ABSTRACT
Language is a powerful force in establishing, forming and preserving a person’s cultural identity. It shows that the language most youngsters said they spoke the best was English followed by Cantonese. Other languages such as Hakka, Mandarin and Vietnamese accounted for a small number. Some youngsters said they were bilingual in both Cantonese and English. One approach which seemed worth taking was to attempt to discover if there were elements in their personal biographies – their place of birth, age on arrival and length of stay – which affected their language selection. Chi-square tests were used in order to find out the possibilities of such associations. Chinese languages clearly remain important to young people as a means of communicating with their parents in addition to any value they perceive in them as part of their cultural identity. Outside the home, British-Chinese youngsters have to use English to communicate with others as a matter of survival.
