Language Shift/Death | Ccgl9024 Gp

Based on our interview results, different language minorities in Hong Kong do have different perspectives towards the concerns of language shift/ death of their mother tongue. We are going to investigate their view in two aspects, 1their attitudes on preserving mother tongue in future generations, 2.their attitudes on promoting their native language in Hong Kong.

Ms. Y :

1. Ms. Y would teach her future generations Japanese as it is more Convenient and comfortable for her to express herself through Japanese. She will be upset if her children no longer know Japanese since she cannot communicate with them effectively.

2. Given enough resources and expertise, she would like to teach Japanese in Hong Kong.

Mr. A:

1. Mr. A would not intentionally teach his children Italian and he has an indifferent attitude towards what language his future generations learn.

2. Given expertise and resources, Mr. A would not teach his mother tongue to the general public.

Seedera:

1. Seedera would let her children learn her mother tongue so that they can talk to her parents and remember their place of origin. She would feel sad if her future generations no longer speak Urdu as it does not match their Pakistani identities.

2. Given expertise and resources, Seedera would not teach the general public Urdu as it is very difficult.

Summary:

We can rate their degree of concerns towards Language shift/death of their mother tongues in Hong Kong in ascending order, Mr. A, Seedera, Ms. Y. For Mr. A, the interview result shows that he does not mind the vanishing of Italian in his future generation and he would not promote Italian in Hong Kong. These show that he does not really worry about the language shift/death of Italian in Hong Kong. In contrast, Ms. A does have the highest degree of concern on preserving Japanese in Hong Kong. She requires her children to learn her native language, Japanese which may not be so useful in Hong Kong society. Meanwhile, that she would like to promote the learning of Japanese shows that she really wants more Hong Kong people to learn this language and eager to lift the status of Japanese up in Hong Kong. For Seedara, we can find that she is in a relatively middle position between Ms. Y and Mr. A. She does have the intention to preserve Urdu in Hong Kong as shown in the fact that she would teach her future generations Urdu but she would not teach this language in Hong Kong.

The above result may be attributed to the following factors:

1.Background

These there interviewees have different backgrounds in terms of ages, occupation and years of staying in Hong Kong. This may lead to different perspectives on language shift/death. For example, Mr. Y is proficient in many languages that he knows seven languages in total and he thinks that every language means something to him. This background probably allows him to have a relatively objective position on the view of preserving and promoting his mother tongue. For Ms. Y, that she has a strong sense of preserving and enhancing Japanese in Hong Kong may be due to that she has been teaching Japanese culture for many years and a strong appreciation to Japanese may be created. Seedara,as a student, may not have much chance to investigate different language and may have a relatively subjective view on her mother tongue.

2. Ability

Ability of interviewees is likely to influence their attitude towards the concerns of language shift/death in Hong Kong. Inoue Yumi is a teacher staff on Japanese culture, has a qualification and higher ability to teach Japanese in Hong Kong. However,not everyone has the methodology and ability to teach their mother tongue. For instance, the reason of Seedara not going to teach Urdu in Hong Kong is too difficult. This shows that she is not totally reluctant to teach her native language, but her ability hinders her choice and further her attitudes towards promoting Urdo in Hong Kong.

3. Popularity of that language in Hong Kong

Popularity of the minor language in Hong Kong is usually associated with how Hong Kong people perceive that language. It would probably affect the attitude of native speakers towards preserving or promoting their language in Hong Kong. For example, Italian and Japanese are relatively popular in Hong Kong. There is considerable number of people approaching and learning them. However, for Urdu, many Hong Kong people are not interested in it and even think that it is somehow inferior to the dominant languages in Hong Kong. Hence, Seedara may feel shame or unconfident to speak her mother tongue in Hong Kong , which may create a metal barrier for her to promote Urdu.