I was asked by an English lady when I started learning English, I hesitated and answered 3 years old. It's correct for the official english-learning starting age in Hong Kong. Every time I answer this, the other person would be like "no wonder your English is so good". The point is not boasting here. It's the English level of general Hong Kong students I want to talk about. Whenever people said "no wonder....", I always wanted to say that it's not true, average HK students or people don't have this level, I am not a good example. I don't want to give them a wrong impression that everyone in Hong Kong speaks good English. Although that's what I wish.As a language learner, I would understand why people would think it's normal to have a good level of a foreign language if it's started at such a young age, but the thing they don't understand is that the language policy and learning mode is not one that encourages students to boldly speak and practise, it's just passive learning. The teacher talks and the students listen, how could students learn well in this kind of environment? I don't blame the teacher since they grew up the same way, and hiring native English teachers is not cheap for schools, even with government subsidy, just one NET isn't enough to care for a thousand students in a school.
I really want to help changing the education policy in Hong Kong, to be honest, it's a mess now with officials who know nothing about education. They are promoting learning through mother tongue, i.e. cantonese, I don't reject that, but it's the way and speed they try to push it wrong. Seems like there's no planning, AT ALL! They are frustrating both students and parents in Hong Kong, that's why all the families who can afford it would send their kids to international schools, even they would be speaking crap cantonese. How sacarstic! Hong Kong government is making Hong Kong people think that our mother tongue is not worth learning and being able to speak English is more superior. It's a sad thing to see happening.
I want people to be able to understand that both mother tongue and English are important, and not being able to speak one's own language should be a shameful thing instead of something to be proud of!
A very suitable Chinese idiom for this phenomenon:
飲水思源 (think of the source when you drink water)
Email Louise
2 comments:
Hi, I am a student in form 5 and cannot agree more with what you said about the language teaching method adopted in hong kong.
I am taught exactly that way and if I didn't have strong interest in western culture and a few english-speaking cousins, I would probably be one of those mumbling phrases before exams and calling that english. I feel slightly sad everytime I get called the "dictionary", or asked why I am so good at the laugauge by my classmate because that's the solid proof of how little they know about english. I never thought english is a difficult language because I know "how" to learn it, and that's the result of me learning the language interactively (with people, media etc.) rather than swallowing school teachers' words without thinking.
I hope one day you'll come up with some ideas to improve hong kong's language education policy, and most importantly, get those "education experts" to change! :)
Hi, it's good to know that you love the language and you know how to learn it well. And i think it's hard to teach people how to learn it well because everyone has a different approach. Anyways, do keep it up! And I hope one day you could contribute to HK's education policy too! :D
Louise
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