One of the most surprising things about Hong Kong is the difficulty with language. The main language is Cantonese which is a separate language to Mandarin and is only spoken in the southern provinces. However since Hong Kong is a former British colony I went with expectations that almost every person would speak English, however this is most definitely not the case. While a lot of people do speak English it is very basic and very hard to understand because of pronunciations. I have found myself talking to Taxi drivers in a form of basic English with a Chinese accent because its the only way they understand you. I think one of the main reasons so many people don't speak English isn't necessarily because they don't want to but because they find it too difficult to pronounce.
I think quite often when asking for directions, some people can easily speak English but they choose not to out of pure stubbornness and I guess it's somewhat understandable because everyone is in a rush in Hong Kong all the time and they don't have time to help westerners.
However English is very popular with young people in Hong Kong with the influence of western music and celebrities. As Hong Kong tries to distance itself from China and become more like the west I can see English becoming much more widely used.
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