Bonjour to a Minority Language in Hong Kong: French

It is believed that most Hong Kong people have a positive attitude towards the French language and community by Hong Kong people from the last section. The above quotes have also reinforced that our interviewees also recognized the positive attitude of their language in Hong Kong. However, it seems that the positive attitude not only motivates local people to learn French spontaneously, but also brings many positive experiences to French people in Hong Kong.

Based on the positive attitude towards French, most of our interviewees have revealed that they are being welcomed by Hong Kong. This is important for them, as expats, to have a smooth transition from a European country to an Asian country. For the positive perception have brought them a smoother transition and positive personal experiences in daily life, their lives become easier when fitting into a different cultural and language environment. Also, their experiences are essential in creating the image of Hong Kong in their mind, as a multicultural city that filled with acceptance and diversity.

In addition, the positive attitude has facilitated their work in Hong Kong to some extent. One of our interviewees, Aimee, has mentioned that the positive attitude towards French has made her work easier since Hong Kongers have the initiative to learn French language and culture. It lessens their effort in promoting the French language and culture to the HK community. In the meantime, many of our interviewees are having companies and businesses about French cuisine, French journal and French business company in Hong Kong. Their occupations have also indicated that Hong Kongers welcome their participation in our diverse community and are willing to share the good of HK with them.

However, the positive attitude does not only bring them benefits, but also challenges. Since the positive attitude has already deeply rooted in most Hong Kongers' eyes, HK people are less open-minded in accepting the other sides of French language and community. For example, HK people always focuses on French as a beautiful language, delicate cuisine and so on, but we pay less attention to their engineering development, as Aimee said. Although our attitude towards French are mostly positive, we have to be more open-minded in knowing French from a different perspective so that our stereotypes of French can be extended and we can ensure with actions that Hong Kong is a multilingual and multicultural melting pot.