Navigating the Cantonese language: and its colorful relationship with Hong Kong expats

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Disclaimer: This case study is a hypothetical exercise in UX Research and Analysis, for the purpose of education. Through collaboration with my teammates, Emily Wong and Karina Li, we devised the research framework, conducted the research, examined and analyzed the findings to produce our own independent insights. Our views in no way reflect those of our organization, Xccelerate Hong Kong.

Where It All Started

It’s a tale as old as time. Countless books, movies, and travel documentaries have touched on the topic — how do you live life as a foreigner in a city whose language you don’t speak? How does one make friends, find a job, fall in love, build a future? In Hong Kong, it turns out that’s not very difficult, because Hong Kong’s expatriate community have thrived just fine without a pressing need to learn Cantonese to navigate daily life.

It’s a relatively unique situation; most cities around the world, even those with high English proficiency, tend to encourage its expat residents to eventually try to learn the local language. Many people around the world have tales of picking up a new language just from living in a foreign country for a year or so. In fact, few places around the world are as wildly accommodating to foreigners speaking English as Hong Kong; Cantonese remains elusive to many expats, some having lived in the city for as long as 20 or 30 years.

Cantonese is the heart and soul of Hong Kong — it’s a language that brings everything to life amid the blur of one of the busiest cities in the world. The language is full of depth, history, and character, which begs the question — why do so few expats speak it? Do expats in Hong Kong feel any need or pressure to learn Cantonese? As a vital element of Hong Kong culture, should we be promoting the language more among the expat community? How can this gap be bridged between expats and the local language of Hong Kong?

In order to understand this relationship in greater depth, my team and I decided to study the landscape and see what actually drives people to learn new languages, and what challenges are preventing the expats in Hong Kong from engaging with Cantonese. Our goal is to shine a light on how people perceive the city and its local language, the ups and downs of different learning journeys, and the ways in which Cantonese either drives groups of people apart or brings them together. Carry on reading to find out where this journey took us, and what we discovered along the way!

Our Process

Photo by Airam Dato-on on Unsplash

Our entire research journey spanned a two-week period, and was centered around the initial prompt, “How might we motivate and support expats to learn a local language?” Cantonese is a core part of daily life, in both social and business interactions, yet the proportion of expats who speak any level of Cantonese remains smaller than expected. Little information is available about why this is the case, or what resources can be implemented to improve the proficiency of Cantonese among Hong Kong expats. We decided to devise a framework to study two key areas:

1. what motivates or prevents Hong Kong expats from learning Cantonese; and
2. what resources, tools, and services are lacking in society that could support these expats.

To make sure our research had the appropriate depth, we started off with detailing a research plan to identify several things:

• the scope of our study and key information to look for;
• our initial assumptions for what the current situation looks like; and
• a combination of research methods and expected findings from those methods.

We then devised an online survey, a set of in-depth interviews, and an interactive workshop to gather different types of information and different perspectives of different users; our criteria for participants was simply:

• any expat of any ethnicity, age, or gender, who was either born in or moved to Hong Kong;
• has lived in the city for at least a year; and
• who may or may not speak Cantonese.

Affinity mapping was our method of choice to draw out the most important patterns in our participants’ thoughts and behaviors, which would later inform our user personas and corresponding user journey maps, all as a way of visualizing their entire decision-making process. By combining all of these findings and research synthesis onto a research wall, our final step was then to draw out key insights and implications from the analysis.

What We Discovered

Survey Findings

Our survey ended up gathering 34 responses in total, and right off the bat we noticed some interesting things. One of the first things we wanted to test through our research was whether the proportion of expats who speak Cantonese is indeed lower than we might expect, so we first asked our respondents: “How fluent are you in Cantonese?”

With 51.6% of the survey respondents claiming they do not speak any Cantonese, the research begins to illustrate our point. If we were to imagine that more than half of the total expat population of Hong Kong doesn’t speak Cantonese, one must inevitably ask why, and whether it is even important at all — so we followed up by asking another crucial question: “How much impact do you think Cantonese will have on your daily life?”

10 out of the total of 34 respondents said that knowing Cantonese would have a high impact on their life, while 6 respondents said it would have the highest impact. From this we saw there was a clear awareness that Cantonese would play a huge role in how expats navigate life in the city, yet interestingly it contradicts the proficiency rates we’ve seen so far.

