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When in Rome... speak Chinglish?

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  1. #1

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    When in Rome... speak Chinglish?

    Just wondering what other people do... when speaking English to locals, do you use standard pronunciation, or do you use the HK pronunciation? For example, if I'm spelling something out to someone, I've noticed that I tend to use the HK pronunciation, so "r" would be "are-lo" instead of "ar" or "l" would be "el-lo" instead of "el". Or, "gam" instead of "game".

    I don't want to intimidate anyone, but at the same time I'm implicitly promoting the use of improper English. So, what do you guys do?

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  2. #2

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    Proper queens English is required.

    If somebody tried to speak Chinglish like that to me, I would tell them to piss off.

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  3. #3

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    i always use proper English. however, hubby, a local, gets flustered when he pronounces things properly and then has to say it again improperly because people don't understand when he says it the first time.

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  4. #4

    I pronounce things as they should be, if they don't understand I repeat myself more loudly
    Instead of saying 'are-lo', I'd say R for Robert, H for Hello etc and if they don't get it, I write it down.

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  5. #5

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    Quote Originally Posted by carang:
    i always use proper English. however, hubby, a local, gets flustered when he pronounces things properly and then has to say it again improperly because people don't understand when he says it the first time.
    I admit, I get pretty flustered too when people don't understand me. I suppose it's a reminder that I'm an outsider...
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  6. #6

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    but my husband isn't an outsider! he was born, raised and educated here... ;-)

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  7. #7

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    Well, I was born and partially raised here, does that count?

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  8. #8

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    and he's chinese... you?

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  9. #9

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    Proper English, just slow everything down so you don't have to repeat yourself as much.


  10. #10

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    Have you ever wonder why the locals don't learn proper English? Its not like they speak to each other in English. The only time they speak English is to a foreigner (who can't understand what they are saying). While people use funny English accent all over the world, but thats because these people talk to each other using that language.

    I'm just upset that I'm up in the middle of the night trying to correct English grammars of work done by degree holders (and no, I'm not an English teacher). What happened to 100 years of English colonisation? They didn't dare to move out of central and travel over to Kowloon?

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