“This is my first time interacting with non-Chinese students. I find it interesting and meaningful.” (Nicole) 

Nicole, a Cantonese-speaking local student, was enrolled in my course, Introduction to Translation Technology. I’ve heard similar feedback from other students.

The non-Chinese students Nicole refers to are often labelled “ethnic minorities” and typically refer to South Asians. Whether they are newly arrived immigrants or longstanding residents of Hong Kong, many of them may not speak the city’s two primary languages – Cantonese and Mandarin – affecting their full participation in society, particularly in education. 

Hong Kong classrooms have been accused of “de facto [ethnic] segregation”, as Chinese and linguistic minority students are often taught separately. This segregation restricts the educational and career opportunities for the latter, apart from those attending international schools. 

As a result, translator education in Hong Kong often involves only Chinese and English languages, narrowing the perspectives offered to students. Here, I’ll share my experiences of promoting intercultural communication among Hong Kong’s youth and other individuals from different backgrounds by creating multicultural and multilingual environments in translator education classrooms.

Hong Kong’s linguistic and ethnic diversity

Hong Kong is truly diverse. Geographically, it serves as a hub on migration routes and an essential international port, connecting various regions worldwide, and historically, it’s been shaped by its time as part of Imperial China, British colonisation, Japanese occupation and its current status as a Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China. 

This complex history has created a unique blend of convergence and divergence, making it home to individuals from various ethnic, cultural and linguistic backgrounds, with nearly 9 per cent of its 7.27 million population ethnically non-Chinese. While most residents speak Cantonese, Putonghua and English, other languages such as Hakka, Fukien, Nepali, Filipino, Urdu, Hindi and Thai are also used.

In this diverse environment, at least two issues relevant to education arise. First, underprivileged non-Chinese students face systemic discrimination, including unequal access to education. For instance, if they speak a language used by only a small proportion of the population, they can suffer from inadequate language support too, such as translation and interpreting services. 

Second, many ethnically Chinese students rarely interact with their peers from other backgrounds and can be unaware of the diversity of their society. To address these interrelated challenges, I propose three strategies that I have integrated into my research-informed classroom teaching:

• Stakeholder collaboration
• A service-learning and community engagement pedagogy
• Incorporating technology.

Collaboration is the key

To accurately identify non-Chinese students’ needs, collaboration with stakeholders is essential. One of these stakeholders is the NGOs that support these communities. They have abundant field experiences and an in-depth understanding of the populations concerned. 

Through my longitudinal research project with and for linguistic minorities in Hong Kong, I have been collaborating with two local NGOs – TREATS, which supports children and youth from underprivileged backgrounds, and Translate for Her, which promotes gender equality – to create a multicultural and multilingual environment in my translation education classrooms. Together, we have formed a team equipped with the necessary knowledge and skills to facilitate intercultural communication among students from diverse ethnic and linguistic backgrounds.

Successful collaboration also hinges on two key factors. First, for effective teamwork, collaborators must share their interests and goals. In our case, the NGOs, teaching team and participants (both Chinese and non-Chinese students) aim to promote social inclusion in Hong Kong and enhance community capacity for multilingual and multicultural communication.

Second, maintaining open and effective communication is crucial. In collaborations with TREATS and Translate for Her, respectively, we have held regular meetings to discuss the needs of all stakeholders – students, community members, organisations and academia – ensuring that diagnosed issues and planned activities genuinely address the needs of both sets of students.

Community engagement 

To create platforms for engagement among students from various backgrounds, we have incorporated a service-learning pedagogy, supported by the university’s Centre for Innovative Service-Learning. I have integrated this approach into both technological and theoretical translation courses.

One programme co-designed with TREATS is the “Sports for wellness through service-learning: a multilingual social media campaign”. This initiative was part of my 14-week translation technology course, which provided students with intensive training in translation technologies. 

A group of 43 students from diverse backgrounds, speaking 11 languages (including Cantonese, Mandarin, English, Czech, Spanish, Japanese, Hindi, Gujarati and Punjabi), collaborated to create gamified sports with trilingual scripts. They then filmed and edited videos of their games, provided bilingual subtitles with English audio and then showcased their products and reflections.

Similar programmes have been organised with Translate for Her, such as “Where stories bloom: connection in challenging times”. While the Sports for Wellness campaign focuses on general well-being, Connection in Challenging Times emphasises building connections and community strengths during crises, reflecting the broader theme of crisis translation.

To ensure meaningful and engaging programmes, I offer two recommendations based on my reflections:

1. Allocate ample time for project incubation and preparation. Both programmes were launched in September, with partnerships established approximately two years prior. Long-term collaborations foster effective communication. We began preparations in the northern hemisphere summer to ensure that all stakeholders were aligned, timelines were feasible and community needs were integrated into the curriculum.
2. Monitor interactions closely and make timely adjustments. Observing participant interactions helps identify successful aspects, experiences and areas for improvement. Unexpected challenges can arise when individuals from different cultures engage. Implement minor adjustments immediately rather than waiting for future programmes; for example, rearranging team members based on cultural considerations or introducing new technologies in the translation process.

Incorporating technologies

Technologies inherently play a pivotal role in translation technology classrooms, and in fostering intercultural communication among participants speaking different languages. 

Throughout the 14-week course, I scheduled classroom learning (for students) and off-campus collaboration between students and their peers from a non-Chinese cultural background intermittently. The aim is for both students and non-Chinese community members to learn and practise the translation technologies, media skills, such as subtitling skills, and the use of other technologies at a pace that is comfortable for them. Additionally, a staged programme design like this allows participants to communicate and interact more regularly over a sustained period, fostering deeper mutual understanding. 

Students applied various technologies in both programmes, including translation-specific tools such as computer-assisted translation software (such as Phrase), terminology management platforms, subtitling tools (like Aegisub, YouTube) and video-editing software. They also used everyday machine translation tools like Google Translate. 

More than half of minority language respondents use machine translation in their daily lives, according to my ongoing research on crisis translation, so I incorporated content on ethical and effective use of everyday translation technologies into the projects. This aspect was especially appreciated by linguistic minority communities, who had no Chinese and often needed to use these tools in various social activities. 

Other tools were also adopted for project management, and teams communicated with various information and communication technologies.

Participatory video making

In the Sports Play Out multilingual social media campaign, 43 participants, comprising both students and  other ethnically diverse individuals, formed self-selected groups. Each group used a set of technologies to create their short videos. 

This process, known as participatory video making, fosters engagement by promoting teamwork and involvement at every stage of production – planning, shooting and editing. This method enhances learning by developing critical communication and technical skills and by offering deeper insights into the communities involved. The finished videos serve as powerful advocacy tools, showcasing the experiences of those affected by community issues and promoting awareness and change.

Making changes

“I feel proud of myself. Never thought that was possible. Me, one year later now. I’m actually capable of doing it.” (Noor)

Fostering intercultural communication and raising awareness of Hong Kong’s multilingualism and multiculturalism can indeed occur within the classroom. While top-down policy changes may yield results more quickly and forcefully, bottom-up, incremental efforts that engage stakeholders and, most importantly, communities themselves can have a meaningful and lasting impact. 

By creating platforms for youth and broader communities to collaborate in translator education settings, we not only train elite translators but also plant the seeds of change within wider society.

Chuan Yu is assistant professor in translation studies at Hong Kong Baptist University.

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