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by gerdesj 743 days ago
On a recent holiday to to Hong Kong {sp}, I noted the Metro announcements were in Cantonese, Mandarin and then English. I also noted that apologies and other minor social skirmishes and interactions, eg after bumping into someone, were mostly delivered in English.

When in Rome, speak English: its the French language.

2 comments

Hong Kong is a special case where English still has higher prestige to begin with. Locals sometimes code-switch to English even if everyone present would understand Cantonese.
That sounds like a carefully worded response and I will respect it as such.

Language is important in so many ways - it often defines who you are, regardless of where you are.

Franco-Germanic, por favor.