Bonjour to a Minority Language in Hong Kong: French

French, with only 18,000 to 20,000 expats in Hong Kong, is undoubtedly a minority group in Hong Kong. They use their mother tongue only in specific domains, such as family and French friends, and English is becoming the language they often use. However, French language has its own attractiveness and uniqueness that worth preserving and paying attention to. We sincerely hope that our research project has explored another perspective of approaching linguistic minority although most people correlate it with low socio-economic groups.

Our project has demonstrated that Hong Kongers have a great motivation for learning French as a foreign language because of their general positive attitude towards France and French. The positive attitude has brought some interesting experiences to French people in Hong Kong. In spite of the institutional support and positive attitude towards French, they do not only enjoy benefits, but also encounter challenges which are of a different kind as other minority languages. For example, when they try to integrate into the local community by attempting to learn Cantonese, people laugh at them and has made them step back in learning Cantonese. Additionally, the discrepancy on cultural identity of French in Hong Kong has shown us that French people have a diverse way of thinking and there is a segregation between French and the local community. The two groups seldom interact with each other and the mutual benefits are not explicit. However, this is crucial in helping us to construct a global citizen identity and higher engagement with the outer world.

Therefore, the stereotypes on French should be extended and modified so that French expats in HK can also feel that they are a part of our community. Hong Kongers should try to understand them from different perspectives, instead of knowing them in a uni-direction through mass media and conventional perception. Only through exploring each other deeply and thoroughly, we could build Hong Kong as a diverse city and linguistic and cultural melting pot.