又中又英 - 「最後」介詞小心用錯

I told you in my previous column how Chan Hak-kan no longer dares to speak English after he became a laughingstock for saying "We will try our breast" instead of "best". Chan Hak-kan needs to learn a lesson from legislative councillor Longhair Leung Kwok Hung. Longhair's English also needs to improve but at least he dares to speak it. He's brave enough to do English TV and radio interviews with both the Hong Kong and international media. 　

When Longhair criticized Financial Secretary John Tsang Chun-wah's last budget he said, "I don't think John Tsang had done his job in the end of the day." He made a common Hong Kong mistake by saying "in" instead of "at" the end of the day. A survey in Australia found that "at the end of the day" is the most over-used expression in the English media. It simply means "ultimately" or "finally". So try using those simple words instead.

Longhair also said of John Tsang Chun-wah, "He only spent $1.4 billion to create short-time jobs for the people who need to put their hands to their mouths. If he meant the job is not permanent, he should have said "short-term" or "temporary", not "short-time". If he meant the job only requires someone to work part of the day he should have said "part-time."

又中又英 - 說錯「乳房」 不應怕說英語

The DAB's Chan Hak-kan doesn't dare speak English anymore after he became the butt of jokes for saying "We will try our breast" instead of "try our best". Someone becomes the butt of jokes when he is a target of ridicule. I called Chan Hak-kan some months later to invite him to my English-language TV show.

He didn't even dare come to the phone. He asked his assistant to turn down my interview request. I have not heard him speak English since 2008. That incident also scared off legislative councillor Kam Nai-wai. I invited him to my show but he told me he did not want to be laughed at like Chan Hak-kan.

They are both wrong for not daring to speak English anymore. The more you speak the better you become.

Not daring to speak it shows a lack of confidence. As legislative councillors they should prove to the public they have confidence in themselves.

又中又英 - 亂用visitation笑甩牙

Use simple and short words whenever you can – that's my advice to anyone learning English. This helps you avoid mistakes, especially if your English is not very good. Examination Authority Secretary-General Francis Cheung's English is quite good, but he misused a word last week in such a way that it made me laugh.

This is what he said when commenting on the form five Certificate of Education (CE) exam results,“Every time when I have visitations to overseas institutions I receive a lot of feedback from university tertiary institutions and secondary schools that they hold a high regard of our CE and A-level qualifications.”

No mother-tongue English speaker would use the word “visitation” that way. In America the word is commonly used when a court grants a divorced parent visitation rights to see his or her children. The word is mostly used in a religious context. For example, a bishop can conduct a visitation to a diocese to solve a problem. Another way to use the word is to describe a visit by a spiritual being or an alien from another planet. For example, you can say,“Many people insist they have witnessed visitations by creatures from another planet.”That is why I laughed when Cheung used the word to describe his overseas visits.

又中又英 - 留意語境 活用英文

If you're middle-aged, older, or are familiar with Hong Kong's past you will know that before the age of instant news the Hong Kong Observatory physically raised or hoisted typhoon signals onto selected towers on high ground. Residents could then see what number typhoon was up.

When I returned to Hong Kong from the USA as head of ATV's English news department about eight years ago a young reporter wrote a news item saying the number eight typhoon signal had been raised. He also alternated with the word hoisted elsewhere in the same news item.

We received a call from the Hong Kong Observatory saying we should no longer use raised or hoisted since the Observatory had long stopped the practice of physically raising typhoon signal symbols on high ground. We were told to say the Observatory issued the number eight signal instead. I was astonished. I instructed my staff to ignore the Observatory's complaint. The person who called us up clearly didn't know his English. He had applied too narrow a definition for the words raised and hoisted.

又中又英 - 不運用只會失去

There is a popular American saying: Use it or lose it. It means, for example, if you have won a free plane ticket valid for six months you must use it or it will expire. I always advise people whose English is not that good to use it or lose it which means if you don't speak it you will not be good at it. The term came to mind after I tried to invite Ellis Lau Ying-tung to come on my English-language TV show. He is competing against Paul Zimmerman in next month's Pokfulam District Council by-election. Lau never called me back but told his staff to reject my invitation.

