Many Hong Kong parents, myself included, believe that it is best for their children to learn English from native-English speaking teachers. They send their children to expensive private schools with a high proportion of expatriate teachers from Britain, Australia and Canada. Some parents go a step further by insisting on nothing less than schools with curriculums for expatriate children.

Now, we are told that we may all be wrong. Learning to speak English from native English speaking teachers can inhibit, rather than facilitate, the use of the language, according to Andy Kirkpatrick, chair professor of English as a professional language at the Hong Kong Institute of Education.

Kirkpatrick's argument in favor of teaching English to Hong Kong students by mutilingual teachers is likely to stir a storm of controversy among educators, and prompt many parents to rethink if it is worth the trouble and expense to send their children to these special schools. Speaking of his hypothesis, Kirkpatrick was quoted to have said: "it's a revolutionary shift that we're arguing for, and it's that the multilingual way becomes the linguistic model for teaching kids English, not that of a native English speaker."

The professor contends that most English speakers in Hong Kong are multilingual and therefore "the benchmark for children should come from successful multilinguals."

Such an argument is based on the assumption that students will feel more at ease, and therefore more willing, to speak English the way they learn it from teachers who are, like themselves, native Cantonese speakers who speak English with a distinct local accent. This seems to make a lot of sense.

I went to an Anglican church school where most of the teachers were from England, speaking what we thought was proper English. But most of us never learned to speak like them. As a young man fresh out of school, I felt inhibited at talking to native-English speakers and stuttered in embarrassment whenever someone said he missed what I said, even in the most friendly and casual way.

It took me a long while to realize that most people I met, including my expatriate colleagues in an English-language daily newspaper, spoke English with some kind of accent. And we managed to understand each other pretty well.

I don't usually talk to my Hong Kong friends in English. But when I listen to our government officials and celebrities making public speeches in English, I could not only catch every word they said, but also felt a warm feeling of kinship.

My experience in learning to speak Mandarin was similar. There is a popular saying on the mainland that nothing is more torturous than having to listen to a Cantonese speaking Mandarin. Some of my friends went to Mandarin classes in Hong Kong. But their excessive concern for speaking proper Mandarin usually makes them tongue-tied when they are on the mainland. It is a real pain to hear them speaking so slowly and deliberately even when giving directions to taxi drivers.

I didn't go to Mandarin classes. I just picked up my Mandarin from watching mainland television drama series and I have never had any problem communicating in Mandarin with anyone in Beijing or Shanghai. I may be torturing them, but they understood - most of the time - what I said and I never felt inhibited in speaking the language.

I never gave my language learning experience much thought until I read about Professor Kirkpatrick. He seems to have made a valid point that we should all take note of. Just remember never to laugh at your English-speaking friend trying to talk to you in the Cantonese he has learned.

The author is a staff writer.

(HK Edition 06/10/2011 page3)