Which language do Hong Kong people speak better? English or Mandarin??

Question

I know Cantonese(粵語) is the most widely spoken language in Hong Kong.
Many Hong Kong people speak Cantonese as their first language.

Then what is Hong Kong people's second language?
Is it English or Mandarin(Putonghua普通話)?
Which language do Hong Kong people generally speak better?

Answer 1

The older generation there will only speak cantonese.
The younger generation will speak english, cantonese and mandarin. I tihnk they speak english better than mandrin.
There are still a lot of people in hong kong who don't know how to speak mandarin.

Answer 2

Cantonese definitely.
This is the mother tongue of Hong Kong pepole. However, as the general dailylife, people use Cantonese on conversation.

But in education, and working, the documentation are mostly in English, so the skill of understanding and listening of Hong Kong people is better then conversation. Of course, this is the general case for the young generation.

For the older people, they are living as traditional Chiense way, they may only know cantonese, and some madarian if they are originally came from mainland China.

I may say, if a tourist want to ask form something in Hong Kong, find those younger people, the experience may be better. :D

For madarian, ask some people may say, due to the political environemnt, more and more people learn madarin here, and the school children have to learn in general school, so the young young generation can speak even better then those are about 30 year old ppl.

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Answer 3

They speak both Mandarin and English, with a butchered Cantonese accent. I would say their English is probably much better than their Mandarin since they've only started to speak Mandarin 10 years ago. The young uns could speak Mandarin well but not the older ones in their 30s.

Answer 4

I worked 7 years in Hong Kong. Many people can write pretty decent English, but verbal English is not that popular among average people.

Nowadays most people understand Mandarin, many can speak with Cantonese accent.

Answer 5

English is a major language in Hong Kong, and it is also an official one. Knowing that, I would guess that it is very widely spoken so it would probably be possible to live there without knowing Cantonese or Mandorin. Also, there is a slight variant of the English language known as "Hong Kong English" which might play a role. Although learning Cantonese would be highly recommended if you were going to live there.

Answer 6

From the Hong Kong people I have heard singing Mandarin karaoke, their pronunciation is horrible, and I have only studied Mandarin for a year.
Some people can have a long conversation in English like Opticians, H.K. tourism board workers, airport employees, maybe some students that studied in an English-speaking country, but generally, keep your English conversations basic and textbook style. and then there are those who did not do well in school, did not study overseas, or could never grasp a decent command of English.
My friends from H.K. who are in their early 20s said that they only took three years of Mandarin, so they don't speak it with very much confidence. They are definitely more confident in English.

Answer 7

Many of the posters above probably have never actually been to HK. I wonder what pipes they are smoking when they wrote their responses.

When I was actually in HK, right after the handover, VERY FEW people on the streets could even understand the most basic English phrases. They are even less able to say anything beyond the most basic greeting in English. Before going to HK, I have also heard the above rumors that "everyone speaks English" over there. But that was total BALONEY in reality. If you have actually been there and tried to ask for the simplest directions, you would know what I'm talking about.

Almost EVERYONE there could only understand and speak Cantonese. Some can speak mandarin, and a very small percentage could actually converse in English.

Since that was the case even shortly after the 1997 handover, what do you logically think is the case now?

Answer 8

HK people speak English with an cantonese accent. A lot of those people can speak mandarin now.

Answer 9

The Hongkongnese people speak Cantonese as their first language, and english as their second, because it used to be a colony of england, until 1997.

Answer 10

The young people speak English, Cantonese, and Mandarin, the older ones may speak English and mostly speak Cantonese.

It depends on their age and education.
It seems to me most speak Cantonese, and understand English.