ABSTRACT
I do not belong to the small number of people in Hong Kong born into families and communities that provide them with the ample English linguistic and cultural capital (Bourdieu, 1982/1991; Delpit, 1988) needed to succeed in school in a British colony, where English is the key to academic success and socioeconomic advancement. My parents do not speak any English. People we know all speak Cantonese, which is our daily language. I grew up in a home and community where few had the linguistic resources to use English at all, and even if anyone had, he or she would have found it socially inappropriate (e.g., sounding pompous, putting on airs) to speak English.
