English widely spoken in Hong Kong?

Question

English widely spoken in Hong Kong?

Can one travel to HK without knowing Cantonese or Mandarin?

Can one live in HK without knowing Cantonese or Mandarin? But only knew english?

Answer 1

Lots of people do. Mandarin is not hard to learn, if you are living in a foreign country learn their language. NA's expect everyone coming here to learn English and get bent out of shape when they dont.

Its not hard, its amazingly easy and you will have a much better time in China once you learn enough Mandarin to get around and converse with its people

Answer 2

English is widely spoken in Hong Kong, Kowloon, the outlying island and the new territories.  However, when taking a taxi always have a map with you because the taxi drivers do not always speak English.

Answer 3

The vast majority of the younger generation speak it, as do touristy places but i found that in shops, supermarkets & certain areas that it can be hard to be understood. Not many speak Mandarin either.

You can easily travel without knowing anything but english though as everything is signposted in it. I got by when i was there without must trouble.

Edit - I also found that taxi drivers knew where to go everytime i took one (not often though; only after a night out) as the public transport system was top notch.

Answer 4

Mainly only in the touristy areas...

Answer 5

English is a major language in Hong Kong, and it is also an official one. Knowing that, I would guess that it is very widely spoken so it would probably be possible to live there without knowing Cantonese or Mandorin. Also, there is a slight variant of the English language known as "Hong Kong English" which might play a role.

Although learning Cantonese would be highly recommended if you were going to live there.

Answer 6

For a former British Colony, English isn't as widely spoken as you would think, but enough people speak English well enough for you to easily get by and you could spend a week or years there and don't really need to know any Cantonese or Mandarin. Of course, it never hurts to learn either language, especially Cantonese, you'll eat better if you know how to order in Cantonese.

Answer 7

I lived there for 3 years and the vast majority of people speak English. You will have no problem.