If one speaks only English could they live in Hong Kong without and language difficulties? What if they spoke Mandarin Chinese? Or does one have to speak Cantonese Chinese to live in Hong Kong?
2007-03-08 15:25:09 · 15 answers · asked by ihaveissues 1 in Travel ➔ Asia Pacific ➔ China
Cantonese is primarily spoken in Hong Kong. But there are lots of people in Hong Kong can speak English. So basicly you can use English in your daily life.
However if you want to live in Hong Kong, I think you still need to learn some Cantonese, that'll do a great help for your living in Hong Kong.
2007-03-08 18:17:44 · answer #1 · answered by nofj2 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Cantonese is primarily spoken, but many people in Hong Kong speak English as well. Um, Mandarin...not so much!
2007-03-08 15:28:42 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
The main spoken language is Cantonese. Mandarin is a remote substitution. You can do fine with just english amongst the younger generations ( under 50 ) but your options will be greatly reduced without cantonese.
2007-03-08 19:43:13 · answer #3 · answered by minijumbofly 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes, Hong Kong was an English holding until I think it was in the 1990's so lots of people there speak English.
2007-03-08 15:32:36 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
It depends on the area. The main languages are cantonese, mandarin chinese, and english.
2007-03-08 15:32:33 · answer #5 · answered by Kikyo 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Our primarily language is Cantonese and English. And mandarin also become more and more common. So as long as you can speak Cantonese/English/Mandarin should be no problem.
good luck;)
2007-03-11 05:35:15 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
They mainly speak cantonese (which is very COOL), english (with a big accent) and sometimes, they speak mandarin. Their are also indian people there...they speak indian...also have philippino people....i could go on with that, but the main language in HK is basically cantonese and english ☺
2007-03-08 17:56:41 · answer #7 · answered by saltboi88 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
They mainly speak Cantonese and English. I only know mandarin & english of course, but I got by just fine using english in HK.
2007-03-09 05:46:04 · answer #8 · answered by ME 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You can live and work very well in HongKong speaking only English. Cantonese is very widely spoken but Mandarin is understood by many people.
2007-03-08 15:36:30 · answer #9 · answered by DANIEL C 1 · 2⤊ 0⤋
officially english and traditional chinese are the only 2 legal languages in hong kong, but since 1997 the hk govt has put an emphasis on the importance of mandarin so there's no problem for an average hk citizen to speak average mandarin.
in colonial times english was the prime language (hardly any formal documents were written in chinese) hk ppl r very gd at written english and quite gd at spoken english, and it meant you had a pretty high social status if you spoke english. but after 1997 hk ppl's english ability worsened at great deal and english has become an even more 'prestigious' language (before 1997 nearly all 400 secondary schools used english as the medium of instruction; after 1997 300 of them switched to chinese schools and parents would rather send their kids to the remaining english ones because hk society thinks that sutdying in english schools means a brighter future).
it won't be a problem if you communicate w/ others in english in the more well-off districts of hk, esp districts w/ lots of expats (eg central, wan chai, mid-levels, stanley, happy valley, discovery bay, sai kung, tsim sha tsui, kowloon tong, sha tin, tai po), but in the outskirts of the city near shenzhen (eg tin shui wai, yuen long, sheung shui, fan ling, sha tau kok) ppl just won't understand you, most of them r new immigrants from the mainland.
for the places mentioned above, check this out: http://www.centamap.com/cent/index.htm
2007-03-08 19:59:17 · answer #10 · answered by charleyrickey 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