48% of Hong Kong residents: I can speak Mandarin

Around p>1997, there was a popular saying in Hong Kong: as long as you don't cross the Luohu Bridge, you don't have to learn Mandarin.

Nowadays, in the crowded business district of Causeway Bay, I can hear the voice of Putonghua: the salespeople in the shops enthusiastically solicit business in Putonghua; Hong Kong residents on the street patiently use Mandarin to guide mainland tourists.

Before the reunification, Cantonese and English were the mainstream in Hong Kong. Since 2115, with the more frequent exchanges between Hong Kong and the Mainland in the fields of politics, economy, trade, social culture and education, Putonghua has been widely used in Hong Kong. According to the report of the 2111 Hong Kong Population Census released by the Census and Statistics Department of the SAR Government in February this year, the popularity of Putonghua surpassed that of English for the first time and became the second largest language in Hong Kong.

Putonghua has become a "hot cake" in the workplace

Waters, a famous precision instrument manufacturer, recently advertised in Hong Kong to recruit the personnel manager of its Hong Kong branch, and specifically stated in the language requirements that candidates should be proficient in Putonghua. Mr. He, a human resources analyst at Waters, said that since 2115, the company's mainland business has climbed, accounting for more than 51% of the total business volume, and the Hong Kong department is in charge of the entire Asia-Pacific region. To communicate with mainland employees, it is necessary to speak Mandarin.

In recent years, the status of Putonghua in the workplace in Hong Kong has been continuously improved, and more and more enterprises hope that their employees can speak Putonghua. According to the data provided by JobsDB5, a large job-hunting website in Hong Kong at the end of May, in the last six months, 11% of job advertisements explicitly required candidates to speak Mandarin.

According to job types, there is a great demand for job seekers who can speak Mandarin in banking and finance, accounting for 18.6% of the total job advertisements for this job type; Followed by the government and public institutions, accounting for 17.1%; Property and real estate, accounting for 16.9%; Professional services accounted for 15.2%; Beauty and health accounted for 14.1%.

Huang Genting, human resources manager of Walters, a professional recruitment company in Hong Kong, said that most of their clients are foreign-funded companies, and they have branches in Hong Kong to take care of mainland business. She revealed that 61% to 71% of customers tend to hire employees who can speak Mandarin. "Before the reunification, speaking English was a necessary condition, and now Mandarin has become a common requirement."

Liu Wencai, a lecturer in the Department of Chinese and Bilingual Studies at the Polytechnic University, said that she once saw two mainland tourists pondering over the menu for a long time in a famous local tea restaurant. Just as she was about to do an enthusiastic translation, the shop assistant greeted her in Mandarin with her mouth open, and she was comfortable with simple communication once and for all.

"Basically, Hong Kong people know the importance of Putonghua. Mandarin is the standard language in China, which exists in our hearts, but at the same time there is also a realistic need to make a living. " Liu Wencai said.

Putonghua is popular on campus

At the end of March this year, Hong Kong Baptist University held a Putonghua recitation competition, which attracted more than 811 applicants, a record high. Cao Keren, a 2119-year-old Hong Kong student, won the first prize in the poetry group with a poem "A Flowering Tree".

Cao Keren told reporters that because of her love of language, she taught herself Mandarin Pinyin at home at an early age, and began to participate in recitation competitions from grade one. When she grew up, she found that speaking Mandarin well was of great help to her study, exchange activities and getting job interviews. Cao Keren hopes to work in the advertising industry in the Mainland after graduating from college.

According to the census report released by the Census and Statistics Department of the SAR Government in February, there were about 7.17 million people in Hong Kong at the end of June 2111, of which about 46.5% reported that they could speak Mandarin, which was about 13.2 percentage points higher than that in 2111. In addition, about 1.4% of the population uses Putonghua as the most commonly used language, which is also higher than 1.9% in 2111.

Since p>15, the popularity of Putonghua in Hong Kong has jumped, and the promotion of school education is indispensable.

