His global career and international perspectives

After his year in China, Professor Kirkpatrick worked for two and a half years in Hong Kong, both as a teacher teaching English to Chinese students at the British Council and as a journalist, working primarily for the Far Eastern Economic Review, where he also translated Chinese news into English. This teacher-journalist working experience triggered Professor Kirkpatrick's pursuit of an MA in Linguistics and subsequently his PhD in Chinese Rhetoric.

This diverse portfolio led to a teaching career in Singapore, Myanmar and Australia before bringing him back to Hong Kong. Given his wide exposure and long experience in teaching English as a second language, Professor Kirkpatrick is ideally qualified to comment on language policies, and English language policy in particular.

The myth of a "model" English language

Having taught English in so many Asian countries, Professor Kirkpatrick is very sensitive to questions such as "What is the ideal English model?" Citing the British heartthrob and celebrated soccer player, David Beckham and his often used sentence, "I don' know nuffink", the Professor points out that he does not sound the final 't' in 'don't', uses the double negative for emphasis and pronounces "nothing" in the local dialect as "nuffink" At the same time Rap, not considered the best language model, is widely popular among young people, especially middle-class white teenagers, in the English-speaking world.