English or Chinese? Parents Debate Best Schools for Future

Because public schools here will switch from teaching in English to Chinese next year, the parents of 11-year-old Timothy Lai had to decide which language will prepare him best for his future in the new Hong Kong.

“Chinese is taken very seriously,” said Timothy’s dad, fashion designer Lai Hing-ling, 46. “Not only now, but in 10 years, the status of Chinese will be even higher.”

Timothy’s mother is less sure. “You have to make a living,” said Chin Ching-ching, 42. “When you do business and negotiate business deals, it’s all conducted in English.”

Their final decision to send Timothy to one of the few public schools qualified to teach in English was a triumph of pragmatism. But the dilemma exemplifies the choices Hong Kong must make about its identity.

As the former British colony begins a new chapter under Chinese rule, Hong Kong is trying to redefine itself. It is trying to maintain a balance between keeping what makes it special--its role as an international center--and an impulse to be more Chinese.

Although the language debate for schools began more than a decade ago, switching from English to Chinese instruction after Hong Kong changed from British to Chinese rule seemed both practical and politically correct. “It’s easier to implement the policy now,” said professor Rosie Young, who heads the Hong Kong Education Commission, which advises the government on educational issues. “It’s 1997.”

Beginning in the 1998 academic year, most secondary schools will teach in the Cantonese dialect and use Chinese textbooks for the first time. Those who violate the policy risk government sanctions.

Before the July 1 hand-over, public schools had followed a British-style curriculum. More than half the schools conducted classes in English, though most students spoke Cantonese.

Students who failed English were dragged down in other subjects as well, studies showed. And when exam results in the 1980s declined in alarming fashion, experts concluded that bilingual education wasn’t working for students here. Instead, it was leaving them in linguistic limbo.

Hong Kong, at any rate, is not truly bilingual. Residents here sprinkle English in their Cantonese conversations or blend the languages to make “Chinglish.” This “code-mixing” or “code-switching,” as academics term it, is part of Hong Kong culture.

“Language hai yat go symbol of yat go man fa; hei instrumental in creating a culture,” Oscar Ho, director of the Hong Kong Arts Center, said, offering an unintentional demonstration of Chinglish. (Translation: “Language is a symbol of a culture. It is instrumental in creating a culture.”)

“When you decide which language represents Hong Kong, you have to be very specific,” Ho added. What best exemplifies Hong Kong culture, he added, is its unique brand of boon haam, boon tam, (“half-salty, half-bland”).

Although the territory boasts a highly educated, English-speaking middle-class, many ordinary folk--like taxi drivers and shopkeepers--speak but a few hundred words of English. Local politicians often slip up in their English grammar. A sign in the public transportation system reads: “Please tell before left car,” meaning, “Please let the driver know where you want to get off.”

If the education system isn’t producing English-fluent students, how can it teach them history, math or other subjects in that language? critics ask. While the solution would seem to be to teach children in the language they know best--Chinese--many parents resist that move.

In part, this is because, as longtime British subjects, many Hong Kong residents still believe that English is more prestigious than Chinese.

Under the new policy, students will be separated into three groups: those more suited toward instruction in Chinese or in English or those who could go either way. Young Lai and most of his classmates fell under the last category. But there were two students who fell into the other categories. The youngster recommended for a Chinese school was teased; the English speaker wasn’t.