What language do Local school informants speak?
Faraz and Shamas (Local school informants) do have a great time at school and most of the time they talk to their friends in Cantonese. As they spend most of the time to attend school, it is interesting for us to know that they spend around 60% of the time talking in Cantonese and 40% for Urdu at home or other languages. From here, we can see the great importance of Cantonese for them to communicate.
What language do Islamic school informants speak?
Chinese
Anse, Aayasha and Somawia (Islamic school informants) are good English speakers. They may not be very fluent in other langauges, but they know quite a few languages, namely French, Hindi, Arabic, Urdu etc. They love to speak and learn different languages. They speak mostly English at school, but they do speak some other languages when they think it is more suitable depending on, who they are talking to. For example, at school, they may chit-chat in their own languages when they feel like it is mutually okay.
English
and many others ...
Urdu/Others
French
Hindi
Arabic
Urdu
More about the local school
The local school that our informants go to has offered mainstream and non-mainstream class for students to choose from, the former taught in Cantonese, with most Hong Kongers classmates, while the latter taught in English, with most non-Chinese people. In the mainstream class where our informants are in, they are the only two Pakistanis. In F.1, our informants were given an opportunity to decide whether they want to enter mainstream class or not. They believe it would be more difficult for them to learn subjects like Mathematics if the teacher uses English to instruct.
More about the Islamic school
The medium of instruction of the Islamic that our informants go to is English. All three informants study in the same class, which has a majority of Pakistani students with two exceptions. While Islamic Studies is a compulsory subject to all forms, Urdu, Arabic, and Nepali are provided as elective subjects in junior forms. Teachers do not recommend students communicating in Urdu or their home languages in class while preferring English as the fundamental medium of communication. After class, teachers would try their best to chat with students in Cantonese in an attempt to enhance their Cantonese proficiency.
Our informants (Local school)
Faraz is 17 years old. He is the elder brother of Shamas. He studies in the same school as shamas does. therefore they can always help each other in class. Also, they have been in Hong Kong for nine years.
Shamas is 15 years old. He likes sports, such as playing basketball and so does Faraz. Faraz and Shamas like the learning environment and they enjoy school life.
Our informants (Islamic school)
Anse is 16 years old. she was born and raised in Hong Kong. She is a talented language lover, fluent in Cantonese and English and good at several other languages as well. she respects language diversity and is always eager to help classmates in need.
Aayasha is 17 years old. she has been staying in hong kong for 13 years. she is a very nice and friendly girl. having Urdu as mother tongue, she is also familiar with several other languages, e.g. Arabic and Hindi.
Somawia is 17 years old. she has been staying in hong kong for 16 years. she is amiable and it is very pleasurable to listen to her stories and experience. Having Punjabi and Urdu as mother tongues, she is also fluent in languages that are mainly used in Hong Kong, i.e. Cantonese and English.
