LANGUAGE AND IDENTITY
OF
AFRICAN COMMUNITY WORKERS
IN HK
By Lord Yeung, Samson Wong, Koy Kwong & Sarah Macbride
We are a group of students from the University of Hong Kong working on our course LCOM3001: Cultural Dimensions of Language and Communication instructed by Dr Lisa Lim. In this website, we are glad to share our insight(s) on some language and identity issues regarding African community workers in Hong Kong. Meanwhile, please join us in exploring some interesting aspects about Africa.
Sit back and RELAX. Let's begin with some COOL African Music : )
WHO WE ARE?
On perspective #2: Language and image building
From our research, we have identified that both Ali and Dixon are multilingual speakers (speak at least 4 different languages) and possess multiple social roles. For example, Dixon is a freelance graphic designer, organizational secretary of ACHK, a business consultant, as well as a keen volunteer for community services in Hong Kong. Our stance is that, as a speaker seeks to present distinct social identities (images that he or she intends to convey) in different social roles, Ali and Dixon are creative users of linguistic resources around them to project multiple identities that they want certain interlocutors to see.
Literature review
Such a stance is based on the trend of "fluid perspective" in scholarly writings on language and identity, which views that (1) a person constructs different identities in different social domains and that (2) social identities are not constants but are communicatively produced. Under such a view, language is seen as a make-up for us to tell many versions of our "self", while there is no telling which version is the 'correct one'. Hence, this type of scholars believe that identities are not "natural facts about us, but things we construct" (Djité, 2006). For example, in a study of African American drag queens (AADQ) in the US, Barrett (1999) argued that this group of speakers typically use linguistic resources to index multiple identities as "African Americans", "gay men", and "draq queens" to emphasize certain dimensions of themselves.
Our findings