I later learned he was too worried about his English to be on the same TV show with Zimmerman. Under the election rules for the media I must invite both candidates. The show's purpose was, of course, not to test their English but to introduce two relatively unknown candidates to voters. Lau's refusal astonished me. He is an Oxford graduate. If even Oxford graduates in Hong Kong lack the confidence to speak English on TV with westerners what hope is there to improve our overall English standards?

又中又英 - 小心使用All walks of life

Many of you will have heard the expression "all walks of life" It means people from different sectors of society. Police Inspectors’ Association chairman Tony Liu Kit-ming used the expression recently. But he used it incorrectly. He wanted to make the point that everyone in the society was unhappy about the lenient sentence Amina Bokhary received for slapping a policeman. He said, "All walks of life in Hong Kong are very concerned because this case touch the fundamental values of Hong Kong, the rule of law."

What he should have said was "People from all walks of life are very concerned......" It's the people who are concerned. Walks of life are not living things so they cannot be concerned. The other mistake Liu made is not serious but very common. He said, "this case touch" instead of "this case touches......" He used the word case in the singular so he must say "touches". If he used it in the plural, he should say "these cases touch......"

又中又英 - 精簡官話:「STRIKE A BALANCE」含義

Our top government officials love to use a term which I hate. The term is: strike a balance. Lately, it has become a mantra in the government's vocabulary. The word mantra is Indian in origin and describes sacred Hindu chants that are repeated over and over again in meditation or prayer. When a Buddhist monk repeats the same prayer over and over again you can also call it a mantra.

But many English speakers now use the word to describe anything that becomes repetitive. Listen carefully when our officials speak English and you will catch many of them repeating the expression strike a balance. It has become a mantra.

To strike a balance means to find a compromise or middle ground. For example, you can say: You must strike a balance between how much you earn and how much you spend. But to me, the government's constant use of the expression shows a lack of guts. It shows the government doesn't dare have its own vision. Compromise is sometimes necessary. But government should also be brave enough to pursue policies it believes in without having to compromise.

又中又英 - Actually口頭禪要不得

After the government released the three designs for the West Kowloon Cultural District, I heard Dr Chan Man Wai being interviewed on RTHK 's English channel. He is a senior official with the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority. I didn 't pay much attention until I realized Dr Chan was doing something that many Hong Kong people do when they speak English.

He was using the word actually unnecessarily in almost every sentence. I went on RTHK 's website to listen again. He had used actually 21 times in a four-minute interview!

Look at how many times he used the word in just one sentence when he was asked about the design plans, "Actually, you have to actually digest it, spend some time and actually look into the details before you can actually have a more detailed impression of actually what the plans are talking about." That 's five times! All five were unnecessary.

If you removed them all, the sentence will still be OK. Actually, it will be even better! The way I just used actually is how you 're supposed to use it. If your girlfriend is wearing a pink dress and you mistakenly complement her on her red dress she will reply, "Actually, it 's pink."

又中又英 - half-mast（下半旗）之上的亡魂

Were you glued to the TV watching the Manila hostage drama in which seven Hong Kong tourists and their guide died? Glue, as you know, is a liquid to stick things together. But when something on TV is so exciting that you cannot stop watching you can say: I was glued to the TV.

Everyone is describing the killing of eight Hong Kong people as a tragedy. The word is often used to describe something sad, such as when people are killed in a bus crash or when a child dies from falling out a window.

But did you know tragedy came from an ancient Greek word to describe a form of art such as a drama or poem about human suffering? When people say Greek tragedies they are referring to ancient plays with sad endings.

又中又英 - 阿基諾在smirk　不是smile

Were you among those who got really angry watching Philippines president Benigno Aquino on TV a day after eight Hong Kong hostages died in a Manila bus hijack? Many Hong Kong people were furious(which means angry)that he smiled while discussing the tragedy. Actually, it was not a smile,it was a smirk. A smirk is when someone smiles in an unpleasant,self-satisfying way. You can say︰My wife's lover smirked at me after I caught them in bed together.

People often smirk when they feel they have proved you wrong. For example, your girlfriend can smirk at you for getting wet in the rain after you ignored her advice to take an umbrella. But many people smirk out of habit. Former US president George W. Bush has a bad habit of smirking. When he was president he smirked even when talking about the Iraq war and the global financial crisis. There are many videos of him on the internet doing it. Just google Bush smirks.