HONG KONG — At a recent college fair, a gaggle of boys in crisp British blazers and ties bypassed a booth emblazoned with a Union Jack with just a quick glance backward. They headed toward the stall of a Chinese university--and toward Hong Kong's future.
"I like learning in Cantonese better because my English is very cheap," said one student from Po Leung Kuk school. "Hey," said a classmate, elbowing him in the ribs. "You mean poor."
Just as stamps and coins bearing Queen Elizabeth II's visage have melted out of circulation, and British subjects have trickled home since China took over Hong Kong on July 1, the use of English in this former British colony is slowly slipping.
In schools, courtrooms and government offices, the rounded tones of the queen's English are giving way to the distinctive diphthongs of Cantonese. In downtown shops, hotels and restaurants that have long catered to an international clientele, tourists are finding less fluent English and more blank looks and flustered giggles.
"English," noted Gladys Tang, an English professor at Chinese University here, "has changed from being a second language to being a foreign language."
Barely eight months since returning to Chinese sovereignty, Hong Kong has wedded itself to a future of Chinese. English, despite its importance in making the territory an international entrepot, seems destined to become the language of the past.
Half a century ago, on Ken Lee's first day of school here, the 13-year-old refugee from China couldn't understand a single word his British schoolmaster said. "But I knew that English was the key to success," said Lee, now the principal of a junior high school, "so I thought I had better learn."
Under the stern eye of his teacher, a Roman Catholic priest, Lee started by memorizing the dictionary "from 'Z' upwards," then spent the summer reading the Charles Dickens novel "Nicholas Nickleby" over and over until he could nearly recite it. By the time he graduated from high school five years later, he said, "My English was better than my Chinese."
Lee still believes that English is the key to success, and 80% of Hong Kong's secondary schools chose to teach in English under British rule. But as colonial influence fades here, that zeal to learn English is becoming as old-fashioned as memorizing a dictionary--and test scores show that many Chinese students learning in English are not doing well in either language.