Putonghua has been a core subject in primary schools in Hong Kong since 1998. Students enrolled in and after 1998 will learn Putonghua from the first grade of primary school to the third grade of junior high school and receive 9 years of Putonghua education. At present, all universities, colleges and community colleges in Hong Kong offer Putonghua courses.

Chen Rui Duan, a member of the Standing Committee of Hong Kong Language Education and Research (SCOLAR) and a professor in the Department of Chinese and Bilingual Studies at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, said that few students could really speak Putonghua before 2115, but in recent years, the standard of Putonghua of Hong Kong students has improved a lot. She went to watch some recitation competitions in the past year or two and found that many local primary school students were as fluent in Mandarin as Cantonese.

She also said that in the past, Chinese classes in many colleges and universities were taught in Cantonese, but in recent five or six years, with the increase of mainland students, teachers learned to teach in Mandarin. For example, in the Bilingual Department of the Polytechnic University, 91% of graduate courses previously taught in Cantonese have switched to Mandarin.

Lin Jianping, director of the Putonghua Education Research and Development Center of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said that according to the census report, the number of Hong Kong residents who can speak Putonghua has increased from over 31% in 2111 to 41% in 2116, and then to nearly 51% in 2111, indicating that Putonghua is becoming more and more popular in Hong Kong. From the perspective of language teaching, what should be done after "popularization" is how to "improve".

In p>14, more than 71,111 people took the Putonghua Proficiency Test

In today's Hong Kong, the voice of Putonghua can be heard in major occasions related to government activities, numerous international conferences, forums and exhibitions, subway and bus stops, voice prompts of customer service calls, etc.

Peng Qinghua, director of the Liaison Office of the Central Committee in Hong Kong, said a few days ago that he had been here before Hong Kong's return to China. At that time, shop assistants and taxi drivers generally did not know Mandarin, making it very inconvenient for mainlanders to visit and shop in Hong Kong.

He said that not only most shop assistants and taxi drivers can speak Mandarin now, but also many young people in the Mainland can listen to and speak Cantonese, which also reflects that since the reunification, personnel exchanges between the two places have become closer and exchanges in all aspects have been strengthened.

All these have benefited from a series of exchange and cooperation agreements signed between the Mainland and Hong Kong in recent years, especially the Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement between the Mainland and Hong Kong and the individual travel policy of Hong Kong and Macao.

Chen Ruiduan said that Putonghua is the same language of our nation. Nowadays, the exchanges between Hong Kong and the Mainland are becoming more frequent and deeper. As long as there is contact with the Mainland, it is necessary for Hong Kong people to use Putonghua.

SCOLAR, established in 1996, is a semi-official organization, which aims to make suggestions to the SAR Government on the language education policy in Hong Kong. According to reports, the organization has held more than 91 activities to promote Putonghua, with about 281,111 Hong Kong citizens participating and more than 3 million viewers watching related TV programs.

On the eve of the 15th anniversary of Hong Kong's return to China, the Institute of Linguistic Application of the Ministry of Education also signed a cooperation agreement with the Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority in May this year, and * * * is committed to exploring, developing and deepening the cooperation and exchanges between the Mainland and Hong Kong.

Since 1996, state language commission has signed agreements with over 11 universities and colleges in Hong Kong to establish Putonghua proficiency testing centers. According to the data of the State Language Committee, 141 people took part in the test in Hong Kong in 1996, and by the end of 2111, the number of people tested had exceeded 71,111.

According to the data provided by the Teaching and Research Center of CUHK, the standard of Putonghua of Hong Kong people is concentrated in "Grade III A", that is, "qualified Putonghua", and there is no problem in daily communication. In recent years, the standard rate of Putonghua proficiency of Hong Kong people (that is, "second-class B") has been on the rise.

Lin Jianping said that in Hong Kong, "popularization" in a broad sense seems to have to "go out of China and face the world", such as cultivating excellent Putonghua teachers, promoting Putonghua overseas and promoting Chinese culture.

