Bilingualism in Hong Kong

Hong Kong is an officially bilingual territory. Under the Hong Kong Basic Law (Article 9) and the Official Languages Ordinance (Chapter 5), "English and Chinese" are, of equal status, the official languages of the territory. However, it is not specified which variety of "Chinese" is referred to. While Mandarin written in simplified Chinese characters is used as the standard language in mainland China, Cantonese in traditional Chinese characters is the de-facto standard in Hong Kong.

English as an official language

Hong Kong became a crown colony of the United Kingdom in 1840, and was established as a free port to serve as an entrepôt of the British Empire. The government officials and businessmen from Britain spoke English. The British administration in Hong Kong continued to use English as an official language, but added Chinese (Cantonese) as another official language in 1974.

Following the 1997 transfer, English is still widely used in law and business, and it is still taught in schools and spoken by over 30% of the population.^{[citation needed]} The British have also left their language on place names within Hong Kong, particularly on Hong Kong Island, where British rule had the largest impact.

Bilingual freeway signs in Chek Lap Kok

Chinese as an official language

Cantonese, the language of Guangdong and other parts of southern China became an official language of Hong Kong when the Chinese population of the colony grew (above). Hong Kong's population reached 6.99 million in 2006, of which approximately 95% are of Chinese descent, the majority of which was Cantonese, Hakka, and Teochew.

Most Chinese Hongkongers speak Cantonese at home and approximately 33% know English as a second language.^{[citation needed]}

Code-switching in Hong Kong

Main article: Code-switching in Hong Kong

Code-switching, or the practice of using more than one language in conversation, is very common in Hong Kong. It usually involves a mix of Cantonese and English as a result of the bilingualism in Hong Kong.

Other languages in Hong Kong

Counter-clockwise: Cantonese Chinese, Hong Kong English, Mandarin Chinese, Korean, transliterated Japanese, and Tagalog

Main articles: Demographics of Hong Kong and Languages of Hong Kong

Hong Kong is home to a wide range of ethnicities, and substantial portions of Hongkongers are neither native English nor native Cantonese speakers. Japanese is the largest non-official language, with over 25,000 Japanese people in Hong Kong. Vietnamese refugees emigrated to Hong Kong and still speak Vietnamese as their first language.

There is a significant number of South Asians in Hong Kong. Signboards written in Hindi or Urdu are common in areas with South Asians, and languages such as Nepali, Sindhi and Punjabi are often heard on the streets of Hong Kong as well.^{[citation needed]}

There are also two newspapers written in Nepalese in Hong Kong, The Everest and the Sunrise Weekly Hong Kong. In 2004, the Home Affairs Bureau and Metro Plus AM 1044 jointly launched radio shows Hong Kong-Pak Tonight in Urdu and Harmo Sagarmatha in Nepalese.

Arabic is used frequently among members of Muslim communities in Hong Kong, and it is quickly becoming a popular language to learn..^{[citation needed]}

See also

• Code-switching in Hong Kong
• Bilingualism in Canada
• English Language
• Cantonese
• Colonial Hong Kong
• Bilingual streetsign
• Culture of Hong Kong
• Literature of Hong Kong
• Demographics of Hong Kong
• Hong Kong English
• Chinglish
• Chinese Pidgin English