Ordinary Gweilo

A story in today’s Standard about a more imaginative response to the ‘problem’ of falling numbers of school-age children:

With a decline in enrolment, the Buddhist Bright Pearl Primary School in Sha Tin started small-class teaching in Primary One for the 2002-03 school year with financial support from the Hong Kong Buddhist Association. Class sizes were reduced from 32 to a maximum of 25 students. Teachers were instructed to adopt interactive teaching practices, including language games.

After the first year, the average scores of its students in the English test of the Hong Kong Attainment Test (a standardised measure for primary school students) increased by 22.7 per cent.

What really caught my attention was this phrase:

A school survey revealed that parents were supportive as the initiative appeared to pique their children’s interest.

Pique their interest? Pique is normally only used to mean that someone is upset, as in the phrase ‘a fit of pique’ (or to describe a type of fabric). Yes it can also mean ‘arouse’, as here, but only really when you have done something provocative or challenging. Without knowing the details, it is possible that this is what they mean, but what is wrong with using the simple words ‘arouse’ or ‘stimulate’ so that it is clear what is meant?

It’s one of the things I find most frustrating about the way English is used in Hong Kong – simple straightforward English is replaced with over-complex (often flowery) prose that is difficult to understand. Often the words are technically correct, but frequently the language is so archaic or obscure that even native English speakers get confused, and unsurprisingly these words often get used wrongly – presumably because someone misunderstood the meaning when they were used “correctly”.

In the UK, there has been a fairly successful ‘Plain English’ campaign, aimed mainly at companies who come up with highly confusing legal agreements, but also directed at bureaucrats who publish ‘explanations’ that leave you uncertain what you are being told. However, it is good common sense that if you want people to understand what you are telling them you should keep it clear and simple.