MP-lingualism - It's not what you think!

[Anthea Fraser Gupta]

Obviously I am very much in sympathy with Aurolyn's views, which were
expressed in a similar way to mine, and which I would like to endorse.

"Just what do you consider a large proportion of Hong Kongers? Five,
ten, or fifteen percent who one might consider trilingual? Ten, twenty,
or thirty percent who one might consider bilingual? For this, all of
Hong Kong should be considered a trilingual, biliterate territory? This
is what Hong Kong's Education and Manpower Bureau would have the world
believe."

As my posting would make clear, I find it difficult to think in terms of
'a bilingual territory'.  All countries include people who switch
between languages on a daily basis. But I perceive Hong Kong as more
bilingual than the UK because a higher proportion of the HK population
engage in such switching than is the case in the UK.  I also have a
different definition of 'bilingual' from yours.

As you  must know, knowledge of English is linked to place of origin and
educational experience. Age is a major factor, with the very old being
less likely to know any English. But something like half of Hong Kong's
secondary schools are teaching at least partially in the medium of
English (Hui 2001, quoted in Bolton 2002). Bolton quotes a 1993 in which
34% of respondents claimed to speak English 'quite well' and better,
while only 17% claimed they knew no English. I reckon that if around
half the population can get by in English that is a lot.

"In Hong Kong they have the audacity to call this same phonological
distortion English."

Dear me.  I guess they speak English with a Hong Kong accent. That's
fine by me. There are lots of accents of English.

"The next time you are in Hong Kong for anything more than an overnight
visit, count the number of times that you are asked to spell a word."

When people are faced with unfamiliar accents, it is helpful to clarify
by using the shared written code. I don't have a problem with this.

" Moreover, the dependency on sound for understanding what one reads in
the West simply does not exist in the East to the same degree. East
Asian languages are far more graphic than their Western counterparts. As
such, one often understands what one cannot speak even in one's native
language. "

I don't know what can be meant by a 'graphic language'.  We all learn to
speak before we become literate. Indeed, many people never do become
literate. But once we are literate, the writing system becomes a
resource to exploit.  And plenty of languages in East Asia use an
alphabet or a syllabary.  (Not to mention those parts of the world other
than 'the West' which are not East Asia.)

"Certainly there are many people who are satisfied with others acting as
go-betweens on their behalf. Then too, most are probably like me, they
like to be able to find their own way. How about you?"

I speak English adaptively and am prepared to work a bit to understand
other speakers and to help them understand me.  I speak a lot of other
languages to different degrees, which range from French (super reading
skills, especially in academic texts and nineteenth century novels; weak
on current colloquialisms, reliable ability to get fed and watered, find
way around, and understand history and architecture) through German
(great strengths in vocab associated with Goethe and Schiller...) and
then deteriorating down to Italian, Mandarin, Bengali, Malay.  I can
hack it in most Romance and Germanic languages, especially in reading
them and getting basic wants attended to.  My family regard me as a
multipurpose tour guide. My greatest ever success was in ordering 'Three
coffees' in Lao (a language I don't speak at all) and getting it right
enough so that the response was to deliver the coffee and correct my
pronunciation! I hope that when I am speaking languages badly I will run
into people with Aurolyn's attitude rather than into people with your
attitude.

Anthea


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Anthea Fraser Gupta (Dr)
School of English, University of Leeds, LS2 9JT
<www.leeds.ac.uk/english/staff/afg>
NB: Reply to a.f.gupta at leeds.ac.uk
*     *     *     *     *



6) If defining a multilingual society means that different people speak
different languages, and some people speak more than one, then most
societies are likely multilingual. Certainly there are many people who
are satisfied with others acting as go-betweens on their behalf. Then
too, most are probably like me, they like to be able to find their own
way. How about you?


Hamo


R. A. Stegemann
EARTH's Manager and HKLNA-Project Director
EARTH - East Asian Research and Translation in Hong Kong
http://homepage.mac.com/moogoonghwa/earth/
Tel/Fax: 852 2630 0349