Do many people in Hong Kong speak Mandarin?

[skylee]

Yes, schools need native speakers to teach English.

Skylee, noticed you didn't mention 'lose face' as a reason for not speaking mandarin.

I am not sure what "lose face" refers to here. When a HK person grew up speaking Mandarin, or has a Mandarin-speaking spouse, or has to use Mandarin to earn a living, he/she is probably more or even very comfortable with speaking Mandarin in Hong Kong. I am none of the above, so I don't feel like speaking it unless I must.

[Flickserve]

Some HK Chinese people will not speak English nor Chinese mandarin because they would 'lose face'.

It happens less commonly now but when I first came to HK, there were many HK persons who would avoid speaking English even though I had no understanding of cantonese. I guess they were scared of 'losing face'. Many would say I was not chinese because of not being able to speak nor understand chinese cantonese - even though I have a full chinese name. I would patiently point out HK's education system has teaching of english through primary and secondary school. Therefore it's only natural to assume their english skills to be far beyond my chinese skills (me never having formal chinese education). Then I would ask since language is the defining factor of "chineseness", then we could assume HK people can speak the national language of China, that being putonghua. But quite a few would refuse to speak mandarin (lack of proficiency) - lose face, be shamed.

The most extreme example was a colleague who said she couldn't speak english. So I struggled along, it was only months later we discovered she could speak fluent english. Two masters degrees no less. It always puzzled me to why have that sort of attitude.

[Flickserve]

Well, if most everyone in Hong Kong already knows English really well, then why would any need to teach - oh, ok - they still need people to come to HK to teach in the high schools, etc? I was thinking people would be growing up speaking the language and wouldn't need any people from outside of HK to come and teach. Sorry

Sorry to disappoint you. There is incomplete expertise in English in HK. The level of fluency you describe would be more accurate for Singapore. HK 'on average' would be low for verbal english. Hence, there is a good demand for english classes and tuition outside of secondary school.

Local HK teachers might say the letter 'r' as being 'r'-'o' or the letter 'z' as being 'e'-'z'. Wierd but true. When asking someone why that was so, they replied 'that's how it's taught!'.

[abcdefg]

I was in Hong Kong earlier this week. As the hotel courtesy bus arrived, we were greeted by a cluster of shoving, shouting Mandarin-speaking tourists trying to get on before letting the other guests off.

 

One of the bellman told me in a low voice, "Oh, they are Mainland tourists." I decided to stick to English while there instead of using Putonghua.

[淨土極樂]

Most HK young people should be able to speak Mandarin. Granted, with bad tones (they usually have trouble differentiating between the 2nd and 3rd tones), but native vocabulary. It's a bit surreal in that it sounds like laowai Chinese, but the vocabulary is high level.

[trisha2766]

Thanks! I think I understand a little better now.  I guess you really have to live someplace for a while to really get a feel for these things.

 

淨土極樂 - that's another surprise for me, with Cantonese having more tones I would have thought Mandarin tones would be comparatively easy!

[淨土極樂]

trisha2766, none of Cantonese tones match Mandarin's 3rd tone (上声).

[Simon_CH]

I was in HK recently for business and also found that my Chinese colleague (Beijinger) didn't get far with Mandarin, and would usually end up using English instead. He is a polite guy and didn't mind at all, but older HKers like taxi drivers didn't seem to speak any Mandarin whatsoever.

[Meng Lelan]

One of the bellman told me in a low voice, "Oh, they are Mainland tourists." I decided to stick to English while there instead of using Putonghua.

 

 

 

LOL

 

I remember back in 1983 I was studying Chinese in Tianjin, and our best Mandarin teacher left for a job in.....Hong Kong. And the next year I came back to the States, I made a new friend who was from Hong Kong, and her Mandarin was the best I ever heard.  She also could speak English and Cantonese. 

[tysond]

Granted, with bad tones (they usually have trouble differentiating between the 2nd and 3rd tones), but native vocabulary. It's a bit surreal in that it sounds like laowai Chinese, but the vocabulary is high level.

 

 

I recently noticed this exact phenomenon.  

 

I listened to a HK-er speak in this fashion - the tones were all over the place.  I kept thinking "oh you are saying it wrong" with at least 1 word every sentence.

But the vocabulary, confidence of speaking, "fluency" was very high, listening was instantaneous, responses straight away. 

 

I've heard this before with Singaporeans and Malaysians, but didn't expect it in HK.

[Meng Lelan]

I listened to a HK-er speak in this fashion - the tones were all over the place.  I kept thinking "oh you are saying it wrong" with at least 1 word every sentence.

But the vocabulary, confidence of speaking, "fluency" was very high, listening was instantaneous, responses straight away

 

. 

That's the kind of Chinese I can listen to, considering how literally tone deaf I am. I don't even bother with tones anymore when I speak. 

[Flickserve]

I recently noticed this exact phenomenon.

I listened to a HK-er speak in this fashion - the tones were all over the place. I kept thinking "oh you are saying it wrong" with at least 1 word every sentence.

But the vocabulary, confidence of speaking, "fluency" was very high, listening was instantaneous, responses straight away.

I've heard this before with Singaporeans and Malaysians, but didn't expect it in HK.

The HK accented mandarin. :-)

I have it as well :-(

Told my teacher one of my aims was to pronounce mandarin better than the average HK person...how hard can that be?

I don't think I could ever match their listening comprehension skills.