Interview Findings

Given such a peculiar and fascinating case, our in-depth user interviews gave us a closer look at why this might be so. We conducted our interviews with 13 participants in total, with our participants consisting of a diverse spread of expats who both do and don’t speak Cantonese. My team and I used affinity mapping to identify the patterns among their comments, and we paid close attention in particular to the motivations and challenges behind Cantonese learning. Below are the key patterns we uncovered:

Affinity mapping made it clear as day: to some degree, expats in Hong Kong believe that in learning Cantonese, the barriers outweigh the motivators. We wanted to examine how deep the enthusiasm to learn Cantonese runs within our participants, before seeing what barriers hinder that enthusiasm in the end.

“If I am planning to stay in Hong Kong, learning Cantonese would definitely help me explore more opportunities.”

The two biggest motivating factors behind potentially learning Cantonese are based on emotional connections, and career prospects within Hong Kong. It becomes quite evident that foreigners in Hong Kong do in fact express eagerness to form deeper bonds and stronger relationships with their local counterparts, to form long-lasting and vibrant friendships, to potentially even build a family in the city — there is a profound understanding that Cantonese is essential to overcoming that emotional distance that lies between expats and locals in Hong kong.

Many expats also believe that despite the strong internationalized business landscape of Hong Kong, and the fact that many companies operate mainly in English, Cantonese still carries huge benefits in building an ambitious and successful career. As a foreigner, it makes one stand out amid competition, and again plays a key role in forming stronger relationships, this time in the professional aspect.

“I have thought about learning Cantonese formally, but I guess it’s a problem of necessity, discipline and timing, all of which I don’t have.”

Yet still the obstacles are greater. It appears that the language itself is part of the challenge, and the natural elements of it are not as intuitive or inviting for expats to pick up naturally. When faced with this particular challenge, we notice a branch in behavior here.

On one hand, there are expats who still hold a desire to learn this seemingly complicated language, but other factors such as access to resources, time, and an effective teaching system are lacking. Most expats who want to commit to learning the language feel they would have to dedicate large amounts of time to go for in-person classes, in order to absorb the different elements and concepts with which they are unfamiliar — this is inaccessible to the many who hold full-time jobs or are occupied with other things in life, and these classes also tend to be expensive.

The alternative then would be online resources and self-learning, but therein lies another problem — not only is Cantonese absent from many of the main language learning apps (Duolingo, Babbel, and Rosetta Stone to name a few), but websites and YouTube channels provide very limited support and ways to apply what you’ve learned. The eagerness is there, and many of these expats still attempt to speak very basic Cantonese through what they’ve picked up on their own and from their peers — but the obstacles remain too complex at the moment to take their skills to the next level.

On the other hand, there are expats who feel the challenge of learning Cantonese is simply unnecessary, as the city has accommodated them so well for so long. Why bother with all these issues such as classes, videos, books, and other such time-consuming activities? This group feels that their lives in Hong Kong have carried on quite smoothly and peacefully without the need to learn the local language, since it is more common than not for Hong Kong locals to switch from Cantonese to English at the mere sight of someone who appears to be a foreigner. Without any difference in benefits, and without any pressure to learn the language, it is simply pushed to the sidelines, if it was even considered at all.

Photo by Balazs Fejes on Unsplash

“From the moment they get here, white expats are like, ‘yeah, everyone speaks English to me anyway, I don’t need to learn it.’ […] Brown expats who speak Hindi will be looked down on, especially in public spaces. So they need to either learn to speak English or Cantonese.”

One of our participants had an incredibly unique perspective on the topic, noting that the proficiency of Cantonese among expats tends to be skewed based on ethnicity or ethnic groups. This participant noted that it is not at all uncommon in Hong Kong to hear Indian, Pakistani, Filipino, or Nepalese expats, for example, who are completely fluent in Cantonese, whereas it is far more surprising to encounter a European or North American expat with a comfortable grasp on the language.

Our participant went on to describe personal assumptions of why this may be the case, and proposed that such a disparity stems from a combination of factors, including the distribution of ethnic minorities among different economic sectors, and language elitism in the Hong Kong education system and society in general.

