After 10 weeks in Hong Kong, I haven't been able to make heads or tails of the English spoken here by most of the locals I communicate with. There's no standardized local-brand of English as in Singapore (where you will hear Singlish being spoken very consistently by all Singaporeans) simply because English is not regarded as part of Hong Kong's core identity. IMHO, Hong Kong is not bilingual in the truest sense. The English here depends heavily on how much ability/accent the the speaker has...and they do come in a wide, WIDE range.
Every now and then, I will switch into Mandarin Chinese in an attempt to communicate more clearly with a local person. Unfortunately, the person I am communicating with will switch into a very heavily accented Mandarin which I can comprehend just about as clearly as their English.
Foiled! Just when I thought being able to speak these two languages would get me by. I read a survey result last night which reported that 53% of Chinese people could speak Mandarin Chinese competently. Around 60% in the urban areas and 40% in the rural areas. I don't think their definition of "competent" was that high, so this is quite an interesting number to think over!
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