sharing

Hong Kong's official language

 

香港教育局網頁一篇文章，有注釋指廣東話（粵語）為「一種不是法定語言的中國方言」，引起激烈爭議：
The Education Bureau stated on its website on January 24 that Cantonese is a dialect and not an official language.

 

dialect  vs.  language

 

dialect 方言 = a form of language that is spoken in a particular area

 

language 語言 = a system of communication which consists of a set of sounds and written symbols which are used by the people of a particular country or region for talking and writing.

 

official 官方/法定

(adjective 形容詞)

 

= statutory 官方/法定

(adjective 形容詞)

 

official 官員

(noun 名詞)

 

例子：government officials 政府官員

 

statute 法令 (usually "by statute")

(noun 名詞)

 

例子：Protection for children is laid down by statute.  （保障兒童權益已在法令裡作了規定。）

 

≠ statue 雕像 (sculpture)

 

controversial / contentious / disputable 有爭議的/可議的

(adjective 形容詞)

 

例子：The contentious article posted on the Education Bureau’s website was taken down after heated criticism from Hongkongers online.

 

吵得「火紅火綠」、或「熱議」，英文我們可以說to have a heated discussion / quarrel；另外也可以用get heated about！

 

get heated about something

(phrasal verb 片語動詞)

 

= get angry and excited about it

 

例子：People get heated about issues such as the official languages in Hong Kong.

 

express their anger 表達憤怒

 

例子：Hongkongers took to various online forums to express their anger about the bureau’s claim.

 

Vent 名詞指「排氣口」，用作動詞又怎麼樣呢？原來是「發洩」的意思！

 

例子：vent somebody’s frustration 發洩不滿

 

blunder 愚蠢的錯誤

(noun 名詞)

 

= a stupid mistake

 

A Facebook group called “Hong Kong language learning” has appealed to Hongkongers to complain to the Education Bureau using “one man, one e-mail” to urge the government to “admit that making such a statement was a blunder” and “apologise to the public”.

 

biliteracy and trilingualism 兩文三語

 

The Language Support section aimed to promote the importance of biliteracy and trilingualism for local students as the city is developing alongside with the rapidly growing China and the daily usage of Mandarin in Hong Kong becomes common.

 

literacy 讀寫能力 / 有文化

(noun 名詞)

 

= the ability to read and write

 

例子：computer literacy使用電腦的能力

 

literate 具讀寫能力 / 有文化的

(adjective 形容詞)

 

例子：Many people in Hong Kong are literate.

 

≠ illiterate文盲的

(adjective 形容詞)

 

例子：Many people in rural areas are illiterate.

 

bilingualism 雙語政策/ trilingualism 三語政策/ multilingualism 多語言政策

 

The post reads: “Although the Basic Law stipulates that Chinese and English are the two official languages in Hong Kong, nearly 97 per cent of the local population learn Cantonese (a Chinese dialect that is not an official language) with their commonly-used daily language.”

 

stipulate 訂明

(verb 動詞)

 

stipulation 條款、約定的條件 / 契約

(noun 名詞)

 

例子： There is a stipulation that… （法例規定...）

   
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