Can you get by in Hong Kong without knowing Chinese?

freakydestroyer

freakydestroyer

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Fellow NTers anybody been to HK, or is from there shed some light. I'm thinking about living there for a few years. Kind of random. But I want to live inanother country for a few years, and I think this is the best probably the best place for someone who knows only English?
 
My cousin's friend is backpacking throughout Asia and I know for a fact that she doesn't know any Asian language except for Tagalog.
 
Well it really depends. If you are going to be in mostly tourist/busy areas a lot of the people know enough english to communicate with you. I know that a lotof people actually speak decent English over there cause its like a mandatory language that the schools teach.

If you go to spots where they sell boot legs and stuff (if thats what you do) they gonna try to hustle you like crazy. But yeah pretty much all the spots thatI've been to they've been able to speak pretty well in English.
 
^ yup singapore is even more 'english' than HK due to a more mixture of culture/ people.

HK is one of the financial centers in the world. and if you did not know, HK was under Great Britain until 1997.

so english was part of HK daily life/ education. most people know english, not very well but enough to understand essential english and communicate withforeigners.

but currently it is getting more 'chinese' as HK is now under China, and people are being educated in Cantonese/ Chinese than comes English in thirdplace.
 
Depends how black you are. You should be able to bag no problem though. And yeah street signs are in English and Chinese.
 
Originally Posted by freakydestroyer

But I want to live in another country for a few years, and I think this is the best probably the best place for someone who knows only English?
Click to expand...
An English speaking Country would be the best place.
 
Most important things...
Are street signs in English
nerd.gif
?
Will I be able to bag chicks at the clubs speaking English? I'm black/white/asian if it matters.
How's transportation, is it like NY where public transportation takes you anywhere you need to go?
 
Originally Posted by CadillacFLOW

Originally Posted by freakydestroyer

But I want to live in another country for a few years, and I think this is the best probably the best place for someone who knows only English?
Click to expand...
An English speaking Country would be the best place.
Click to expand...
Hong Kong was a British Colony, so most people know English. And no I don't want to go to Britain or Canada.
 
Originally Posted by freakydestroyer

Originally Posted by CadillacFLOW

Originally Posted by freakydestroyer

But I want to live in another country for a few years, and I think this is the best probably the best place for someone who knows only English?
Click to expand...
An English speaking Country would be the best place.
Click to expand...
Hong Kong was a British Colony, so most people know English. And no I don't want to go to Britain or Canada.
Click to expand...
Australia?
 
whoever said hong kong is one of the most dangerous places obviously knows nothing about the city, let alone visited the place or lived there. lived there fora few years as a toddler, been there 5 times since.. was there this last summer actually. i can barely read chinese and i got lost in the MTR(subway station).i was spose to go to another part of hong kong 15 mins away, took me an hour and a half cause i mis-read the directions. but hong kong is really international.my uncle is italian and he's been living there for 6 years now and he loves it.

one thing though, to live in hong kong you'll have to have a LOT of money. the size of one of my aunts condo's is the size of my dorm. ull have to bemillionaire to afford a house. u cant really do much in hong kong without money.
 
Originally Posted by freakydestroyer

Most important things...
Are street signs in English
nerd.gif
?
Will I be able to bag chicks at the clubs speaking English? I'm black/white/asian if it matters.
How's transportation, is it like NY where public transportation takes you anywhere you need to go?
Click to expand...
^ yup, most streets, especially tourist/ clubbing streets have both chinese/ english.

the clubs/ pubs are packed with 'foreigners', thinking the same thing as you... so u think u will get by in the clubs with english??
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but like other said, if you go to 'non-tourist' places, don't expect everyone speaks/ know english. like any other country, if you go to farm landin some countries, they only speak their local language, and zero english, which is understandable.
 
yeah if u wanna hit up bars and clubs, go to LKF (lwan kwai fong) lots of british and euro-trash broads down for anything. hong kong is relatively safe... urarely hear about murders or anything.. mainly crimes of extortion. prostitution/pick-pocketing... and BOOTLEGS lol.
 
I don't like Euro Trash Broads. I want the Asian chicks like the ones I see in the Hot Asian Women thread
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And are there a lot of White/Asian mixes there since Britain did colonize them for all those years?
 
transportation is relative expensive (compare to local standards), pretty cheap compare to other countries. it can get you everywhere. on average on MTR, twoto three stations will cost you like $ 6-10 HKD (compare this to food in HK, a bowl of noodle is like $ 10-20).

the only expensive part in HK is transportation/ living, food is damn cheap. i also use the Mcdonld standard: ice cream cones in HK are $ 2.50 HKD (use to be $2), compare to Canada, where i live is $ 1.50 CDN = $ 9 HKD.

but if you only know english, stick with the MTR for transportation. if u run into problems in MTR, ask the MTR station workers, they are super courteous andhelpful. and yes you might get lost in the MTR, due to many lines (like 5-10 lines) and transferring to a different line in the transfer stations can bedifficult.
 
You can definitely get by in HK without knowing Chinese. The majority of younger people (under 30) can speak/understand some English. There's also a largeexpatriate population, mainly consisting of British people. It also attracts a lot of British tourism due to it being a former British colony. There's anarea called Lan Kwai Fong (in Central on Hong Kong Island) that is basically the bar/club area of the city. Tons of foreigners.

Although I may be biased since I'm Chinese, I found it a lot more difficult conversing to Singaporeans due to their bastardization of the language.
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Singlish
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Originally Posted by freakydestroyer

I don't like Euro Trash Broads. I want the Asian chicks like the ones I see in the Hot Asian Women thread
devil.gif
devil.gif
And are there a lot of White/Asian mixes there since Britain did colonize them for all those years?
Click to expand...
go to Japan too man. i heard Japan party chicks are crazy and down for anything.

and check the Japanese pr0n, Japan got some damn fine Asian girls. better looking than HK girls IMO.
laugh.gif
 
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