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!
