It literally pains me to defend Swannie, but I have to agree with him/her. As someone who travels extensively through Asia, Hong Kong is easy to adjust to for an expat. My friends and I jokingly refer to Hong Kong as "Asia light" because one can move to Hong Kong and keep their western lifestyle.
You won't find too many cities that are not English speaking even in the western world where you can function much better than in HK. Apart from Scandinavia and Holland, the level of English in Europe is no better than here and often worse. In Asia, there's Singapore and arguably KL where the level of English is better or comparable. Meanwhile, if we were to rank the competency of expats to express themselves in the local language in HK vs those who live in other countries, I'd bet HK expat would be very close to the bottom.
Me and my hubby are trying to find new things to do at the moment. Can anyone suggest anything (No rude remarks thank you:0)
We do go walking when the weather is cool, sometimes we even go fishing; but when it's hot and humid, that's not an option; and there is only so much shopping and eating a person can do.
So because it's an official language, you think the general population will/should speak it? There's absolutely no good reason for most locals to speak English so why should they? HK is now China, the majority are far better off learning mandarin than they are learning English.
French is an official language in Canada and I can tell you that that HKer speak far better English than most Canadian speak French.