Chinese Teachers Disappointed by Chinese Students Not Knowing Chinese

In Hong Kong, nearly 94% of the population are Han Chinese. What does that mean? That means that they are of Chinese descent. So how is it that in Renaissance College, a school in which at least 70% of the student populus is Chinese, students are unable to say what “disgrace” is in Chinese? Either in Cantonese or Putonghua. Even more disappointingly, whereas the local population speaks Cantonese, no one in our school can express themselves fluently. Colonization was looked down upon in our I&S classes, yet we pay exorbitant amounts to be the best examples of it.

It is ironic that Renaissance College is known within its ESF counterparts for having good Chinese. So you can imagine the state of the mental health of those Chinese teachers when our ones practically die inside each day. Yes, simplified Chinese might be easier to learn but… let’s not kid ourselves, it’s really ugly. Have you seen the word 叶? In traditional Chinese, it’s written as 葉— the universe「世」on top of wood「木」. Isn’t that far more elegant already? And since you live in Hong Kong, you wouldn’t be able to read menus, because everyone else uses traditional.

One student from the Chinese accelerated class was confident in his abilities when he spoke to us. He demonstrated his Chinese skills with the Cantonese phrase he said his mother used a lot: “生舊叉燒好過生你.” A brilliant use of Cantonese filled with a mother’s love.

Fellow student Felicia expressed in English: “I don’t really care. I’m going to study abroad and I’m going to live there afterwards. So Chinese doesn’t really matter to me. I just need Putonghua for career purposes.”

When asked to demonstrate her Chinese skills, she gave a look of reluctance and shyly said: “你好 diu lei lo mou”. The Chinese teacher next to her took her outside for a little talk.

In fact, 95% of students said their first words of Cantonese were learned in school, not from teachers, but from a friend. Out of this 95%, 93% said their first words were curse words. This common occurrence makes sense when you realize international schools don’t care about Hong Kong culture. Why care when you can just get by with English and Putonghua? Expats who have been here for 20 years can’t even hold a conversation in Cantonese. Why care about teaching local roots? But that’s beside the point.

Mr Li, a new Chinese teacher from Beijing, realized how unpatriotic his band of students were when he referenced the lyrics of the national anthem, only for them to not know the words to it: “這兒麼會發生呢？”. It was a first time experience for him, but not for the other teachers who have been here for much longer.

Mr Chan, another Chinese teacher, said he had given up on trying to motivate students when he couldn’t even motivate himself knowing that Chinese people couldn’t speak Chinese. When asked to speak on the matter, he just sighed and shook his head before going back to sleep.

Mr Jones, fellow ENGLISH teacher from WALES, UNITED KINGDOM was cited as an example by Chinese teachers as the main source of realization that the students were disappointments, “He just speaks so fluently. Even has a Beijing accent. Better than the students.”

Faced with the disappointment of Chinese people not being able to speak Chinese, the Chinese teachers led Mr Jones into their classes for an intervention to express their disappointment and mental state as they believed he was a friendlier face for them:

「我們對你們很失望。你們不覺得講不到中文會很尷尬嗎？你們都是中國人,跟你們父母都不能溝通真的有夠很丟臉。我女兒已經是十歲了，但她講話都比你們好。你們的父母決定送你們去國際學校的時候是為你們好，但是你們就這麼的不尊重他們，而且你還忘恩負義。每年，他們要付出10萬港元，所以我根本不了解為什麼你們上課的時候還在發白夢。反正，你們應該多專心一點。你們是西方的香蕉，已經在漸漸地忘記中國傳統和文化，連春節什麼時候開始、清明節的傳統都不知道。你的父母逝世的時候，你會拜他們嗎？ 你們只會看美國媒體，並不會怎麼理會本地的消息，而只讓你們漸漸地遠離你們的文化根源......」

After his passionate appeal to the students, there was a wave of rancorous applause at Mr Jones’s apparently motivational speech. Both Mr Jones and the students were pleased after the lesson, with Mr Jones stating, “None of my students have ever celebrated me like this before. I feel accomplished.”

Returning to their previous posts, the Chinese teachers regained hope only for a few seconds until they realized no one understood the speech, with one student even saying that “it sounded similar to the way their parents praised them”. Sounds of sighs filled the room as they continued teaching for the day, with a teacher wondering whether they should pity or applaud the student for being so oblivious.