Blog 7“Present 一個 Project: Multilingual Hong Kong”

How do Hong Kong people view code-switching in the video?

Self-presentation:
Some people in the video mentioned that while they are code-switching or code-mixing, they did not intent to show off their billigual ability. The reason why they do so is it is the most direct and simplest way to express their view. As the youngsters were educated in English medium, some vocabularies, especially those related to acadmic, were difficult for them to identified the Chinese words to replace them while they wanted to use.

Although they do not intent to show-off their billigual ability, code-switching and code-mixing do let them show this ability. It is because only those who are fluent in both languages can code-mix or code-switch.

Face & Politeness strategy:
In the video, some people mentioned that they would usually code-mix or code-switch with their friends but not with their parents or the elder people. The reason why they would not code-switch or code-mix with parents or the elder people is the youngsters are not sure if they can understand the English or not.

This phenomenon could be analyzed in terms of face and politeness strategy. It mentioned that code-mix or code-switch would usually occur amoung friends. That mean their power relationship is equal and have a close soical distance, hence they are in the solidarity system. Within the solidarity system, people are more likely to use involvment strategy. Therefore, it could be concluded that code-mix and code-switch can be the practices to indicate that people use involvment strategy.

On the other hand, people abmitted that they would not code-mix or code-switch with elder people as they are not sure if they could understand. Therefore, if the youngsters do so, this act would threaten the negative face of the eler people who do not understand. As it is important to respect the elder people, code-mix or code-switch would not be apporiate to do with them.

Contextualization cues & frames:
Some discourse markers could be identified in the video, such as "well" and "Ok" and also some final particals as well. Those words are contextualization cues indicating that they want to shift the register from formal to informal or vice verse.

However, the use of code-mixing and code-switching by the youngsters is not because of the changing registers. They are used because they are the easiest and most direct ways express their views.

Positioning & Cultural storylines:
While the speakers code-switch or code-mix with other people, they position other people are billigual or multilingual interactively. At the same time, they also postion themselves are billigual or multilingual intentionally. All of these is because the speakers assumed the addressees known more than one language and so they both could understand and use code-mix or code-switch freely.

In Hong Kong, people mostly code-switch or code-mix between English and Chinese as those two languages are both being used in the education system. Therefore, Hong Kong people are familiar with them. Because of this, you seldom find that there is other language being code-mix or code-switch amoung Hong Kong people. Therefore, it could be a kind of cultural storyline to show Hong Kong is a billigual city.

Conversational Style:
While people code-mix or code-switch, they adopte in a causal coversationsl style. It is because people tend to believe that code-mixing or code-switching are only apporiated in informal or semi-formal situations.

As there are different coversational styles, some people may think that code-mixing and code-switching are the easiest way to express feeling while some may think that they are the mans to show off their high educational background. Due to the different view of using them, it is better for the people using it in an informal situation.