Name: Chanhira 

Duration in Hong Kong: Migrated to Hong Kong in 1998 (15 years)

​Mother tongue: Thai

Languages spoken: Cantonese, Thai, English (ranked by usage in everyday life, left as the most frequently use language)

Occupation: owns a convenient store that sells Thai books, magazines, newspapers, CDs & DVDs, food & spices

Marital status: Married to a local Hong Kong businessman

No. of children: 2 (Older daughter: 11 years old, younger son: 7 years old) 



Linguistic profile:

 

- Brought up in Thai.

- Learnt English since primary school.

- Learnt Cantonese at the Thai Embassy at Thailand as learning Cantonese is popular due to the abundant economic opportunities in Hong Kong.

She commented that many at her community were thus attracted to learn Cantonese. She is now competent in Cantonese and have no difficulty in reading and writing. 

 

 

Mainly uses Cantonese at home, only speaks in Thai when she contacts her family at Thailand or when she teaches Thai vocabularies to her children such as food, names of relatives or specific Thai cultural idioms.

Mainly speaks in Thai at her store as there are more Thais visiting than locals, and would sometimes code mix between Thai and Cantonese, mostly having the lexical structure in Chinese and nouns expressed in Thai. She sometimes has to speak in English too when visitors dropped by, but this is not common. 

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Identity & Second Generation:

Both children are attending local primary schools and learn Chinese and English at school.

The elder sister identifies more to her Thai identity due to her preference for Thai food. She is able to understand Thai and is able to speak simply Thai sentences.



The younger brother is a passive speaker, though she can understand, she is not able to reproduce the language and would reply in Cantonese. Therefore, has a relatively harder time communicating with relatives at Thailand

 She pointed out that it is essential to keep part of the Thai root in her kids as this is part of their identity. But it is hard for her to do so as her kids lack the environment to learn. Moreover, knowing Thai is of low value in HK.


​Her experience at the grocery store:​

All who bought Thai publications such as magazines, DVDs are Thai.

Seldom would HK ppl buy Thai spices as it does not suit the locals' tongue, but many would buy Thai snacks such as chips and candies. The most popular food at her store for locals is dried banana chips. 

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Life as a Thai at HK:​

She thinks that Thai remains as a very tight community at HK as Kowloon City provided them the place to remain close. Her adaptation to life in HK is therefore smooth with Kowloon city as a platform for her to slowly adapt.

She has placed a Thai god at her store as she is a believer of it. She would often go to Thai temple at Tai Po as she has circle of Thai friends that tend to go there. "I would still pray to Thai Buddah in Thai and I identify myself as a Thai most when I am praying, for other times, I feel like I am integrating with the HK society." she says her prayer in Thai. Yet her children seldom goes with her unless it is new year or the birthday of the emperor.​

Technology has allowed her to stay connected with Thai culture and events more and she would often go online and watch Thai TV series & movies at home.

Interview with the Thai grocery store owner, Chanhira