6D Tracy Wong
Learning English through Social Issues
While Hong Kong people are complaining about the poor manners of many mainlanders, recently a foreigner expressed his shock and discontentment about the bad behavior of Hong Kongers in a concert in the press. You share his view and would like to submit an entry to your school’s newsletter. Quote some evidence to show how ill-mannered some Hong Kong people are and suggest measures to improve the situation. Give a title to your article.
Dear Sir/Madam,
After reading the article ‘ Appalled by bad manners of Hong Kongers in a concert’ written by Marcus Tomalin on 1st December, I do share most of his grievances towards the worsening manners of Hong Kong young people. It is saddening to see many talented Hong Kongers showing disregard to an acclaimed and talented musician.
While Hong Kongers are strongly critical of the barbaric acts of the mainland visitors, they are actually throwing stones to their own glass houses. Their ;ate arrival and inappropriate use of smartphones during the concert definitely reflect the declining awareness of good manners. What is worth discussing is that, this type of scandal is not an isolated case.
As everyone knows, Hong Kongers recently have misbehaved in a significant football match. When the Chinese National anthem was played on the football pitch, havoc arose. hong Kong audience were booing and raising provocative banners like ‘ I am not a Chinese’. No matter how much hatred had accumulated among the disgruntled mass, Hong Kong people should clearly understand the importance of respect and civility. This incident would probably send out a message to the international community that Hong Kongers are uncivilized as they did not even know the basic rule of respecting their own country.
Other than this ridiculous shame, Hong Kongers also neglected their manners when they were too bust tapping along the smartphones. Walking along any of the streets in Hong Kong, one may not be surprised to find out the ‘ smartphone addicts’ bumping into people without any apology. Citing my personal experience, I once saw a man walking into a wall because he was too indulged in his smartphone, being unaware of everything around him. Yet, what astonished me was that the man just snapped at the wall after he got hurt. It seemed like the wall should be the culprit of his injury instead of his unawareness. All these indicate that Hong Kongers are becoming more self-centered and ignoring the needs and feelings of others.
In order to improve the manners of Hong Kong people, I think education is the key to reforming the mentality of Hong Kongers. Note that youngsters nowadays are affected by exam-oriented and hyper competitive social norms, most people focus on striving for personal achievements rather than excelling in conduct. The lack of altruism eventually leads to irresponsible and awful manners. Taking all these into consideration, it is the inevitable responsibility for the government to educate the public.
The government, especially the Education Bureau, could consider the possibility to add more elements of civic education to teaching materials. And this measure, at best, could be taken up to secondary level. Apart from education at schools, the government should step up with the promotion of good manners by cooperating with media like TVB. Though soap operas produced by media, Hong Kongers could be influenced by meaningful moral messages and they would try to be more considerate of others.
Education aside, business firms could offer etiquette classes to their employees. The mainland business sector has realized the importance of etiquette and many corporations are trying to cultivate the civility of employees. If Hong Kongers do not want to lag behind the mainlanders in terms of manners, they will have to equip themselves with courtesy and decency. From the etiquette classes, Hong Kongers could learn how to respect others like taking the initiative to greet others, talking to people without looking at their smartphones, saying tank you to show thankfulness and so on. This may improve the awareness of Hong Kongers towards good manners.
Gone are the days when Hong Kong people could point their fingers at gauze to the mainlanders. I hope that Hong Kongers will emphasize the significance of respect again.