SHIRLEY ZHAO SHIRLEY.ZHAO@SCMP.COM
PUBLISHED : Monday, 24 August, 2015, 2:26pm
UPDATED : Monday, 24 August, 2015, 2:28pm
Researchers believed the study showed the government’s “biliterate and trilingual” policy had been effective. Photo: Dale de la Rey
Hongkongers have become increasingly trilingual, as over 90 per cent of residents under 30 can now speak English and Putonghua, according to a study.
This compares to the 2011 census, which found only about 70 per cent of Hong Kong residents were able to speak English and Putonghua.
Cantonese continues to be the dominant language in the city, with almost all people in all age groups able to speak it, which is consistent with the census findings.
Researchers believed the study showed the government’s “biliterate and trilingual” policy had been effective. They also observed that more people had been using English and Putonghua in workplaces, leading to the increase in the ability to speak these two languages.
The survey, commissioned by the Central Policy Unit, was conducted between August 2013 and January this year by the University of Hong Kong’s Social Sciences Research Centre. During the survey, researchers interviewed 2,049 Hong Kong residents aged 15 and older by telephone in Cantonese, English and Putonghua.
The research also showed that almost half of the respondents believed Cantonese was at least moderately threatened by Putonghua as the city’s main language.
Researchers said this might have reflected Hong Kong residents’ concerns over the central government’s efforts in pushing Putonghua as the only language allowed in media in Cantonese-speaking Guangzhou. They said Hongkongers might worry the same thing would happen here.
But they said they could not see Cantonese losing its dominance based on all the data collected. They said unless there were radical changes in policy in changing the current situation, Hong Kong would continue to be the “Cantonese capital of the world”.
http://m.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education-community/article/1852091/more-90pc-hongkongers-aged-under-30-speak
