Originally Posted by
Ancient Observer
Many, many "local" Chinese restaurants in HKG have zero English speakers. Travel outside the Tourism and Banking areas nowadays, and English is quite rare. And we are not going to send out the gunboats to change it.
And BA closing its local presence is completely daft.
IF you mean Hong Kong, I don't know where/how/why you have this impression, and I respectfully disagree. I visited HK at least once up to 4 times a year, I can
HARDLY, but not impossible, find a local Chinese restaurant (ie Tea Restaurant) servers are not able to communicate in English, they have English menu nonetheless. While I understand NOT all server can speak English, they certainly have someone who is able to communicate in English. Even "Hawkers" in Shenzhen/HK boarder would able to communicate in English, not fluent, but one certainly can understand what they are selling.
English is VERY common and basic in HK, just like Singapore. They teach English in their school system, so basically anyone finish/attend their high school (Form 1-5) in HK, should able to communicate basic English (I am definitely not saying all can speak well). I am probably exaggerating, but I felt, more ppl speak English than Mandarin (different language to Cantonese). They don't even have Mandarin class until maybe 20 years ago (around 1997), but English as a study subject forever. Therefore, your statement probably true if this is 20-30 years ago, but not anymore.