■ Xinhuanet

Popularization efforts from the government to the people

On the streets of Hong Kong, you can hear colloquialism mixed with English, fluent English and nonstandard Mandarin. Being "biliterate and trilingual" can be regarded as a unique landscape of this metropolis. Cantonese is a native lingua franca in Hong Kong, and English is also a common language used by the public, while Putonghua is gradually becoming another lingua franca in Hong Kong. According to the Hong Kong census report released in February this year, 48% of Hong Kong residents claimed to be able to speak Putonghua, slightly exceeding the proportion of Hong Kong residents who could speak English (46%). In the 2111 census, only 1/3 of the residents claimed to be able to speak Putonghua. In just over a decade, Putonghua has surpassed English to become the second most widely used language among Hong Kong residents.

So, what has Hong Kong done to promote Putonghua?

In 2112, Hong Kong passed a motion to promote Putonghua

On October 23, 2112, at the meeting of the Legislative Council, then Member Cai Suyu moved a motion on "promoting Putonghua". She said: With China's accession to the World Trade Organization and the increasing number of tourists from the Mainland, Taiwan Province and Southeast Asia, it is necessary for Hong Kong businesses and people to be widely familiar with Putonghua in order to seize business opportunities, enhance their competitiveness and improve their communication skills; To this end, the Legislative Council urges the government to formulate effective measures to solve the shortage of Putonghua teachers; Increase the channels for broadcasting Putonghua programs and improve the reception quality of Radio Television Hong Kong Putonghua Channel, so that the public can have more opportunities to contact Putonghua; Encourage non-governmental organizations to hold more activities to promote Putonghua, so as to create a social atmosphere conducive to learning Putonghua.

Of the 21 Members who spoke later, 21 supported the motion with actions and set an example by speaking in Putonghua, thus promoting the atmosphere of "speaking out". Finally, the Hong Kong Legislative Council passed the motion, urging the government to formulate effective measures to improve the people's ability to use Putonghua. The then Director of the Education and Manpower Bureau of the Hong Kong SAR Government, Mrs Fanny Law, said in standard Mandarin that the SAR Government attached importance to the balanced development of "being biliterate and trilingual" (that is, Chinese, English and Cantonese, Putonghua and English) and would strive to improve the level of Cantonese, Putonghua and English of Hong Kong people. Previously, the SAR Government had taken various measures to improve the learning environment of Putonghua for students in Hong Kong, such as incorporating Putonghua teaching into the curriculum of primary and secondary schools and increasing the number of Putonghua teachers in schools several times.

The passage of this bill has intensified the promotion of Putonghua in Hong Kong and further improved the learning environment of Putonghua for students in Hong Kong.

Putonghua Day and Putonghua Month

In 2111, Radio Television Hong Kong Putonghua Channel proposed that Putonghua-promoting organizations, non-governmental organizations and schools in Hong Kong form a "Grand Alliance for Promoting Putonghua in Hong Kong", and held the first Putonghua Day in Hong Kong on September 3, 2111, which was responded and participated by ***135 organizations including the Official Language Office and the Civil Service Training and Development Institute.

In 2112, the Putonghua Channel of Radio Television Hong Kong made persistent efforts and proposed to hold "Putonghua Month 2112", which lasted from September 5 to October 3. The "Putonghua Month 2112" campaign, with the slogan "Speak Putonghua well and create a new world", encourages Hong Kong people to learn more, use more and speak more Putonghua. The activity lasts until October 3, 11. It includes many activities, such as "Putonghua Shopping Concession Scheme", "Student Putonghua Leap Award", "Teacher Award for Promoting Putonghua Most Actively", "DJ Training Course for Middle School Students" and "Hong Kong Putonghua Singing Competition".

It is reported that with the coupons of "Putonghua Shopping Preferential Scheme", citizens can patronize nearly 1,111 shops with the stickers of "Putonghua Shopping Preferential Scheme" during the promotion period, including services, shoes, jewellery, beauty salons, cosmetics, restaurants, entertainment, department stores, books, stationery and other shops, and they can get discounts and various concessions when they shop in Putonghua.

