"Twenty years ago, if you were Chinese and were looking for a job in one of Hong Kong’s large business companies, you would have needed to brush up your English for the interview, because in those days you could be very sure the interview would be in English." The panel might consist of two "Expatriates" and two Chinese, but they would all use English in the interview. Things have changed considerably these days in Hong Kong. As 1997 approaches, the day to day spoken language of business in many of the large companies is Chinese (i.e. Cantonese, the language of Hong Kong). English is used only when necessary, for instance when dealing with "foreigners" by which is meant not simply native speakers of English, American, British Canadians, Australians and others, but also businessmen and women from other Asian countries like Japan, India, Korea, Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, and from European countries like Germany, France and Holland. In addition, a new important factor in the business language equation of Hong Kong is the increasing importance of Mandarin, the link language of Mainland China. Hong Kong’s business life increasingly depends on its being a through-port between China and the world and as the date of China’s takeover of Hong Kong approaches, more Mandarin speaking Chinese are coming to Hong Kong to do business. This puts new pressure on the local Cantonese to learn Mandarin. With localization of top management in Hong Kong companies going ahead very fast, the days are gone when a bright young manager, with his London MBA and maybe good Scottish family connections, could come to Hong Kong and sail into a job, after a cursory interview conducted in English by a wholly expatriate interview panel. Nowadays the panel is likely to consist of sophisticated Chinese, with their Harvard MBA and good Hong Kong family connections, and this panel will be looking for good Mandarin as much as good manners.
"Twenty years ago, if you were Chinese and were looking for a job in one of Hong Kong’s large business companies, you would have needed to brush up your English for the interview, because in those days you could be very sure the interview would be in English." The panel might consist of two "Expatriates" and two Chinese, but they would all use English in the interview.
Things have changed considerably these days in Hong Kong. As 1997 approaches, the day to day spoken language of business in many of the large companies is Chinese (i.e. Cantonese, the language of Hong Kong). English is used only when necessary, for instance when dealing with "foreigners" by which is meant not simply native speakers of English, American, British Canadians, Australians and others, but also businessmen and women from other Asian countries like Japan, India, Korea, Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, and from European countries like Germany, France and Holland.
In addition, a new important factor in the business language equation of Hong Kong is the increasing importance of Mandarin, the link language of Mainland China. Hong Kong’s business life increasingly depends on its being a through-port between China and the world and as the date of China’s takeover of Hong Kong approaches, more Mandarin speaking Chinese are coming to Hong Kong to do business. This puts new pressure on the local Cantonese to learn Mandarin.
With localization of top management in Hong Kong companies going ahead very fast, the days are gone when a bright young manager, with his London MBA and maybe good Scottish family connections, could come to Hong Kong and sail into a job, after a cursory interview conducted in English by a wholly expatriate interview panel. Nowadays the panel is likely to consist of sophisticated Chinese, with their Harvard MBA and good Hong Kong family connections, and this panel will be looking for good Mandarin as much as good manners.
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