Language Attitudes

Randy, Rose and Nicole are in their thirties while Garry and Louie their twenties. All of them were raised in the Philippines and now they are residents in Hong Kong. They all know each other since they work for the same bar in Central.

For most of them, Cantonese is valued for its function serving in Hong Kong, a Cantonese-dominated community. According to them, it seems it is useful for getting a job in Hong Kong since everyone speaks Cantonese and the English ability of Hong Kong people are not that good in general. Sometimes, they find that knowing Cantonese offers them a better job with a higher salary. Though using English help communication in most of the situations, they still think that Cantonese is essential when working and talking to locals of Hong Kong and it betters the communication.

Cantonese seems quite important for residential Filipinos, yet they want to maintain and pass on their languages to their next generations. Informants who have kids and families here in Hong Kong would like their kids to learn their regional dialects as well as the national language. Their children are expected to know six varieties, namely the mother’s dialect, the father’s dialect, Tagalog, Cantonese, Mandarin and English. They want their kids to know Cantonese, Mandarin and English for its functions while the rest for their identities. Even though their kids may not settle down in the Philippines, they still want them to know the languages used back home only for the sake of their nationality.

Therefore, for the residential Filipinos, Cantonese serves as a functional language, helping find jobs and the communication with the locals while their own variety represents their identity and maintains the bonding with their country and its people.

Layla, Lanny and Lisa are domestic helpers, sharing the same dialect, Ilonggo.
Layla and Lisa consider learning Cantonese as a way to know about the culture of Hong Kong while Lanny consider that as a tool to communicate only. Unlike the residential Filipinos, there is not an urgent need for them to learn Cantonese. They want to learn it in order to communicate but not to find a job. According to Layla, it is common not to learn Cantonese as it is not considered useful as domestic helpers will go home eventually and their kids are mostly in the Philippines. Therefore, most of them do not think it is necessary to learn it.

Regarding to their own language, they still use it in Hong Kong with friends. It is what they use to communicate with their compatriots, showing their bond.

In comparison to the language attitudes of the residential Filipinos, they do not think Cantonese as useful as what the residential Filipinos feel since they do not need to look for another job, competing with others. Furthermore, their children are less likely to learn Cantonese as they are in the Philippines.