8 common problems that hong kong people have with spoken english
TRANSCRIPT
Nice to meet you.
Hong Kong people will sometimes open a
conversation with ‘Nice to meet you’.
This is fine if it is the first time you are meeting
the person you are talking to.
But if you have met before you should say
something like ‘It’s nice to see you again’ or ‘It’s
great to see you’.
Nice to meet you.
Or they might use it to close a conversation.
Again this is fine if it is the first time you are
meeting the person you are talking to.
But if you have met before you should say
something like ‘It’s been nice to see you again’
or ‘It’s been great to see you’.
Of course
Hong Kong people will use ‘of course’ as a
straight synonym for ‘yes’.
This is fine when you want to show your
enthusiasm for a request -
‘Can you close the window?’
‘Would you mind opening the door for me?’
‘Can I borrow your pen for a minute?’
Of course
But if you use ‘of course’ to mean ‘yes’ to a
question which asks for information it strongly
implies you think the person is asking a stupid
question - that is that they should already know
the answer is ‘yes’ -
‘Did you have a nice flight?’
‘Would you like a cup of coffee?’
Give you to see
It is natural to try to translate your own
language directly into English but this does not
always work.
Hong Kong people sadly have a very strong
habit of saying ‘give you to see’ when they
mean ‘show you’ because this is a direct
translation from Cantonese.
Next, next day
‘Next, next day’ is another common piece of
translated Cantonese in English. It should be ‘in
two days time’.
‘Last, last day’ is used for two days ago and of
course ‘next, next week’ means ‘in two weeks
time’.
Nations and Nationalities
In most cases English distinguishes between
the nation and the nationality by using a proper
noun (e.g. China) and a capitalized adjective
(e.g. Chinese).
We use the adjective to describe the people
and things (such as language and food) from a
particular country.
Numbers
Hong Kong people
have difficulty using
numbers correctly in
English, particularly
years and amounts
in currencies.
I was born in
one nine nine
four
‘ed’ and ‘ing’ Adjectives
It is very easy to use ‘ed’ and ‘ing’ adjectives
around the wrong way.
‘ed’ adjectives are used to described how we
feel - “I am bored.”
‘ing’ adjectives are used to describe what
makes us feel this way - “This lecture is boring.”
Let’s play ...
In Cantonese the verb which is used to mean
engage in an activity translates into English as
‘play’ and this is used for everything by Hong Kong
people.
But in English we use ‘play’ for games and use
‘ride on’ or ‘go on’ for the things we can ride and
use ‘do’ for many other things.
Some more examples ...
Big Tick
Big Tick is a small developer of iPhone apps
which make learning English a little easier.
We currently have apps solving problems about
talking about numbers and using ‘ed’ and ‘ing’
adjectives.
In time we will have apps to help with ‘country
adjectives’ and using ‘of course’ correctly.
Find us on:
iTunes
Google+
Sino Weibo
Photo Attributionshttp://www.retireinasia.com/people-and-culture-in-hong-kong/
www.internations.org
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http://dimetravel.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/hongkong-girls2.jpg
https://www.flickr.com/photos/huffstutterrobertl/galleries/72157624816892659
http://bobpickard.com/guest-lecture-to-pr-students-in-hong-kong/
http://favim.com/image/41361/
http://www.wakescout.com/directory/asia/hong-kong/cities/hong-kong/2113/wake-plus-wakeboarding-club-(sai-kung)
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