<<Local HK people are very difficult to connect with as an expat unless they have spent time outside HK.>>
Agreed. The language barrier is really a red herring. In one of my last posts I mentioned that old Chinese saying about how difficult a conversation between a Cantonese speaker and a Mandarin speaker. That to me is not really a language barrier at all. Think about the 'divide' between HK and people from the north (referred to as 'locusts' by some in a derogatory way) and you would have some idea as what that divide is made up of - language, cultural, political et. That was why I said the locals seem to have an attitude problem, and it manifests in many ways. Language is just one.