HOMEKONGERS
NANDAN S
Indian Third-Culture-Kid
Age: 16
Time spent in Hong Kong: 16 years
Nationality: Hong Kong Chinese
Migrated from: India
Languages spoken: English, Hindi, Mandarin
Mother tongue: Hindi
First language: English
School system attended: International ESF
QUOTE HIGHLIGHTS
Do you feel Hong Kong people would consider you a local if you spoke Cantonese? Are there any other barriers which affect your perceived identity?
“Yes and no. I think Hong Kong is my home but I wouldn’t be considered a Hong Konger even if I spoke Cantonese, because my skin is brown, I do not appear like the other Hong Kong originals. This is the case with my other friends who do speak the language but are not ethnically Chinese.“
PRAGMATIC CHOICE
Nandan is a student at a British International school in Hong Kong. From the domain analysis data, we can see that the language Nandan uses changes depending on where he is and who he is talking to. For instance, he mainly communicates in English when he is talking to his peers or teachers at school. Additionally, although he is learning Mandarin in school, the language is not used outside that classroom. Furthermore, he tends to use a combination of both English and Hindi while conversing in the family domain due to his limited knowledge of Hindi vocabulary. While Nandan’s spoken Hindi isn’t great, while chatting with his grandparents or any of the elderly generation, he tends to stick to using Hindi. This is because Hindi is the only language he has in common with them. Nandan also tries to use Cantonese while in the public sphere in Hong Kong, for instance when he gets a taxi. However, these interactions are limited and they take place in the first place because in this domain, Cantonese is the most efficient way of getting the message across.
HERITAGE LANGUAGE
As Nandan’s friends come from a variety of backgrounds also, he uses mostly English, but may use Hindi from time to time with his other local Indian friends. This happens during instances of discussing Hindi/India related topics such as Bollywood movies or music. In spite of having many local Chinese friends, he however, does not use Cantonese to chat with them because he does not feel his Cantonese is strong enough to uphold conversation. Furthermore, from the interview, we found that Nandan isn’t particularly picky about whether or not he will teach his children Hindi; “It depends where we are at the time, maybe if I’m in India and they need to learn it”. This reaffirms the hypothesis that language does not necessarily address one’s identity. His choice of using English mainly comes from his social contexts. While he has lived in Hong Kong all this time, he does not feel that it is required for him to learn or use Cantonese but he does believe that it will make living in Hong Kong easier.
From the above, it can be seen that although knowledge of language connotes identity or heritage, but in the case of some TCKs such as Nandan; language choice is based off usability or contextual appropriateness due to his culturally sensitive and adaptive nature.