For example, manual labor jobs, which would almost always be purely Cantonese-speaking environments, tend to employ many Filipino or Indian expats and seldom European or North American expats; these expats would then essentially be forced to learn Cantonese to be able to communicate. On the other hand, administrative and managerial-type jobs employ just as many Filipino or Indian expats as European or North American expats, however these employees would often face much less pressure to learn the language because many such work environments operate heavily, if not fully, in English.

Another example is, ironically, the local perception of the English language. While Cantonese is undeniably a core part of Hong Kong culture, English is often seen as the language of professionalism, and even sophistication; expats with a high proficiency for English have thus already met some invisible and unspoken criteria to earn respect among locals in Hong Kong, regardless of their ethnicity. From a local Hong Kong person’s point of view, English is sometimes the superior language; when everyone is trying to become more proficient in it for the sake of seeming more professional and highly skilled, it becomes unnecessary for expats to learn Cantonese to connect with locals.

Although these claims remain to be verified through proper research with statistical data and ethnographic studies, this was nonetheless a very interesting perspective from our participant that may hold deep implications for how we perceive ethnic groups within our society, and holds huge potential for further studies and investigation.

Workshop Findings

The final element of the data collection stage of our research was an interactive workshop we held with our instructor and other colleagues, involving a total of 11 participants, including 8 locals and 3 expats. We divided the participants into 3 teams, with each team having one expat member.

The activities of the workshop were designed with several goals in mind. We wanted to observe different levels of exposure to foreign languages among our participants, their processes of learning and teaching a language, and finally how they deal with language and culture barriers. To do this, we encouraged our participants to share some personal experiences of dealing with language and culture barriers, followed by a game in which the local team members would try to teach the expat team members a little bit of basic Cantonese.

Besides being a lot of fun, it was a great opportunity to verify some of the findings from our surveys and interviews, through body-storming and very simple ethnographic studying of the interactions between the different participants. We noticed how they spoke to each other, and heard feedback about what went well and what went wrong. We even came across some intriguing and deeply insightful observations:

1. some participants became aware of their original desire to learn Cantonese;
2. some participants reconsidered learning Cantonese by asking local friends to teach them; and
3. some participants learned to improvise and find new creative ways of teaching Cantonese.

The workshop was extremely useful for testing our assumptions firsthand, and combining all three methods provided quite a comprehensive overview of the current landscape and existing problems. With all this information at hand, we were ready to dive right into synthesizing this data and drawing out the insights.

Our Cast and Characters

Our affinity map thus gives way to two different personas among our expats: the Eager Learner, and the Reluctant Learner. We also uncovered a third persona, reflecting a local perspective of this issue: the Teacher. To understand more deeply about how each persona reaches their final decision throughout the whole process, we built corresponding user journey maps for each of them, detailing the stages in their interaction process, the activities within each stage, the emotions and expectations that these activities might elicit, and the opportunities that may arise at each of these key moments of interaction. Each of these personas also has some unique pain points.

The Eager Learner

An Eager Learner might encounter Cantonese quite regularly in their social life, through working with locals in school projects and trading very basic Cantonese with local people. Through such experiences, Eager Learners believe learning Cantonese could help them connect with locals and explore more opportunities, thus becoming motivated to learn the language properly. The idea of learning Cantonese excites them and drives them to seek more immersive learning environments, perhaps through searching for in-person classes.

Eager Learners are still susceptible to feelings of embarrassment and frustration, as mistakes do not always garner a forgiving response. To overcome their difficulties, they might try different options (mobile apps, YouTube videos, and websites to name a few) and practice with themselves in private until they feel confident. With the confidence they gain from the process, they persist with their learning journey — but this could take a relatively long time and a large amount of effort and dedication, which is another common source of frustration.

Pain point: There is a fear of making mistakes, and confusion due to a lack of clear guidance on fundamental concepts of Cantonese, such as tonal differences and differences between spoken and written Chinese. There is also a lack of an outlet to regularly practice Cantonese. However, there is still determination to overcome these barriers and dedicate some consistent amount of effort to learn Cantonese, driven by encouragement as well as for their own personal benefits.

