Hong Kong is linguistically complex and diverse with three principal languages: Cantonese, English and Putonghua. A substantial debate on the language policies governing the three principal languages has continued for more than two decades among policy-makers and educators. The political transition in 1997 has greatly affected Hong Kong society,…

Since 1997, the "biliterate and trilingual" policy has been adopted by the Hong Kong government, and is now guiding the curriculum design in Hong Kong primary schools. This language policy aims to ensure that Hong Kong students become biliterate (written English and Chinese) and trilingual (spoken English, Cantonese and Putonghua).…

States that the difficult Asian languages such as modern standard Chinese, Japanese and Korean, should not be taught in primary or lower secondary schools to non-background speakers of those languages, that is, those whose mother tongue is related to the language being learned. Maintains that time should be spent in primary and secondary schools…