From perceptual dialectology to perceptual multilingualism: a Hong Kong case study

Figures & data

Figure 1. Map of Hong Kong’s main areas.

© China Discovery https://www.chinadiscovery.com/hongkong-tours/maps.html

Figure 2. French and Japanese in the linguistic landscape of Hung Hom MTR station.

Figure 3. Second and third languages in New York boroughs.

Figure 4. Tallied representation of specific languages from 41 maps.

Figure 5. Collated responses.

Figure 6. Example of map reproducing official language ideology.

Figure 7. Example of map challenging dominant ideology with Hakka.

Figure 8. Map excluding Mandarin in favour of Chinese minority languages.

Figure 9. ‘Chinese’ as ‘Cantonese’.

Figure 10. ‘Chinese’ as ‘Mandarin’.

Table

15.00–15.05	Welcome and introduction
15.05–15.10	What is multilingualism? A cognitive phenomenon. A communicative practice. Linguistic diversity in society.
15.10–15.15	Class discussion of societal multilingualism using linguistic landscape Display various images of linguistic landscape in Asia (see below). Ask the students to guess which languages are represented. Ask the students to guess which country the signs are in.
15.15–15.30	Urban multilingualism Ask the students the critical question whether countries and cities speak one language (raising and challenging one-country, one-language ideology). Show and discuss with students maps of New York of 2nd and 3rd languages per borough (see article text for maps).
15.30–16.00	Activity Give the students a map of Hong Kong. Display the same map, but much larger, on a white board for the class to see. Ask the students ‘Can we represent different languages in Hong Kong like we can in New York? If so, show on the map. If not, write why not’. Ask the students to also put each of their entries onto a post-it note and then stick that post-it note on the corresponding location on the map on the whiteboard. When finished, the students gather around the whiteboard map and see/reflect on/discuss the collated responses of the class as a whole. Hold a semi-structured chat with the group about whether they are surprised or not, do they agree with other students, what is missing etc.