Random Thoughts by Pauline

No short-cut

I have often been approached for tips to master the English language. Every time, I would give an answer more like a cliché reply and people would think I am brushing them off.

Listen more! Speak more! Read more! Write more! Think in English more!

I am serious! I have been doing so ever since I was introduced this second language. Those who are not able to reach satisfactory English proficiency like to complain or rather excuse themselves saying that there is a lack of English language environment in Hong Kong.  I cannot agree with that. Hong Kong, a former British colony and branded as “Asia's world city” since 2001, abounds with English not only verbally and literally but also in the wide world of internet. An English environment is at our fingertips.

Then what has gone wrong that has thrown Hong Kong down to the category of “moderate proficiency” in a 2018 study of English proficiency in countries where the language is not the mother tongue?  Scoring 56.38, Hong Kong was ranked 30 just above South Korea with a score of 56.27. We can, of course, doubt the validity of this study but proactively speaking, we can take this as a chance for reflection.

Among others, the post-1997 cocoon mentality may be the main reason. Since or even prior to 1997 and especially after China’s rise in world status, many in Hong Kong and not only the young have been gloating that English would no longer be as important as it has been and that Chinese will soon replace English as the world lingua franca. This complacency is pure naivety. The position of English as a world language has not been built over decades but centuries. True, Chinese as a language is gaining international recognition and popularity and a day will come when it might be the one language for world communication. But we do not have to sit there and do nothing to wait for it to happen not to say, it might not happen in our life time.

It is this ignorance that has ostracized our young people into eluding the hardship of mastering English language. But no pain, no gain. There is only one straight road – surrounding ourselves with an English environment. Back then when I was at school, I would have to resort to listening to radio or spending a fortune to purchase cassette tapes.  Books would be in the library. There were English-speaking television programmes but they were quite limited and television sets themselves were luxury items. Now, the internet provides all that we want or desire. So nurture that thirst for English and you are already one step closer to mastering the language!

Random Thoughts by Pauline

My hands

Every time when I look at my hands, I think of my mother.

There was one time when we were at the jewellery shop. She was trying on a sapphire ring. As she stretched out her right hand to see if the ring looked good on her finger, she sighed and took off the ring.

"No ring will look good on my fingers. You see, they are so wrinkled."

Now I realize the heaviness of that sigh.  My hands look exactly like hers then.

People age if they are blessed with longevity. But is long life a true blessing? It is, generally speaking, if one possesses these three basic assets – fund, friends or family, fitness. Missing one, life can be very miserable. Think of these scenarios - rich and surrounded by lots of family members and friends but bed-ridden or rich and healthy but lonely fearing that everybody is after his wealth.

Even those who have the good fortune of being healthy, well-off with no financial worries, loved by spouse, children and grand-children can still be unhappy. These are the people who are reluctant to accept the fact that they are aging. No matter how healthy one is, he has to admit that he is no longer young and that his looks, his life vital signs etc. are changing. How one deals with all these determines whether he can age gracefully and happily.

Often we hear adult children nagging about their aged parents saying that they are like babies again. Sarcastic as this remark is, there is truth in it. The elderly want attention. To solicit that, some might “fake” sickness such as coughing their lungs out. They render themselves a burden. Others would stretch out their helping hand and putting their fingers in all their children’s pies. They make themselves a nuisance.

How should the elderly behave so as to be loveable? Well, be like good children – don’t speak unless asked, don’t ask if not told and above all, always be there when approached.