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Speaking
Speaking
“Hello! What’s up” “Ni hao, zhe li…” “Konbawa, koko wa…”
Yo! Speak up in LKF!!!
When it comes to spoken languages, Lan Kwai Fong can be very international too.
It was not difficult for me to find that several languages were spoken at the same time and I hardly distinguished one of them. Although many people came from different countries and different backgrounds, the most common spoken language was definitely English. When I walked into Lan Kwai Fong, I thought that I was out of Hong Kong because I was surrounded by many foreigners. In addition to listening and reading in LKF, almost everyone in LKF could talk to each other in fluent English. It seemed that like I was in an English-speaking country. That was crazy.
To find out if English was their mother language, I did some interviews. Frankly speaking, conducting interviews was very challenging for me because people usually wanted to relax and have fun in Lan Kwai Fong. I thought I would bother them even if I asked for a short interview. Besides, I heard that people usually were drunk in LKF.I asked all of the interviewee’s questions in English. Some people were Italian and others Australian, but they all spoke English very well. Although I wasn’t able to distinguish their accent, I could still figure out some words they pronounced differently.
Moreover, when I asked which languages interviewees usually heard in Lan Kwai Fong, they could count five different languages. Except English; French and German were also popular. The Languages used in Lan Kwai Fong varied a lot. There was no wonder that Lan Kwai Fong appeals to many foreigners. In fact, the increasing power of Mandarin should not be ignored. As Lan Kwai
Fong was famous for an amazing night life, many tourists were eager to experience it. People from Mainland were one of the examples.
When I left Lan Kwai Fong at the end of our journey, I could see a guide holding a flag explaining to people who spoke Mandarin what Lan Kwai Fong was like. They looked around in order to see as much as possible. It seemed that they felt very different from what they had seen and what they usually thought of Hong Kong. The guide spoke Mandarin and the tourists talked in Mandarin too. Mandarin became one of the languages to be heard in LKF.
How about Cantonese? The situation mentioned above, it would be natural for us to guess Cantonese had totally faded away.
However, according to Sea-ling Cheng(2001), she thinks that different people will group and separate themselves eventually. Lan Kwai Fong had many bars for foreigners but there were some bars for people who spoke Cantonese as well. These knids of bars and restaurants were not hiding from everyone else. It was all about location. I could hear people speak Cantonese in LKF. They usually gathered in some particular bars .
In fact, some waiters standing in front of the restaurants spoke fluent Cantonese in order to attract people’s attention. They spoke interesting Cantonese and tried to pretend Cantonese accent. It was quite funny to hear they speak like this. In this case, I could see that Cantonese were still targeted customers and they were not the minority. That is why Cantonese is also one of the languages used in Lan Kwai Fong. Maybe Cantonese has to wait for a while to conquer Lan Kwai Fong, being the most popular language in Lan Kwai Fong.
The Languages spoken in Lan Kwai Fong were very interesting. When three or more languages combine together, this formed a unique culture of different language.
“Hello! What’s up” “Ni hao, zhe li…” “Konbawa, koko wa…” Yo! Speak up in LKF!!!
When it comes to spoken languages, Lan Kwai Fong can be very international too.
It was not difficult for me to find that several languages were spoken at the same time and I hardly distinguished one of them. Although many people came from different countries and different backgrounds, the most common spoken language was definitely English. When I walked into Lan Kwai Fong, I thought that I was out of Hong Kong because I was surrounded by many foreigners. In addition to listening and reading in LKF, almost everyone in LKF could talk to each other in fluent English. It seemed that like I was in an English-speaking country. That was crazy.To find out if English was their mother language, I did some interviews. Frankly speaking, conducting interviews was very challenging for me because people usually wanted to relax and have fun in Lan Kwai Fong. I thought I would bother them even if I asked for a short interview. Besides, I heard that people usually were drunk in LKF.I asked all of the interviewee’s questions in English. Some people were Italian and others Australian, but they all spoke English very well. Although I wasn’t able to distinguish their accent, I could still figure out some words they pronounced differently. Moreover, when I asked which languages interviewees usually heard in Lan Kwai Fong, they could count five different languages. Except English; French and German were also popular. The Languages used in Lan Kwai Fong varied a lot. There was no wonder that Lan Kwai Fong appeals to many foreigners. In fact, the increasing power of Mandarin should not be ignored. As Lan Kwai
Fong was famous for an amazing night life, many tourists were eager to experience it. People from Mainland were one of the examples. When I left Lan Kwai Fong at the end of our journey, I could see a guide holding a flag explaining to people who spoke Mandarin what Lan Kwai Fong was like. They looked around in order to see as much as possible. It seemed that they felt very different from what they had seen and what they usually thought of Hong Kong. The guide spoke Mandarin and the tourists talked in Mandarin too. Mandarin became one of the languages to be heard in LKF.
How about Cantonese? The situation mentioned above, it would be natural for us to guess Cantonese had totally faded away.
However, according to Sea-ling Cheng(2001), she thinks that different people will group and separate themselves eventually. Lan Kwai Fong had many bars for foreigners but there were some bars for people who spoke Cantonese as well. These knids of bars and restaurants were not hiding from everyone else. It was all about location. I could hear people speak Cantonese in LKF. They usually gathered in some particular bars .
In fact, some waiters standing in front of the restaurants spoke fluent Cantonese in order to attract people’s attention. They spoke interesting Cantonese and tried to pretend Cantonese accent. It was quite funny to hear they speak like this. In this case, I could see that Cantonese were still targeted customers and they were not the minority. That is why Cantonese is also one of the languages used in Lan Kwai Fong. Maybe Cantonese has to wait for a while to conquer Lan Kwai Fong, being the most popular language in Lan Kwai Fong. The Languages spoken in Lan Kwai Fong were very interesting. When three or more languages combine together, this formed a unique culture of different language.
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Latest page update: made by EN2707
, Nov 6 2009, 8:12 PM EST
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