Originally Posted by
silverkris168
Hong Kong, being a former colony, grapples with the mix of language and class identities. When I lived there, and checked in for a C/J class flight at the airport, the counter staff would speak to me in English. When I flex economy class, the staff would see my face (I am a Chinese American) and more often than not, address me in Cantonese. Socio-economic class distinctions at work here.
Unfortunately, in HK, there is a perception that if you speak Cantonese (and/or Mandarin) in a service situation as the customer/client, sometimes you will not get as good service or be taken seriously if you speak English. My wife (a native Cantonese speaker) will use English if she feels it will get her better service when dealing with the airlines, and not just with CX.
My wife is native Hong Kong person and she agrees with your assessment. But being a rebel she will still only use Cantonese because she can't stand with the bad English being replied back to her...
I'm an ABC that self-taught Mandarin and Cantonese (but my wife claims my Cantonese sucks, although people understood me just fine when I used it), but I have learned a long time ago that if you want good service you need to stick with English, I really hope someday that changes.