Today, Keileh, Adriana, and I traversed across the city to Yuen Long to do some good old fashioned coffee shop studying. We bought coffee then camped out upstairs for a few hours, all sucked into our own research. Occasionally someone would pop up to say, “Okay sorry but I just can’t believe……..” In this way we all embarked down different paths of enquiry, sharing bits of our learning along the way. I shared a short film with Adriana that fit her project. She told us about some of the more gritty details of life for foreign domestic workers. It was a quiet, peaceful, fascinating afternoon. I was reminded of the world of information online accessible to me both at Williams and across the globe.
As I sat down to write about my day, I realized that I had heard practically only English since waking up. Tongyu and I said good morning in English. I had breakfast with Yvonne in English. Class was in English. I had lunch with Ann and other Williams students in English. I spoke to Keileh and Adriana in English at the coffee shop where we ordered and were helped in English. The people at the Korean place we went to for dinner spoke to us in English.
I am surprised at just how much I can do in Hong Kong with only a few words of Cantonese. This realization makes our in class discussions about language feel a little more grounded. It also makes me slightly uncomfortable with my participation in a system which causes Hong Kong children to be taught non-native or second languages over their first/ native languages in school.