that proficiency in English is a sure way to a good job. English is not just the. The
importance of mastering English language borrowed from our colonial past, but ...
Feature
The importance of mastering English
Hong Kong is becoming increasingly a Chinese city, but English is a world language in an age of globalisation. Therefore mastery of the language remains as important as ever. Peter Wong, former chairman of the HKSA Language Proficiency Working Group, draws on personal experience to demonstrate how we can improve our English and pass on our knowledge to the next generation
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ome say that Hong Kong owes its success to being an island of Englishness in a sea of Chinese. We used to be described as a borrowed place on borrowed time; but that has passed. Slowly but surely, Hong Kong is becoming a much more Chinese city in spite of both English and Chinese being the official language. Nevertheless, parents who never utter a word all day in Putonghua, let alone English, happily pack their children off to an English stream school and English ‘Bo Jaap’ (extra tuition) after school, believing that proficiency in English is a sure way to a good job. English is not just the
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language borrowed from our colonial past, but a world language and it is still an invaluable resource that makes Hong Kong stand out as a gateway to China. But how do you become really proficient in English in a Cantonese environment?
Society enthusiastically backs language proficiency drive Ever since 1992 when the technical director of the Society passed on to me the complaint of an examiner, who could not understand the English used in some of our examinees’ scripts, the Society has
enthusiastically backed my efforts to try to improve the standard of English of our members and more recently the standard of written Chinese. The Language Proficiency Working Group was set up and we spent many hours in meetings, discussing what to do. We talked and worked with many linguistic experts from our universities to do research to identify common errors made in English and then plan courses to correct them. In addition, we have looked into ways of using information technology to assist in boosting English standards. We now have a number of very good courses run by our tertiary institutions, both general writing courses and others specifically aimed at the needs of auditors or tax professionals. The results have been mixed. I still see many of the same mistakes being made. It is difficult to eradicate bad habits, but with persistence and effort, everyone can improve. Fortunately, we do see some improvement in the English we hear on a daily basis, for example, the MTR no longer announces ‘eating and drinking is not allowed’.
Coming to grips with English It was only during a recent discussion with my wife about how we managed to get our two sons to read more, that it dawned on me that I had the same trouble getting my own English up to speed. Before going to England, I went to local schools here in Hong Kong and spoke Cantonese all the time. I had English lessons for a few hours a week at school and even had an English tutor to coach me twice a week, but this was not really enough. When I went to England, I still spoke broken English, I certainly was not confident of my comprehension or speech and it took a while to overcome this. To illustrate this, at the end of my first year at English boarding school, at the age of 11, I took mock Common Entrance examinations meant for admission to Public Schools at 13. I got 98% in Arithmetic and 3% in Algebra, the former requiring no understanding of English, whilst in the latter, I had completely failed to understand the questions. However, by the time it came to the real examinations at the age of 13,
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Feature
If you have young children, do yourself a favour by reading aloud to them before their bedtime
I managed to sail through. How did I manage this? In boarding school, I was set the task of reading popular children’s books, each one incrementally more difficult than its predecessor. After that, there was no holding back my progress in comprehension, reading and writing. Luckily also, in 1954, TV was new in England and I was able to watch it whenever I wished in the holidays. I really began to think in English, not just to study it. I am now convinced that no amount of courses alone, however well tailored to individual needs, will really improve
the English standard of our average member or student. Mistakes can be pointed out and if students are really diligent, they may not make those same errors again, but the key for a real improvement in any language, is to be motivated to read and speak in that language on a regular basis. In this way it is possible to be able to think in that language. Being able to speak good English means that you can use it as the medium to communicate clearly and concisely, simple or complex ideas and arguments, so the listener or reader will really understand the message. I have always
advocated that for an accountant, nothing beats the Economist magazine for showing you how effective financial and other news and information can be communicated. In the space of a few columns and rarely with pictures, a complicated subject is introduced, the pros and cons discussed and a conclusion conveyed to the reader. More often than not, you agree with that conclusion, hence this is effective communication. Do not content yourself with just reading one magazine. Reading good books – even Readers’ Digest or condensed books if you are short of time, is the basic ingredient. You will find many different examples of how to express similar ideas and all with very different effects. Once you can read and comprehend, speaking the language fluently is the next logical step and that will require constant practice. Reading aloud is a good substitute.
One language at a time If you have young children, do yourself a favour by reading aloud to them before their bedtime. Read the old favourites. The children know them off by heart, but they will never tire of them. It does not matter whether you read English or Chinese books. When speaking, just stick to one language at a time and never mix them up. Children can pick up languages very quickly, but they should not flip-flop between them. Switching from one language to another in mid-sentence and then back again will make it hard for them to speak either language well. In Hong Kong this is common practice and we all do it sometimes, but we should try to find the correct words and use them. I mentioned about my sons’ reading. When they were quite small, they wanted to buy a toy train, but did not have enough pocket money to buy it. We offered to give them 50 cents for every book they read aloud to us. In quite a short time, the money was raised, the train bought and a love of reading established. Reading became an enjoyable learning process. Through books, they explored new worlds and one is now a qualified accountant. After buying the train, what did they do with the money so diligently earned? Bought more books!
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THE HONG KONG ACCOUNTANT
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