Mrs. Shum (Hakka)

 

 

Birth place:

Palembang (South Sumatra, Indonesia)

Native language (L1): 

Meixian Hakka

Status of L1: 

High among Chinese Indonesians

Moderate in Indonesia

Language(s) spoken other than L1: 

Indonesian (L2)

Mandarin (L3)

Hokkien (L4)

Cantonese (L5)

Duration of residence in Hong Kong: 

49 years

Time spent learning Cantonese: 

6 years to achieve full competence in Cantonese

Occasions of using the languages: 

Indonesian (with Indonesians)

Hakka (with parents, siblings, Chinese Indonesians of Hakka descent)

Mandarin (with Chinese Indonesians, at work)

Hokkien (with maternal grandmother)

Cantonese (with children, husband, Hongkongers)

Number of children: 

1 son (50 years old) and 1 daughter (48 years old)

 

A multilingual lady

 

Mrs. Shum’s case is interesting. Though she lived in Indonesia when she was small, her mother tongue is Hakka, which her parents used to speak it to her. Studying in a Chinese school, she also acquires Mandarin. As a result, she has been quadrilingual in Hakka, Indonesian, Mandarin, and Hokkien since her childhood. Married her Hong Kong husband, she came to Hong Kong and found that no one spoke Hakka or Mandarin. Despite this, she did not feel shy to talk in Hakka but she chose not to speak it here since she could not communicate with others. As time goes by, she finds that Cantonese has gradually replaced Hakka as her main language as living in Hong Kong provides plentiful opportunities to practice her Cantonese, making it more proficient than Hakka. Her frequent visits to Indonesia also maintain her high proficiency in Indonesian.

 

Identity is crucial

 

Born in Indonesia, Mrs. Shum’s son is proficient in Mandarin as Mrs. Shum communicated with him in Hakka and Mandarin when he was small. Yet, her daughter is less competent in Mandarin since she had been surrounded by a Cantonese environment since she was born in Hong Kong. Nonetheless, when her son started his school life, he began to switch from Mandarin and Hakka to Cantonese. But Mrs. Shum thought that he should know Hakka as his mother is Hakka. Mrs.Shum attempts to communicate with them in Hakka but disappointingly, they responded in Cantonese and refused to speak Hakka. Though the children showed no interest in learning Hakka, they do not look down on Hakka and are proud of their mother, who can speak lots of languages.

 

As for Indonesian, Mrs. Shum prefered teaching the children Chinese languages to teaching them Indonesian. She believes that Chinese should learn to speak Chinese languages. Particularly, she feels that Mandarin is an edge because she was once employed by a department store and Mandarin was useful when serving customers from Taiwan and Mainland China. Yet, the knowledge of Hakka is still necessary for the ease of communication at home as most Hakka elderly cannot speak Mandarin.

 

Hakka under threat?

 

Mrs. Shum feels that the language is not threatened at all since the Hakkanese still use it in the Hakka villages in China as well as within Chinese communities in Indonesia. She believes that people speak their own languages in relation to their origins.