The Reluctant Learner

A Reluctant Learner might have similar experiences with that of an Eager Learner. They are also motivated to learn Cantonese, knowing that having such skills enables them to connect with locals and navigate daily activities more seamlessly. Much of the process is similar to that of an Eager Learner — Reluctant Learners get their first taste of Cantonese, and proceed to feel like learning it would provide them some unique benefits; but upon encountering firsthand the burdens and challenges of learning the language on their own, those benefits seem less and less enticing, leading to the Reluctant Learner simply surrendering at the end.

Pain point: The lack of motivation to dedicate time and effort, combined with a lack of proper direction or instruction, gives way to an aimless feeling. It is easy to give up when feeling like no consistent improvement is being made. This group requires much more convincing and often does not even begin dedicating effort to learn Cantonese, however they have occasionally considered the possibility of doing so.

The Teacher

Teachers start off having a passionate attitude towards teaching expats Cantonese. They have a desire to arouse expats’ interest towards learning the language, which drives Teachers to seek out the best teaching materials for the job. This evolves into a unique problem of its own, where the available materials are unclear in how to teach expats in a systematic and organized way. There isn’t a typical syllabus or curriculum of Cantonese itself, which forces a Teacher to get creative with their teaching, through YouTube videos, keyword cards, and even storytelling to keep their students interested and engaged throughout the learning journey. Satisfaction and delight at seeing their efforts pay off in the performance of their students are what drives Teachers, but there is an undeniable sense of insufficiency in how to motivate their students to continue their Cantonese learning.

Pain point: From a local perspective, Cantonese is such a unique language that severely lacks a systematic and organized teaching method and structure. Resources are scarce, scattered, and ineffective. There isn’t nearly enough encouragement or effort made to promote the learning of Cantonese. This group believes there is great value and many benefits to encouraging more expats to learn the language.

The Moral of The Story

In this third act of our story, it is the insights that we are searching for — what implications does all of this research have for the subjects of our study? After gathering their experiences and opinions, studying their patterns, analyzing their personas and decision-making processes, and finding out their obstacles — where exactly does that leave us now?

Photo by Jeffrey Lee on Unsplash

We can start with clarifying the whole issue through an overall Point-of-View Statement:

“Hong Kong expats need a low-commitment yet motivating way to learn Cantonese, because there is still a culture gap between expats and locals, causing them to miss out on opportunities to improve their social ties.”

and a Problem Statement:

“Hong Kong expats want to learn basic everyday Cantonese, because they believe it will provide more opportunities and strengthen personal and professional relationships. However, the available platforms are not as intuitive and require too much commitment.”

The main insights can then basically be condensed into three points:

1. Locals and expats in Hong Kong need better platforms and channels to communicate and socialize comfortably;
2. More emphasis should be placed on promoting expats’ proficiency of Cantonese and the benefits this holds; and
3. The learning materials and processes need to be re-evaluated and perhaps even redesigned.

These three points could then be reinterpreted as “How Might We” questions to spark the potential ideation phase of our research:

1. “How might we create more welcoming and comfortable social settings for expats to try learning Cantonese?”
2. “How might we promote the many benefits of Cantonese-learning among expats in Hong Kong?”
3. “How might we improve the Cantonese-learning resources to provide more comprehensive and realistic learning experiences for expats?”

Potential Concepts for Ideation

As this research project was conducted from start to end in just under a 2-week period, it is sadly limited to the study and exploration of the existing situation in Hong Kong; my team and I have not attempted to conduct any ideation or solution-finding, as we simply focused on applying our research methodology to the best of our abilities within these 2 weeks.

We did, however, discover several interesting concepts for potential ideation in later stages:

1. Early childhood education is full of potential for development of Cantonese-learning programs — it is possible that devoting more attention to this aspect of the Hong Kong education system may encourage expat children to continue developing their Cantonese well into their teen and adult years, and may be worth the investment; and
2. Creating a new dedicated and well-designed digital tool or platform for learning Cantonese would possibly make Cantonese as accessible as possible to everyone, something that currently is not available.

We hope you enjoyed our study of this interesting and highly relevant topic. If you would like to see more details of our research process, we have linked our research wall on Miro here. Thank you so much for reading!