Have you every imagined living in a house where everyone is speaking a language that you cannot understand and communicate with you in a language that you can speak but are not familiar with? This is the daily context faced by many foreign domestic helpers in Hong Kong families. While most family in Hong Kong and so do foreign domestic helpers can speak English, it is being used as main medium of communication between them.

 

According to Immigration Department, until 31st December, 2013, there are about 320 000 foreign domestic helpers working in Hong Kong, of which 56% are Filipino and 41% are Indonesian. While they were studying in their home country, they spoke in their native language which were only used when they are spending time with their friends in Hong Kong. They have to use English as main language of communication with their employer and other people they encounter in daily life. How will this affect the foreign domestic helpers’ identity positioning and language attitude? 

 

In this website, we interviewed 2 Filipino domestic helpers working in Hong Kong currently and analysed their answers to try figuring out the influence of Hong Kong context on their identity positioning and language attitude.