Tri-lingual (sort of)
On Friday, I experienced my first Hong Kong press conference that didn't have anything do with the entertainment industry. Because Gino's been in the US for the past month, I sat in for him as a judge for a Hong Kong Observatory weather icon contest. Friday was the official unveiling of the winners in front of the press.
This was the first press con in which I actually had a moment in the spotlight with TV and newspaper cameraman snapping pictures of me. I couldn't help but think to myself, 'self, you'll have to ask one of your model, actor, or director friends how they handle so many camera flashes going off in their faces.' It is so blinding and distracting!
While most of the conference was in Cantonese, a Chinese reporter from the South China Morning Post interviewed me and several other people in English. As the Cantonese dialect is not spoken by a majority of mainlanders, it's not uncommon for Chinese from the mainland to communicate with the Chinese here in English. That event and two others that day made me think about how people in Hong Kong have increasing pressure to be trilingual. At least sort of. Mainland Chinese is written and spoken very differently from Hong Kong Chinese. It's almost an entirely different language!
So what were the other two 'trilingual-themed' events that day?
1) Two interviews: I participated in interviewing two candidates for a position with MERECL. They spoke Cantonese, but then were obligated to also answer questions in Mandarin and English. Sheesh! I certainly would have failed that interview!
2) "Heavenly Kings" movie: This an interesting new HK movie which lampooned the HK entertainment industry while making some good observations about the current sad state of the industry. There were many things about the film that made me sit up and take notice. But among the most intriging is how each of the 4 lead male actors are overseas Chinese who were either born and raised elsewhere or were educated overseas. They all spoke perfect unbroken English and most of them had accented Mandarin and Cantonese. For all these reasons, I found the movie to be as enlightening as it was entertaining.
So there you have it: We poor Hongkies have to be trilingual to survive and thrive! I'm so screwed!! ;P
This was the first press con in which I actually had a moment in the spotlight with TV and newspaper cameraman snapping pictures of me. I couldn't help but think to myself, 'self, you'll have to ask one of your model, actor, or director friends how they handle so many camera flashes going off in their faces.' It is so blinding and distracting!
While most of the conference was in Cantonese, a Chinese reporter from the South China Morning Post interviewed me and several other people in English. As the Cantonese dialect is not spoken by a majority of mainlanders, it's not uncommon for Chinese from the mainland to communicate with the Chinese here in English. That event and two others that day made me think about how people in Hong Kong have increasing pressure to be trilingual. At least sort of. Mainland Chinese is written and spoken very differently from Hong Kong Chinese. It's almost an entirely different language!
So what were the other two 'trilingual-themed' events that day?
1) Two interviews: I participated in interviewing two candidates for a position with MERECL. They spoke Cantonese, but then were obligated to also answer questions in Mandarin and English. Sheesh! I certainly would have failed that interview!
2) "Heavenly Kings" movie: This an interesting new HK movie which lampooned the HK entertainment industry while making some good observations about the current sad state of the industry. There were many things about the film that made me sit up and take notice. But among the most intriging is how each of the 4 lead male actors are overseas Chinese who were either born and raised elsewhere or were educated overseas. They all spoke perfect unbroken English and most of them had accented Mandarin and Cantonese. For all these reasons, I found the movie to be as enlightening as it was entertaining.
So there you have it: We poor Hongkies have to be trilingual to survive and thrive! I'm so screwed!! ;P
posted by Unknown | 8:55 PM
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