Case Study 7

American (mother-tongue: English), male

• A snapshot of the linguistics information:
  -English as his first language.
  -He married a Cantonese and have moved to Hong Kong for 17 years.
  -He can speak only some Cantonese, like polite phrases only.

• Daily language preference
  -English is undoubtedly his majority in daily life.
  -He speaks English to his wife and his son. But since his wife's parents are Indonesian Chinese, he will have code-mixing in this case that mixed Cantonese and English. But since he just knows some Cantonese and his wife's parents only know some English, most of the time when they need to communicate, they depend on a interpretator.
  -Under other circumstances, he mainly speaks English for his benefit with the few polite Cantonese phrases that he knows, for example, Kung Hei Fat Choi and so forth.

• What does he think about learning Cantonese
  -He does not think it is necessary for him to learn Cantonese because in most of the time he can still communicate with others in English though he thinks that it is fun to learn Cantonese and he would somehow feel as an outsider if he does not speak Cantonese.
  -However, he will still speak Cantonese in some circumstances, like greeting and saying thank you, having a taxi, etc.
  
  -One interesting thing is that he points out that the question of "Cantonese is not an international language like English, so I will not learn it" is inappropriate since it is a double-barrel question that ask two things at once, both of which cannot be answered simultaneously. He strongly agrees that Cantonese is not an international language unless in the sense that you are in some Chinatowns outside of HongKong. The reason he will not learn it is that he simply cannot hear the tones due to a hearing deficit. The simple Cantonese he knows is functional like polite phrases for social use, names of places he wants the taxi driver to take him and so forth.

• His mother tongue in Hong Kong
  -English is being viewed as highly desirable so there is no barrier and no bias by Hong Kong people.
  -He would speak both Cantonese (some) and English in his daily life. (The reason is mentioned above.)
  -He does not really care about how English is viewed by Hong Kong people. He would still have his only way to communicate with others when needed. But one thing strange he has found is that the people's attitude before and after handover has changed. Before it, people still regard English as a higher variety. But after it, people, pretend to be pro-China, have changed their attitudes and regard Mandarin as a higher variety. He feels that was the lost to the society, not for himself.

CASE STUDY 6:

German (mother-tongue: Swabian/German), male, 52 years old

•  A snapshot of the linguistic information:
• Swabian/German as the mother tongue (depending on how you differentiate between a language and a dialec; in this case, German would be seen as his mother tongue), learnt English and French as a 2^nd language.
• He married a Cantonese and moved to Hong Kong for 26 years.
• He regards himself as a passive Cantonese speaker.
• He speaks basic Cantonese if needed.

• Daily language preference:
• English becomes the major language used for daily life.
• Regarding his wife and their relatives in Hong Kong, he speaks mostly English. However, Cantonese is also being used in greetings and in the form of code-switching with English in some informal circumstances or for fun.
• Regarding his workplace, he speaks English with his superior as they do not speak any German.
• However, on the other hand, he speaks German only with his co-workers and subordinates as he is a German professor and all his colleagues are Germans or German-speakers.
• Furthermore, he uses English while talking with colleagues from other departments and the office staffs.
• Nevertheless, he understands French while communicating with the French colleagues and he regards himself as a passive French speaker.
•  Although he does not have children yet, he plans to speak to his children in German while his wife speaks English and Cantonese to them in their early age.
• After that, English would be mainly used in the latter stage by both his wife and him.
• And he thinks that English is vital in Hong Kong and in the world.

• What does he think about learning Cantonese:
• He finds that it is not a must to learn Cantonese in order to communicate with the locals and he would not find himself being regarded as an outsider if he does not speak Cantonese.
• He points out that he have had Cantonese lessons before, but he found it too difficult to learn as there are too many tones in Cantonese which do arouse misunderstanding in communication.
• And, he believes that English is good enough as he has already been living in Hong Kong for 26 years.

• Attitudes towards language shift:
• As his mother tongue does not work in Hong Kong for daily communication, he switches to use mostly English and a little bit Cantonese to cater the culture in Hong Kong.
• However, this “language shift” is not that drastic as he is teaching his mother tongue in Hong Kong and working with some people who share the same mother tongue.

CASE STUDY 4:

Filipino (mother-tongue: Tagalog), female, 52 years old                  

• A snapshot of the linguistic information:
• Tagalog as the mother tongue while English serves as her mother tongue in the meantime as she was educated and nurtured with mainly English.
• She married a Cantonese and moved to Hong Kong for more than 30 years. Able to communicate daily life matters in Cantonese.

• Daily language preference:
• She feels very comfortable with code-mixing and switching codes, so it really depends on who she talks with.
• When speaking with people who could speak both Chinese and English, she would rather use Cantonese since she has been in Hong Kong for a long time already while English as her 2^nd language only serves its purpose when she really have to use it.
• As she is working in an International Airline company, she mostly communicates with her superiors in English as they are mostly Westerners. However, they use also Cantonese in non-business situation in order to be friendlier with those local people.
• When communicating with her children, she has adopted a language policy which English was mainly used in childhood and Cantonese is mainly used ever since their teenage with the practice of English served a 2^nd language.
• In daily conversation with her parents-in-law and friends, she is able and very willing to communicate with them in Cantonese as she regards herself as an active Cantonese speaker.

• What does she think about learning Cantonese:
• Learning Cantonese is not a must to her and she does not feel that she would become an outsider if she does not speak Cantonese. However, she still learnt Cantonese from her husband and actively uses it in her daily conversation as she wants to be friendlier to the locals.
• And now, Cantonese plays an important role in her life.
• In addition, she did not find it too difficult to learn Cantonese, though she cannot read or write Chinese.

• Attitudes towards the language shift:
• She has recognized that there is a mild language shift in her life, but she does not find that a “language shift” is indispensable in Hong Kong for the mixed marriage community whose mother language is English as she realizes the important status of English in Hong Kong.
• Although she rarely uses Tagalog anymore, it matters her nothing as she speaks mainly English since birth. However, she does not see it as a “language death” as she still could use Tagalog with her family in Philippines and there are really quite a number of Philippine in Hong Kong, including her relatives.