Government Language Policy
After the handover, the government of Hong Kong adopted the "biliterate and trilingual" (兩文三語) policy. Under this policy, Chinese and English must both be acknowledged as official languages, with Cantonese being acknowledged as the de facto official spoken variety of Chinese in Hong Kong, while also accepting the use of Mandarin.
The Civil Service Bureau monitors the implementation of the government's language policy at the civil level, the Department of Justice governs the legal aspect and the Education and Manpower Bureau monitors the educational aspect.
Read more about this topic: Languages Of Hong Kong
Famous quotes containing the words government, language and/or policy:
“Learn to shrink yourself to the size of the company you are in. Take their tone, whatever it may be, and excell in it if you can; but never pretend to give the tone. A free conversation will no more bear a dictator than a free government will.”
—Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (16941773)
“Play for young children is not recreation activity,... It is not leisure-time activity nor escape activity.... Play is thinking time for young children. It is language time. Problem-solving time. It is memory time, planning time, investigating time. It is organization-of-ideas time, when the young child uses his mind and body and his social skills and all his powers in response to the stimuli he has met.”
—James L. Hymes, Jr. (20th century)
“Will mankind never learn that policy is not morality,that it never secures any moral right, but considers merely what is expedient? chooses the available candidate,who is invariably the devil,and what right have his constituents to be surprised, because the devil does not behave like an angel of light? What is wanted is men, not of policy, but of probity,who recognize a higher law than the Constitution, or the decision of the majority.”
—Henry David Thoreau (18171862)