I still don't speak Cantonese.
Hello. I'm Mike, a lawyer living in Hong Kong.
I've been living in Hong Kong for 6 years now, but I still can't speak Cantonese. I only read advertisements and can barely imagine what they say from the Chinese characters. When I came to Hong Kong, I brought many Cantonese books with me and tried to master it by myself, but I gave up after three days because it was too complicated. The only things I can manage to say now are "Good morning", "Thank you", "Excuse me. I can only say "Good morning", "Thank you", "Excuse me", "Please pay the bill" and "I'll be at the next stop". It's pathetic.
But let me tell you, even if you don't speak Cantonese at all, you can live here in English. When you go to the immigration office, banks, brand shops or department stores, you would think that English is the standard language and Cantonese is a second language. The only places you won't be able to communicate are local restaurants (or cafeterias) and taxis. So there is no incentive to master Cantonese.
One of the main obstacles to attracting foreign talent to Japan is the English language. This time, of course, there has been some discussion about it, and it seems that the Financial Services Agency has set up a contact point where procedures can be carried out in English. If you want to come to Japan, you have to master Japanese? That's a good point. I don't deny that. But that's not the same as the English question. It's not just a question of whether you can communicate in English or not. The amount of information is overwhelmingly different.
THE WORLD REVOLVES IN ENGLISH. INFORMATION FROM JOURNALISTS, ACADEMICS AND INTELLECTUALS AROUND THE WORLD IS IN ENGLISH. ONLY A SMALL PART OF IT, AND ONLY THE INFORMATION THAT IS CONVENIENT FOR JAPAN, OR MORE SPECIFICALLY, THAT WOULD BE OF INTEREST TO JAPANESE PEOPLE, IS TRANSLATED AND DELIVERED TO JAPAN. SO IT IS AN ILLUSION TO THINK THAT YOU CAN GET WORLD NEWS IN JAPANESE. IN HONG KONG, ON THE OTHER HAND, WE HAVE ACCESS TO ALL KINDS OF INFORMATION IN ENGLISH (FORTUNATELY STILL). FOR EXAMPLE, HONG KONG TV IS FULL OF ENGLISH NEWS CHANNELS: CNN, BBC, WESTERN CHANNELS, AND TO MY SURPRISE, EVEN AL JAZEERA FROM THE MIDDLE EAST. NATURALLY, THE NEWS IS FROM A SLIGHTLY DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE TO HOW WE IN THE WEST PERCEIVE EVENTS. OF COURSE WE ALSO GET NEWS FROM CHINA. IT'S ALSO DIFFERENT FROM THE WEST. HONG KONG IS A PLACE WHERE YOU CAN GET INFORMATION ABOUT WORLD EVENTS DIRECTLY FROM DIFFERENT SOURCES.
SOME TIME AGO, WHEN TRUMP BECAME PRESIDENT, I WAS VERY INTERESTED IN WHAT HE WOULD SAY AT HIS INAUGURATION AND HOW THE WORLD WOULD REACT TO IT. I TUNED INTO EVERY NEWS CHANNEL IN THE WORLD THAT WAS AVAILABLE FROM HONG KONG (I'M STILL IN THE SHOWA ERA), AND EVERY CHANNEL SHOWED THE SPEECH LIVE AND THEN RECORDED IT AND THE DEBATE ALL DAY LONG - CNN, BLOOMBERG, BBC, AL JAZEERA. I FELT THAT IT WAS A BIG DEBATE ALL OVER THE WORLD. I WONDERED WHAT THE DEBATE WAS LIKE IN JAPAN, SO I LOOKED AT THE JAPANESE CHANNELS AND FOUND THAT THEY WERE ALL FULL OF VARIETY SHOWS FEATURING COMEDIANS. THERE WAS NO DISCUSSION OF TRUMP'S SPEECH, NOT EVEN A VIDEO OF IT.
I BELIEVE THAT ENGLISH EDUCATION IN JAPAN IS NOT INFERIOR TO THAT IN HONG KONG. BUT THE CRUCIAL DIFFERENCE IS THE ENGLISH ENVIRONMENT. IN HONG KONG, YOU CAN COMPLETE EVERYTHING FROM THE BEGINNING TO THE END IN ENGLISH, WHETHER IT'S GOVERNMENT OFFICES OR SHOPPING. IN JAPAN, ON THE OTHER HAND, ENGLISH IS ONLY USED FOR STUDY. ENGLISH IS NOT USED ANYWHERE IN JAPAN. THEREFORE, ENGLISH IS ONLY A TOOL FOR EXAMS AND ITS VALUE IS REDUCED WHEN THE EXAMS ARE OVER. MOST JAPANESE PEOPLE STUDY ENGLISH FOR AT LEAST SIX YEARS FROM JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL TO HIGH SCHOOL, BUT ENGLISH IS NOT UNDERSTOOD. SO ALL THE IMPORTANT INFORMATION IN THE WORLD IS POURING OUT OF JAPAN TO PEOPLE IN NEW YORK, LONDON AND HONG KONG. MEANWHILE, PEOPLE IN JAPAN ARE LAUGHING AT COMEDIANS AND WORRYING ABOUT CELEBRITY INFIDELITY. JAPAN IS A SEPARATE WORLD, A GALAPAGOS OF INFORMATION ISOLATION.
When many of my friends ask me what I find so attractive about Hong Kong, I always reply, "Because Hong Kong attracts people, information and money from all over the world. This is the first thing I realized when I came to Hong Kong. This is the first thing I realized when I came to Hong Kong. Information from all over the world is coming to Hong Kong in English. It's amazing to be able to find the information you need, access it, and make it your own. Once you're in Japan, the information doesn't come to you, so you have to work hard to get it, and the information that's translated into Japanese is already filtered and it's only a small part of it, so if you only rely on that, you're not really getting anywhere.
THE PROBLEM WITH THE LACK OF ENGLISH IN JAPAN IS NOT THAT THE GOVERNMENT OFFICES DON'T SPEAK ENGLISH, BUT THAT THE LACK OF ENGLISH MEANS THAT PEOPLE ARE EXCLUDED FROM INFORMATION ABOUT THE WORLD. THIS IS A VERY DIFFICULT PROBLEM TO SOLVE. WE NEED TO GET TO A POINT WHERE ENGLISH IS USED AS A NORMAL PART OF EVERYDAY LIFE IN ADDITION TO JAPANESE. FIRST OF ALL, I WOULD LIKE TO SEE A CHANGE IN TV, TO THE EXTENT THAT TV STATIONS STOP BROADCASTING VARIETY SHOWS AND INSTEAD DIRECTLY BROADCAST FOREIGN PROGRAMS.
That's it for this time. See you next time.
