Interview with Hanna

Who is Hanna?

Hey, my name is Hannah. I was born in Hong Kong to Filipino parents and have a younger sister. After finishing my Degree in Architecture in Cebu, I returned to Hong Kong to work as an Architectural Assistant.

Family Background

	Mother	Father
Age	51-60	51-60
Profession	Housewife	Architect/Interior Designer
Nationality	Filipino	Filipino
No. of years in HK	15	15
Highest education level	University	University
Language Proficiency	Tagalog: Intermediate English: Intermediate Cantonese: Intermediate	Tagalog: Intermediate English: Intermediate
Language Use	Home: Tagalog + English codemixing Work: N/A Social gatherings: Tagalog + English + Cantonese	Home: Tagalog + English codemixing Work: Tagalog + English codemixing Social gatherings: Tagalog + English codemixing

What languages do you use in everyday life?

I mainly speak Tagalog or English with family, but I speak Bisaya with my sister and friends from Cebu because we both studied there and some Cebuanos might regard Tagalog as a “higher” language – Bisaya is what we speak among us. So because Tagalog is the official language taught in school, people normally learn Bisaya from friends.

Of course, I also use English at work and other different occasions and because I have 2 other Cebuanos colleagues I also speak to them in Bisaya. I only know a little Cantonese, like 1%.

What do you identify yourself as?

Even though I was born in Hong Kong, I would say Filipino.

How could schools improve the teaching of Cantonese to children from local minority communities?

I think the government is doing a good job, because I know a lot of other Filipinos who speak Cantonese, but I just wasn’t interested to learn it when I was in school. For example, my mom, she can speak Cantonese pretty fluently after living 15 years here and I really admire her for that. She hasn’t learned how to write though. I would say that it would help a lot to show young Filipinos or other minorities the importance of Cantonese and reinforce that it will be vital to their futures, even though it will be hard, because at that age, they are unlikely to understand. I think it would also be a good idea to give out more exercises and to teach as a slower pace because Chinese characters are so hard to learn for us, who are used to having an alphabet.

Would you want your children to learn Cantonese?

Of course I would like them to learn Cantonese! But I would really like for them to learn Mandarin, I think it will definitely be useful for their futures.