Newsletter (2017-2018) January 2018 Newsletter | Page 13

“How are you?”
Hong Kong’s Answer to the UK
So, remember the title of this article? You should
By Tyler Wong
know that, next time you talk to people from En-
“I stepped into a puddle in the morning. Now gland and they happen to ask you how you are
I’ve got my trousers wet and muddy. I’m really (which will happen quite frequently, to be hon-
unlucky today,” I said, sighing and rubbing the est), you should never say something negative,
regardless of how disastrous your situation is.
mud off my trousers with a tissue.
Or… maybe you could mention it a little if you
That was my answer to a UK primary teacher are devastated to a point that you’re having sui-
whose class I was observing that day. Given that cidal thoughts.
I truly had a bad start to the day, I told the teach-
Beside this iconic how-are-you question, I heard
er how I was. All seemed normal but…
more “unusual” expressions from English peo-
“Alright, so,” the teacher continued, “how are ple during my stay in Britain. In the following
part, I’m going to share my experiences with two
you, mentally?”
of these expressions. I did not know what the ex-
Mentally? What did he mean by mentally? Was pressions below actually meant until I saw a pic-
he trying to hint that he understood that the in- ture from a Facebook page, Uncle Siu’s British
cident made me physically bad, so now he was English Club (蕭叔叔英式英⽂學會). I could not
asking about my mental wellbeing? Was it not agree more with the translations in this table.
obvious I was not okay? How strange of the
teacher to ask such question.
Puzzled, I went to find the only person who
could dispel my confusion. “No, you are the
strange one,” said Ida, my Hong Kong-born
aunt who has lived in England for the past fif-
teen years. Brits, Ida told me, are used to “pos-
itivity”. In contrast to their expected positivity,
my frank and depressing answer crushed the
teacher’s expectations. Sentences such as, “I’m
wonderful, thanks,” should be the perfect and
expected responses for strangers or acquaintanc-
es -- the teacher, for example.
You may not believe this but as I lived there
longer and longer, I overheard more and more
“positive” conversations: teachers praising their
student’s paintings, family members sharing
how well they have been, and a group of wom-
en talking about their favourite tennis players.
Positivity is everywhere. The local British people
themselves probably would not notice; however,
as an outsider, I absorbed all the sounds and im-
ages of them talking positively, like a camera re-
cording a video. I could always capture the aura
of positivity from them.
“That’s not bad.”
What others understand: “That’s bad.”
What the British mean: “That’s good.”
While I was volunteering at a school, there was
a school geography project about China. As re-
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JANUARY 2018