Language Policy and Language Planning in Hong Kong

[wushijiao]

Because there is a chance I might end up moving to Hong Kong next year, I’ve been very interested in questions such as: what do people in Hong Kong think of studying English? Putonghua? Cantonese? To what level of proficiency do they learn it? What is the language policy like right now in schools? And other questions.

To some degree, I think knowing the answers to those questions can help a person make up his/her mind about what to study before going to Hong Kong.

Anyway, here is a link to a paper that helps answer some of those questions. One of the most interesting findings refers to the widespread apathy towards all three languages (page 12). Also, it’s interesting to note that solely teaching English as a separate language of study (instead of having a English as a general medium of instruction) decreased the students’ desire to learn English.

http://140.122.100.145/ntnuj/j49/j491-13.pdf

[flameproof]

Seems HK does not have any romanisation policy for street names. There are too many examples of really bad transliteration.

The should do a guide that at least from now on there are some guide lines.

A good example is "金", which should be "gam", but can be kan, kam, gan, specially in company names.

[atitarev]

Agree with Flameproof - both Yale and Jyutping (粤拼 / 粵拼) [read: yutping] romanisation methods romanise 金 as gan1.

Yale is the most common romanisation for Cantonese, Jyutping advocated by Hong Kong government and used by some romanisation tools.

None of them is perfect and can't please everyone's ideas about romanisations but it is a standard and if it's understood and used by many, then it would be easier.

HanConv (converts among other things to romanised Cantonese):

www.icycloud.tk

Red Dragonfly IME - Cantonese phonetical input (based on Jyutping):

http://www.hku.hk/linguist/staff/kkl_cime.htm

Cantonese romanisation schemas (the most common ones):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jyutping

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yale_Romanization#Cantonese

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hong_Kong_Government_Cantonese_Romanisation

[Ian_Lee]

Seems HK does not have any romanisation policy for street names.

Actually there has never been any romanisation policy for street names in Hong Kong.

The names of streets and districts you see nowadays in Hong Kong (except those new towns in New Territories) mostly do not have correlation between the Chinese and English terms. For example, districts like Admirality, Stanley, Aberdeen, Causeway Bay,....etc have entirely different names in Chinese and English.

Anyway, why is there a need for romanisation in Hong Kong? Everyone can read out the Chinese characters in Cantonese pronunciation. In fact, romanisation is never taught in school.

Actually I find it really weird that romanisation has gone to another extreme in Mainland. For example, the police wears both the badges of 警察 and "Jingcha". Why is the latter needed? Everyone can tell that they are police from their uniforms.

But for foreign tourists in big city like Shanghai, they can hardly tell if they are police or security guards by judging from the term "Jingcha":wink:

Why can't they wear the badges of 警察 and "police" as HK police do?

[atitarev]

But for foreign tourists in big city like Shanghai, they can hardly tell if they are police or security guards by judging from the term "Jingcha"

Why can't they wear the badges of 警察 and "police" as HK police do?

I like it. Maybe to teach foreigners and dialect speakers how to say it? So foreigners call "Jingcha!", not "Police!" when calling for help or whatever. Pinyin rules are well-known now, I would even go further and add tones and write "Jǐngchá", so it might help not to mix with 敬茶 (jìngchá - serve tea) or 惊诧 (jīngchà - surprised; amazed)

In Cantonese, having no standard there are too many ways to romanise, eg these 4: Gingchaat, Gingcaat, Kingchaat, Kingcaat, etc. Besides, English is well-known in Hong Kong.

In my opinion, e.g. 人民日报 should be called "Renmin Ribao", not "People's Daily" when referring to the newspaper's name in Engish and other languages.

[Ncao]

I thought the police on the mainland was known as 公安(gongan)?

[Ian_Lee]

So foreigners call "Jingcha!", not "Police!" when calling for help or whatever.

But how does the farmer from Arkansas who comes to see Olympics in Beijing can tell that "Jingcha" is police but not other uniformed personnel when his purse is stolen?

And why is street sign needed to romanise in HK? For whom to pronounce? Locals? Foreigners or Mainland Tourists from outside Guangdong?

All these thoughts of romanisation are a "Must" have come to the point of absurdity and unnecessity.

[roddy]

Actually I find it really weird that romanisation has gone to another extreme in Mainland. For example, the police wears both the badges of 警察 and "Jingcha". Why is the latter needed? Everyone can tell that they are police from their uniforms.

It is odd, and inconsistent. The back of police jackets sometimes have 警察 (fine), sometimes Police (why? Did they get them cheap from NYPD?) and sometimes jingcha, which is just silly.

[flameproof]

The names of streets and districts you see nowadays in Hong Kong (except those new towns in New Territories) mostly do not have correlation between the Chinese and English terms. For example, districts like Admirality, Stanley, Aberdeen, Causeway Bay,....etc have entirely different names in Chinese and English.

I was referring to transliterations from Chinese. I.e. Un Chau St. in SSP, which is 元州街 - I wonder where the UN comes from?

[Ian_Lee]

flameproof:

Many street names in the old district, i.e. Un Chau Street in Shamshuipo, that you refer, don't follow Cantonese.

Another example is the Swatow Street in Wanchai. It should be Shantou Street if it is based on Cantonese. But Swatow is Chaozhouhua.

I guess UN may be Hakka.

[flameproof]

I guess UN may be Hakka.

...or maybe English, as English speaker have usually a problem with the round mouth "YU" sound...

[Ransek]

Agree with Flameproof - both Yale and Jyutping (粤拼 / 粵拼) [read: yutping] romanisation methods romanise 金 as gan1.

It is gam1