8 Common Problems that Hong Kong People Have with Spoken English

Hong Kong People Have

With Spoken English

8 Common Problems

Nice to

meet you.

But we’ve

met before?

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’.

Did you

have a nice

flight?

Of course.

Wow - this

guy is so

rude!!!

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?’

Let us give

you to see.

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.

It will be ready

next, next day.

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’.

I like Japan

food.I like Thailand

food.

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

I am boring!

I am boring!

I am boring!

‘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 the rollercoaster at Ocean Park

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 ...

We don’t play water skiing - we go water skiing

We don’t play the banana boat - we ride

on the banana boat

We don’t play hiking - we go hiking

We don’t play fireworks - we watch fireworks

But we do play

badminton

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

Facebook

Google+

Twitter

Sino Weibo

Photo Attributionshttp://www.retireinasia.com/people-and-culture-in-hong-kong/

www.internations.org

http://www.neonpunch.com/sonys-psp-go-hong-kong-sony-festiva/

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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)

http://www.sassyhongkong.com/guide-to-planning-a-boat-trip-hk/

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E_1.html

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http://english.sina.com/sports/2009/0511/240500.html

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