All of our interviewees are female, and we realize their linguistic profile and perception is largely influenced by their spouses. Their spouses mainly fall into three main types, namely local Hong Kongers, Thai Chinese and Thai. To give you a clearer picture of our findings, we have divided our analysis into three parts according to the three types of spouses mentioned.

1. Married to Local Hong Kongers

Local Hong Kongers refers to those who are raise and born in Hong Kong. Most local Hong Kongers speak Cantonese as their mother tongues. Because of both the Chinese and Thai cultural background, it is very common that male still plays the dominant role in family, so when it comes to the topic of major language in the family, the language of the male's family is usually adopted. This explains the reason why Thai women married to a local Hong Konger is more likely to speak fluent Cantonese than the Hong Kong husband to speak fluent Thai. These women have more opportunities to learn and practice Cantonese, and thus immerse into the Hong Kong culture. By saying they have immersed into the Hong Kong culture, we do not simply mean they get used of the lifestyle in Hong Kong. Instead, their perception towards language also change accordingly. Most of these women we interviewed treasure Cantonese more than their own language (Thai). This implies the Thai language, as a language minority in Hong Kong, is less likely to be passed to the second generation given that the parents does not value that language as well. Eventually, the Thai-speaking community in Hong Kong will probably be diminished.

2. Married to Thai Chinese

Interviewees who are married to Thai Chinese have stronger attachment towards the Chinese identity. In that case, they are more willingly to learn Cantonese in order to fit in. Interestingly, some of them even regard this as a way to find cultural roots. They do not only value Cantonese as a tool to survive in Hong Kong, it surely means more! Among the couple, they value both Thai and Cantonese and they said they communicate in both languages.

 

3. Married to Thai

To our only interviewee who is married to Thai, she thinks learning Cantonese is a key to access opportunities to Hong Kong. This also matches with their motivation of migrating from Thai to Hong Kong. Thai still remains a very important language in their life other than communicating with Thai colleagues and shopping for groceries. Thai is also a language they prefer to use in the family. At the same time, they feel being able to speak Thai and teaching their children Thai language is crucial in constructing their Thai identity.



Children

For children of our interviewees, we divide them into two different groups for analysis. One is nurtured in Thai by the parents; while others are nurtured in Cantonese. Since all children of our interviewees study in local school, we believe this is also a factor that accounts for the children’s language development.

 

1. Nurtured in Thai

Children who are nurtured in Thai does not mean they are fully competent in using the Thai language, it only means the parents choose to use Thai to nurture and communicate their children most of the time. According to our research, this group of children can still be divided in to active and passive speaker of Thai.

For active speaker, it means that the children are able to speak Thai fluently. When the parents speak to the kids in Thai, the children feel comfortable in giving responses in Thai. For most of our interviewees, their children started to learn Thai from words relating to Thai food. Since the children go to local school, they fail to have the chance of taking formal Thai language class. Many of the parents teach give private Thai language class to their children. For parents who chose to nurture their kids in Thai, we believe that the family values the Thai language and wants to pass on the language skills. Living in Hong Kong is not a reason for them to devalue Thai language. To some of them, being able to speak Thai is an identification of their Thai identity and an attachment to their culture. It is also interesting to know that many of our interviewees value spoken Thai comparing to written Thai. They said it is more important for their children to learn to speak Thai even they may not be able to write the language.

Regarding passive speaker, it means even the parents speak to the children in Thai, the children replies in Cantonese. This situation reflects the children have the competent of understanding the Thai language, but they are not competent to speak the language. This acts shows the children refuse to learn/ pick up the Thai language. The parents told us that their children regard themselves as Hong Konger and they want to be like local Hong Kong students – being able to speak Cantonese and English well. It is the children’s choice to speak certain languages according to their living environment, and the parents understand they cannot push the kids to learn “their” language. In particularly to the Thai Chinese parents, they do not think it is crucial for their kids to learn Thai for tracing the cultural roots. Since they are ethically Chinese, being able to speak Chinese is also a part of the cultural root.

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2. Nurture in Cantonese

Thai parents who nurture children in Cantonese mainly want their kids to be like other local Hong Kong kids. They believe it is important for their children to fit in and be a part of the culture. To achieve this, they think being able to speak Cantonese is inevitable.