South China Morning Post, Hong Kong's leading English-language daily
newspaper, warned Hong Kong people against falling behind "in quest for
putonghua" in a recent editorial. That's easy to understand. Our political
leaders have repeatedly reminded us that the future of Hong Kong is inextricably
linked to that of the mainland.
Even if our livelihood were not dependent on it, we would still need to
improve our putonghua. Falling behind the Americans and Britons in our national
language is embarrassing, to say the least.
In fact, our livelihood does depend on our knowledge of not only the
language, but also the Chinese culture and philosophy that apparently affect the
way people on the mainland think and do business.
To be sure, after 25 years of economic integration with the mainland in
general, and Guangdong in particular, Hong Kong business people have fully
accepted and skilfully adapted to the way business is done there. But still,
they are frequently baffled by the logic behind the thinking of their mainland
business associates.
At the factory level where cost, as expressed in dollars and cents, is king,
the lack of insight into each other's culture matters little in the fostering of
a close and profitable business partnership. But as this relationship evolves in
complexity that requires a higher level of value-added input, a greater
understanding of each other's frame of mind is essential to smoothing out the
inevitable differences in business strategy and philosophy. Hong Kong business
people have been saying that cultural clashes occurred most frequently in
discussions involving relatively more abstract ideas such as design, branding
and marketing.
Learning to speak the language helps. But that's the easy part. For a
Cantonese speaker, picking up Mandarin is less daunting than learning to drive.
It should come naturally after spending a few months in a Mandarin-speaking
environment. Watching a lot of Mandarin television programmes can be a big help.
To be sure, you are never going to speak perfect Mandarin without formal
training. But that should not be a problem as long as people can understand most
of what you say. Some friends complimented me on my heavily accented Mandarin.
They thought it was quite charming, although they could catch, at most, about 70
per cent of what I said.
The hard part is to learn the culture so that you can understand and
appreciate the way your mainland business partners behave although you may not
necessarily agree with them. What Hong Kong people should worry about is not so
much falling behind in language skill but rather in cultural understanding.
Like most Hong Kong people, I was educated in a school where the medium of
instruction was all English. I learned more about the history and customs of
England than those of China. At junior high school, I was thrilled by the daring
adventure of Captain James Cook, while knowing hardly anything about Admiral
Zheng He, who, I later learned, sailed the great oceans in much grander style
almost three centuries before the English explorer.
In many of the most prestigious schools in Hong Kong, then and now, Chinese
is taught as a foreign language. Quite a few of my schoolmates elected to study
French instead.
The Hong Kong government has been pushing hard for schools to use Cantonese
as the medium of instruction. The aim is to make it easier for students to
understand their teachers and to encourage greater interaction between students
and teachers in the classroom.
But the curriculum has remained largely unchanged. Only token emphasis has
been put on teaching Chinese history, literature and philosophy in high schools.
Singapore made the switch to teaching in Chinese (Mandarin) from English
years ago when its leaders realized that the island state's future lies in its
ability in servicing the rapidly expanding economy of China. I don't know enough
about the Singapore education policy to comment. But its government has a track
record of going all the way in everything it does. You can bet that they are not
going to be happy just sharpening the language skills of their future business
leaders.
At this point in time, Hong Kong still enjoys a distinct advantage over its
many competitors, owed largely to the experience built up over many years of
investing on the mainland. But that gap is fast closing, especially when the
mainland has shifted its emphasis on attracting foreign direct investments to
the higher value-added services sector from the manufacturing sector.
It's time for Hong Kong to seriously look beyond mere language skills to
compete for a piece of the action.
Email: jamesleung@chinadaily.com.cn
(China Daily 01/24/2006 page4)
