The Use of English Within Hong Both in the Business and Professional Circles - Research Paper Example

Introduction From as early as during the period of the famous British Sovereignty in Hong Kong, the emergence of English as one of the primary language of communication has been hailed to be the fundamental factor which has enabled the country to develop economically. During this time of colonial rule from the year 1842 to 1941, Hong Kong was the nerve center of the all the commercial activities of China. At the time, English played a very vital role in terms of facilitating commercial activities within the region. At the same time, English found its place within the legal as well as the administrative circles. This development provided the much needed impetus among the Chinese who opted to learn the language in order to secure employment opportunities in a range of fields as put forward by Evans and Green, (2001). In particular, the Chinese used the language as a leverage to gain employment opportunities as clerks within the government departments, middle-men for the foreign owned enterprises which were based in Hong Kong as interpreters. On the other hand, as one way of facilitating for the smooth running of operations both within the business fraternity and government circles within its colony at the time, the British colonial authorities at the time made deliberate measures to make sure that English was learnt within Hong Kong. In particular, they devoted some of their resources channeling them to some of the elite and medium –schools within the country. According to Evans and Green, (2001), the main objective of this move was to enable them to advance their economic as well as political interests in the colony. Since then, the use of English within Hong both in the business and professional circles has been growing each passing day. In particular, it has grown to become one of the key catalysts for its economic development in the region. Hence, this paper shall seek to explore the role played by English within Hong Kong especially in the professional and business domains. By so doing, the paper shall delve into its development in the country. Factors which have enabled for its spread shall also be analyzed in this regard. In order to have an exhaustive discussion, the paper shall also look as the various studies conducted in relation to the emergence and development of this language within Hong Kong. Development of English in Hong Kong According to Evans and Green, (2001), the post World War II saw the transformation of Hong Kong to become the region’s leading industrial, financial and business centre from a mere entrepot. This success has been attributed to a number of factors other than the use of English within the nation. One of such factors is the availability of a suitable investment environment relative to other parts of the larger Asian region. To add to that, the nation is said to have an excellent communication infrastructure coupled with the upholding of the rule of law. The government has also been singled as to being light –handed; an aspect which has helped to foster the said economic development. Against this backdrop, a considerable cross section of persons in Hong Kong has been taking to study English which has led to the country having a large workforce, both in the private and public sector being able to communicate in English. According to Evans and Green, (2001), this development has been very instrumental as far as foreign investment in the nation is concerned. Also, it has enabled the native companies to be able to conduct business with their clients both within and without the territory. The fact that the nation’s profile has risen to an international status implies that the importance of English can not be over emphasized. Though it might be perceived that perhaps only a small percentage of Hong Kong’s population needed to be proficient in this language at the time when its economy was dominated by entrepot-type activities as well as manufacturing, the eventual shift towards a service-based economy as from early 80s created an urgent need among the people to learn English. In particular, this transformation resulted to an increase in the demand for English proficient professionals although the country’s education system has not been able to meet. According to Evans and Green, (2003), the current status of English in this nation has often been cited to be unique. This can be attributed to the fact that it is not possible for one to fit into the well-known categories; or models which are usually used to capture the different ways through which this language is acquired or used across the globe. However, recent studies in the use of English in the international sphere have been able to classify Hong Kong to be a member of the outer circle with respect to the global English-using communities. A careful investigation into the functions, status alongside its penetration reveal that neither the Kachru’s model of English expansion nor the conventional categorization in terms of ESL or EFL do not describe in detail the role which this language has played in Hong Kong’s society since it was introduced in the 1840s by the British. Evans and Green, (2003), argue that during this time, Hong Kong exhibited majority of the features of the outer-circle model since English was used principally by the government, both tertiary and secondary education, the legal system; and among the upper echelons of the professional and business sectors. Unlike in the former systems, was mostly used in written form within the latter two sectors. However, the use of English among the Hong Kong Chinese was restricted to the workplaces or education sectors. This can be justified by the idea that this native community had very little or no desire to learn the language since they were using the Cantonese as their sole lingua franca. The use of English in the education and professional domains at the time was facilitated by the establishment of institutional policies. For instance, it was mandatory for the students to use English whenever they were in class. In addition, the presence of expatriates, for example during business meetings helped in the use of spoken English in the professional and at workplaces. In this regard, Hong Kong’s language situation has differed in comparison to that found within majority of the so called outer-circle regions such as India and Singapore. One characteristic feature of the outer-circle model territory is that English tends to function as a nativised variety of the lingua franca and is also used as medium of literary creativity in its various forms or types. In recognition of these facts, Luke and Richards, (1982), classified Hong Kong’s English as being an auxiliary language in relation to its development process during the colonial period. According to Evans and Green, (2003), the concept of auxiliary language brings to the fore the connotation that English was reserved to a given a section of the society and for use for restricted functions. The development of this new classification English in Hong Kong is based on the understanding that it was restricted to be used by the expatriate community as well as a minute group of bilingual Cantonese who were at this time functioning as middlemen. According to Evans and Green, (2003), two decades after the handover, the functions and status of English within the Hong Kong society have witnessed a number of significant changes; due to the transition to the Chinese rule from the British colonization. During the said transitional period, and in particular six years after the aforementioned handover, both written Chinese and Cantonese have grown to attain equality or supersede the use and status of English in three out of the four possible domains where the language had established itself to be eminent. The said domains are namely; the law, the government and education as is presented by Evans and Green, (2003). This gradual contraction in the use of English within these areas perhaps implies that it is only the professional workplace which has been able to stand the test of time ever since the post- 1997 era and retain its use in comparison to the written Chinese and Cantonese. A closer look at the recent initiatives point towards the fact that perhaps the use of English within the professional and business communities is one of the legacies which was left to Hong Kong by the British regime ; an aspect which the government has been noted to be very eager to maintain. However, since the seminal study which was conducted by Luke and Richards, there has been a gap in the knowledge with respect to the use of English within the business and professional fields. This was further compounded by the fact that this study was limited to the period before the post-1997 and that the use of English was restricted in terms of society and use. At the same time, this time was focused on investigating the need for productive skills in English. In this study, it was found out that majority of individuals did not have the need for writing using English. However, among those who those that did write, it was found that they used English extensively by more than half of the samples selected. With respect to oral communication skills, it was found out that a small percentage used English during their oral communication on regular basis. Owing to the unavailability of vital information on demographics, procedure and methodology, Evans and Green, (2003), argue that it is extremely difficult to find out how representative the study was as far as the use of English language is concerned. At the same time it is noteworthy that the 1970 British council study by Like and Richards Read More