processed">If students’ Mandarin competence is not high
enough, they will find it difficult to engage with the subject matter in
Chinese lessons. It is true that Mandarin may not pose a problem for
those who have a high command of the language, but that raises the
question of whether we should implement what Yeung proposes to improve
Mandarin ability, because these students are quite fluent in Mandarin
already.</p>
<p class="gmail-v2-processed">Secondly, Mandarin should be effectively
acquired through an independent curriculum. Integrating it into the
Chinese language subject will blur the focus of Mandarin learning since
it would be paradoxical to switch between first-language pedagogy and
second-language pedagogy if one subject serves two masters.</p>
<p class="gmail-v2-processed gmail-link"><a href="https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/hong-kong/article/2167712/its-best-mind-your-language-minister" shape="rect" target="_self">It’s best to mind your language, minister</a><br></p>
<p class="gmail-v2-processed">Thirdly, it is distressing that Hong Kong is
losing its glamour as an international metropolis juxtaposing the East
and the West. Cantonese should be preserved to ensure the sustainability
of our cultural identity. Again, as Asia’s world city, we should extend
our students’ learning beyond local perspectives and prepare them to be
well-versed in Mandarin and English so as to unlock a world of
opportunities for them.</p>
<p class="gmail-v2-processed">It is my hope that “one country, two language systems” can be fully implemented in Hong Kong.</p>
=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+<br><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature"><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></div>