DAILY ROUTINE | Thais In Hong Kong

Here, daily and routine activities refer to making purchases in stores as a customer and having conversations for socializing purpose. Code-switching is common in the Thai-speaking community especially when there is a change of role and linguistic environment. Thais in Kowloon City has formed a small community in which quite a number of groceries stores, stalls for newspaper and magazines and restaurants are operated and run by Thai people. They use different languages when the context and their role change. For example, they tend to speak Cantonese more as a

Undoubtedly, situations vary depending on individual's background. For example, for immigrants of second or third generation who were born and raised in Hong Kong, and for those who have moved and stayed in Hong Kong for a long time, they master Cantonese at a native or close to native level. Therefore, they have higher tendency in using only Cantonese in their daily and routine activities. The language used by the second and third generations of immigrants are influenced by many factors, including their personal motivation of learning Thai, family and education as the social institutions which take up the role to inherit and preserve the language, as well as the Thai identity. In a nutshell, Thai people display their dual identity through their bilingual conversations within the Thai immigrant community in Thai and Can-tonese, whereas the language choice is largely context based. To know more about why family and school education matter, click here see the analysis.

To play, press and hold the enter key. To stop, release the enter key.

store keeper or waitress/waiter to provide service to Hong Kong customers, while they speak to other Thai nationals in both Thai and Cantonese.

This interesting bilingual pheno-menon of Thai people speaking both Thai and Cantonese to one another shows that Thai immigrants have partly assimilated to the Hong Kong society by adapting the host language and feel comfortable and confident to communicate with each other in Can-tonese, especially when the topic of conversation is workplace related. They claim an additional identity without rejecting their Thai national identity. In other words, two identity exist in a non-mutually exclusive manner for some of the Thais as they continue to practise and inherit their Thai language and culture (like religious practice and cultural traditions) while putting on an extra identity as a Hongkonger with mainly two reasons: Cantonese is frequently used in workplace and in family, particularly if his/her partner is ethnic Hong Kong Chinese.

Daily and Routine Activities