Tung Chee-hwa calls on Hong Kong people to speak more Putonghua

In p>2111, Tung Chee-hwa, then Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, attended the first Putonghua Day. He said that learning Putonghua is the duty of being a citizen of China. He called on Hong Kong people to listen and speak more Putonghua.

Tung Chee-hwa said that since the return of Hong Kong, cooperation and contacts with the mainland in commerce, trade, tourism, education and culture have become increasingly frequent. Learning Putonghua can help Hong Kong further understand the culture of the motherland and strengthen its identity. Learning Putonghua is also very important to the economic development of Hong Kong. The imminent accession of the Mainland to the WTO will bring unlimited business opportunities to Hong Kong. Everyone in Hong Kong must learn Putonghua well and equip himself, so that he can seize these opportunities and play the role of a bridge connecting Hong Kong with the mainland and the world.

Tung Chee-hwa believes that besides efforts in school education, we should also create a Putonghua-speaking environment in our daily life. He hopes that all sectors of society can actively support the campaign to promote Putonghua.

SCOLAR and Putonghua Learning Society actively promote

The Standing Committee on Language Education and Research (SCOLAR for short), which was established in 1996, is responsible for making suggestions to the government on general language education matters and the use of language funds. In recent years, SCOLAR has spared no effort to cultivate people's "biliterate and trilingual" ability, help improve people's language level, create a good language learning environment for society, and make great efforts to promote Putonghua in Hong Kong.

Since 2112, SCOLAR has organized a series of activities of "Putonghua Festival" in conjunction with various social organizations in Hong Kong every year. By organizing dramas, debates, award schemes and TV programs related to Putonghua, it has opened up a platform for the public to learn Putonghua, expanded and strengthened the contact and penetration of Putonghua Festival, and spread the message of "Speak Putonghua well and create a new world" to every corner of society. Moreover, every year, a well-known Hong Kong artist will be hired as an ambassador to promote Putonghua in the Putonghua Festival, and all of them have a clear theme. For example, the theme of 2112 is "Speak Putonghua well and create a new world" and the theme of 2119 is "Learn and use it flexibly".

The Hong Kong Putonghua Study Society, founded in 1976, is a tax-free non-profit non-governmental charity officially approved by the Hong Kong government. Its purpose is to promote Putonghua in Hong Kong through teaching, publishing, research and communication. Over the past 31 years, the Putonghua Learning Society has trained hundreds of thousands of people in Putonghua.

In addition to teaching, the study club has set up many interest groups, such as speech group, talk group, young crop group, chorus group, music group, reading group, etc., which not only provides a permanent Mandarin language environment for learners, but also increases the interest in learning Mandarin, thus attracting more friends to master Mandarin.

As a charity, all the proceeds of the Hong Kong Putonghua Study Society are used for various activities to promote Putonghua. In addition to organizing various competitions, public welfare activities and publishing Putonghua Newspaper, the Institute also opened the "Hong Kong Putonghua Institute's Science and Technology Creative Primary School" in September 2111, which uses Putonghua as the campus language. The Institute has also set up an introductory class for foreigners to learn Mandarin.

Putonghua broadcasting is added to the subway

Since the end of September 2113, Putonghua broadcasting has been added to subway stations and carriages in Hong Kong, and Putonghua training for front-line employees has been strengthened. At the same time, there are also "passenger consultation service counters" in the subway station, and one or two "tourist ambassadors" are arranged at each place to provide information to passengers. Yang Meizhen, the marketing and development manager of the Hong Kong Metro, said that the Hong Kong Metro Company has hired 21 "tourism ambassadors" who have been trained in Putonghua. From September 27th to October 6th, in 8 subway stations including Central, Admiralty, Wan Chai, Causeway Bay, Tsim Sha Tsui, Jordan, Mong Kok and Kowloon Tong Station.