Cygnet Communications Limited
  • Home
  • About
  • Our Services
  • Training
  • Our Clients
  • Portfolio
  • Blog
  • Contact

Hong Kong English:
a personal blog

Live in a housing estate, or live on a housing estate? Mysteries of English prepositions

29/6/2015

0 Comments

 
In Hong Kong, around 2 million people live in  … or on ... public housing estates like this one (Kin Ming Estate, Tseung Kwan O). But which is it? Do they live IN estates or ON estates? What is the difference?
Picture

Read More
0 Comments

CYGNET VIEW: 3 reasons why official use of English is being 'neglected' in Hong Kong

19/6/2015

0 Comments

 
Picture
​Last week (8 June), the South China Morning Post published two articles about the use of English in government: "Official use of English being 'neglected' by Hong Kong government” and “The Hong Kong Government’s Language Barrier”. Each of them raised the question of whether government officials are deliberately ignoring or sidelining English, thus contributing to steadily declining English standards in the government.

Cygnet has been providing English editing, copywriting and training services to various government departments for many years. Based on our experience, I think  it is certainly the case that many government figures — and departments — are failing to lead by example. But while some commentators are quick to give this a political slant, we should not forget that maintaining a high level of proficiency in English among non-native speakers is not easy. In my view, a significant part of the problem is the fact that the government does not have any consistent formal support framework for sustaining the use of confident, accurate English across the Civil Service.


Read More
0 Comments

‘Choose' and ‘select' — which word should you choose (or select?)

5/6/2015

0 Comments

 
Picture
Recently, after I had edited a document for a client, the client got back to me to tell me that they had decided to replace all uses of the word choose in the document with the word select. I didn’t ask for the reason, but I suspect there was a feeling that select is slightly more formal and business-like than choose. 

But wait a minute — are choose and select really equivalent? 

Read More
0 Comments

Why we shouldn't invite readers to "Know more"

2/6/2015

0 Comments

 
Picture
Picture
Today’s blog post is about a curious feature of Hong Kong English — “know more” — that is increasingly commonly used to encourage you to click on a hyperlink. You can see it in the first image above performing this job. By contrast, in the second image it is part of the title of a food safety campaign.

Read More
0 Comments
    Picture

    About this blog

    This blog arises from keeping an eye on English in Hong Kong. I often use signs, notices and advertisements that I see as starting points to write about English issues that commonly challenge Hong Kong writers. 

    Archives

    October 2017
    September 2017
    June 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    April 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015

    Categories

    All
    Common Errors
    Commonly Confused Words
    Cygnet View
    Email Writing
    ESG Report
    Headings
    Hong Kong English
    Modal Verbs
    Prepositions
    Time Expressions
    Unusual Word

    RSS Feed

Home
About
Contact
  • Home
  • About
  • Our Services
  • Training
  • Our Clients
  • Portfolio
  • Blog
  • Contact