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First words on an English-only mall
(The Standard P.10
11 Mar 2013) Plans are in the pipeline (渠道)
to
transform (改造) an industrial
building into a complex (綜合設施) where English is
the only language.
The chairman of the Standing Committee on Language
Education and Research, Cheng Kai-ming, said everyone would have to communicate
in English in a facility given a new meaning in life.
The
financial secretary announced with last month's budget that HK$5 billion was to
be injected (注入) into the Language Fund to help with
long-term aims of a broad (廣泛的) and
linguistically (語言學方面) smart community (智慧社區).
The committee was established (成立) to provide advice to the government on
language education and on how best to use the Language Fund.
Cheng told Sing Tao Daily, The Standard's
sister publication, that one of his plans for the new funding is to revitalize (活化) a vacant (空置) industrial building in Northern District or
Tuen Mun, where the all-English environment could be created.
People would have to speak in English when
they use facilities such as restaurants and hair salons in the mall- like complex (綜合設施). And offices there could be rented to English
organizations.
Preliminarily talks are being held with
business chambers, Cheng added.
"As schools in Hong Kong are lacking an
environment for English language, we hope that there will be more chances for
students to speak and use English," he said.
A government source revealed earlier that the
HK$5 billion was meant to be seed money with an annual return of HK$250 million
from projects.
There would also be support for teachers of
Chinese to take courses on how best to help non-Chinese students learn the
language.
Set up (成立) in 1994, the Language Fund provides
financial support for projects and activities aimed at promoting bi-literacy
and tri- lingualism (兩文三語) among Hongkongers, including programs to
support non-Chinese- speaking students learning Chinese.
The
fund has since its inception (起初) had six
injections of finance (引入資金) totaling HK$3.5
billion.
Staff reporter
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