What language(s) do you WANT to speak?

Learning a language could be a most boring thing to many. But we need it! When I was a child, my grandmum used to tell us that her mother (that's my great grandmother) viewed language learning no more than a survival skill - write your name and read the street names!

Being able to master a language could be a status symbol in colonial times. I grew up in Hong Kong - a British colony once. Of course, at that time, the official language (or ruling language) was English. To top it off, big businesses operations and high class professions were conducted in English. Chinese (or the Cantonese dialect), on the other hand, naturally became an underclass item. So, it is not hard to visualise what the society was like. If you could speak the ruling language well, you could get a job easier, line up for promotion faster, and thus move up the social ladder quicker.

Because of English's unusual status in society due to the 'special' historical background, there was an abnormal phenomenon - people pretended not to know Chinese. It was very funny. Young people returning to HK after spending a few years in English speaking countries (probably got stuck in Chinatown anyway) would tell you that they forgot how to speak Chinese and of course, they couldn't read and write it anymore. The funniest thing was - when they did speak the language (definitely more comfortable for them and for the listeners), they twisted their accents to something like a foreigner speaking the language. That was hilarious and it was pure joy to watch them act and embarrasss themselves (to me, not to them).

I wonder how often and where would one find people pretending not to know their own native language and feel pride in not knowing it?

Well, it's very sad. China was fully wrapped up in all sorts of political movements and activities during the first 40 years of its establisment, and that had left them economically, academically, socially (and in many other areas) extremely backward. Also, because of its communist rule and isolation from the international community, China was not a desirable nation to many of its western counterparts. So, to many Hong Kongers, the Chinese langauge was not a favourable identity.

After the cultural revolution, because many people suffered too much during that time and they lost hope and optimism for their future in China, many of them were somehow very desperate to get out of the place and go somewhere else where there would be peace, jobs, food, shelter, stability, justice, hope and of course, freedom and humanity. Their destination - US / UK - English speaking countries.

I believe that it just followed that English would somehow symbolise all those good things they imagined or dreamed... That further pushed up the desirability of the English language (and thus English speaking people) among a significant part of the Chinese population in Hong Kong.

This has since (even now) created another very strange, funny and down right embarassing phenomenon - that anyone who looks caucasian (From Brazilian to Russian, from those who are illerate to highly educated, from beggars to professionals) can easily find a highly paid English teaching job in Hong Kong - they only need to look 'western'. That will do!

That's beyond sad!

From early on, I have developed an interest in language learning and I am fortunate that I never feel bored in language learning and I believe I have a little talent in languages. I made good grades in any languages that I learned (Chinese, English, French and German) and I am proud of it.

I am glad that I could enjoy the fruits of being able to communicate in several languages. I used to struggle to feel right about my own mother tongue. It was hard! But since learning other foreign languages, I feel emancipated.

Now, I will laugh at and at times, look down on those people who try hard not to learn and speak their own native language when growing up in their own country. I would even avoid those people because I believe if they feel so inferior about their true identity, how could I trust them?

Next time, I will talk about how some people pick on foreigners who speak their language - That's another funny story!