​"Today, many Hong Kong Chinese children also find themselves in confusion about their native language. They speak that English with a Filipino accent, acquired by daily proximity to their maid… My minibus driver in Kowloon Tong exhibits an admirable command of Tagalog, and is besieged by a flock of willing tutor-passengers who want to know when he’s moving to Manila…" (Chako, 1995)

​

In an affluent city like Hong Kong, many people tend to employ domestic helpers to assist in their housework. According to the Census and Statistic Department, the number of foreign domestic helpers in Hong Kong in 2011 is 292,500​​, of which around 140,000​​​​​​ ​​of them are Filipinos. By 1990 most foreign domestic helpers in Hong Kong were from the Philippines. Despite the rising proportion of domestic helpers from Indonesia and Thailand since then, people tend to make connections between Filipinos and foreign domestic helpers as “bun bun”(賓賓, a slang which means female Filipino maids) is widely used by local people when they are referring to any foreign domestic helper.

​

Since the 1970s there has already been a trend of increasing labour export in the Philippines to Hong Kong due to the poor economy in the Philippines. Indeed, the economy of the Phillippines heavily depends on its labour export. Commission on Filipinos Overseas (2010) estimated that there were around 8.6 million Filipinos working or living outside the Philippines (more than 10 percent of its population) as of December 2009. The labour export policy in the Phillipines contributes to the fact that the Filipinos being export to other countries to work are usually those who receive higher education and know more languages other than Tagalog. It is because only by acquiring other languages like English can they communicate with people effectively during  their employment in other countries. As a result, it is not uncommon for us to notice that many Filipino domestic helpers in Hong Kong can speak not only Tagalog but English or even Mandarin!



We believe that you may have some daily encounters with some Filipino domestic helpers in Hong Kong before.

What languages did they use in order to communicate with you? What languages would they use when talking to their employers, their agencies or friends in Hong Kong? English, Cantonese​, Tagalog, dialects from various regions in the Phillippines​ (You know what, there are around 175 dialects in the Philippines!) or “Taglish”? Do they feel comfortable using a particular language under different contexts?



 

We specifically choose the Filipino domestic helpers​ in Hong Kong as the target linguistic community in this research because Filipino is the second largest minority group in Hong Kong and the number of Filipino domestic helpers working in Hong Kong is the highest among all domestic helpers from other countries. What's more, the Filipino domestic helpers always have close interactions with us. They live in their employee's home and have many interactions with local people in daily lives. 

​

In this website, we are going to offer you an insight on the language use of Filipino domestic helpers in Hong Kong.

 



Methodology:

In order to take a deeper insight into this linguistic community, our group has conducted a total of 30 questionnaires and 15 face-to-face interviews during our visit to the Filipino domestic helpers at the St. Joseph Church in Central, where myriads of Filipino domestic helpers would gather every Sunday afternoon. The Filipino domestic helper of one of our group-mates is also interviewed.



With all the research findings, we are going to explore  the interrelationship between Filipino domestic helpers and the multilingual context of HK​.



Furthermore, the attitudes of the Filipino domestic helpers towards a certain language​ especially Tagalog and English as well as how they define their identity with the languages they use will be investigated.

​

Want to know more about the interesting findings?
Check it out NOW!​