政府法定語文主任協會 Government Official Languages Officers Association

17 December, 2001

Mr. YIM King-wa,
Chief Chinese Language Officer,
Training Section,
Official Languages Agency,
23/F Queensway Government Offices,
Hong Kong

Dear Sir,

        I refer to the Commissioner’s letter of 10 November 2001. Our views on the proposal are as follows:

1. We agree that there is a need to “broaden the scope of language training” but we doubt whether engaging an English language consultant can serve the purpose. The Training Section has organized quite a few English training courses conducted by university lecturers and professors and, as far as we know, the feedback from the participants has been encouraging. By inviting external lecturers on an ad hoc basis, we can draw on a wide range of expertise that is unlikely to be found in one person or a single tertiary institution.
   
2. We welcome the proposal to provide more support to our colleagues in the use of English. Although we are not opposed to the engagement of an English language consultant for this purpose, we do not think that is the only way to achieve this aim. We concede that a native speaker is generally more sensitive to the subtleties of their mother tongue. However, as many of our colleagues are highly proficient in English, some of them having studied or lived abroad, OLA may consider making use of their expertise first. The existing Chinese help-desk can be extended to answer questions from CLOs on the use of English and a forum can be provided on the OLA Intranet, which will be in operation next June, for our colleagues to help each other.
   
3. Should OLA decide to implement the proposal, we suggest that a full-time consultant be employed in order to ensure a high and reliable service level. The consultant may not necessarily be a native speaker since a bilingual person highly proficient in English and Chinese may be able to give more practical and useful advice on English translations. In any case, the consultant should have good qualifications and relevant experience. Arrangements should be made for some of our colleagues to work closely with the consultant with a view to achieving the long-term aim of making CLOs English language consultants themselves.
   
4. Since some of our colleagues are worried that the engagement of an English language consultant may undermine our status, we propose that, should a consultant be commissioned, he/she should only provide support to CLOs but not other officers, and the whole exercise should be conducted in low profile.

        We appreciate the eagerness and earnestness of OLA in enhancing the English standard of our grade. As the proposal is both innovative and controversial, we urge OLA to take account of the views of our colleagues and us before proceeding with the proposal.

　

Yours sincerely,

　

(TIN Kai-yin)

Chairman, GCLOA