Media

HKUL Book Talk: Poor English: Why Should Hong Kong Care?

06 Sep 2010

 

Speaker: Mr Barry Kalb (Honorary Lecturer, Journalism and Media Studies Centre, HKU)
Moderator: Professor Ying Chan (Director, Journalism and Media Studies Centre, HKU)
Date: 9 September 2010 (Thursday)
Time: 7:15-9:00 pm
Venue: Special Collections, 1/F Main Library Building
Language: English

Registration: http://lib.hku.hk/friends/reading_club/bt2010_9.html

About the Speaker
Barry Kalb has taught reporting and news writing at the University of Hong Kong's Journalism and Media Studies Centre since 2005, emphasizing the basics of good English writing. His work with hundreds of Chinese from Hong Kong, Mainland China, Taiwan and Southeast Asia has given him an insight into the problems native Chinese speakers encounter when trying to write English. Kalb started his journalism career in Washington, D.C., in 1967. He was a CBS News correspondent in Hong Kong, then joined TIME Magazine as Eastern Europe bureau chief, and later moved with TIME to Rome, New York and back to Hong Kong. From 2002 to 2007 he served as an editor in the Voice of America's Hong Kong bureau.

About the Book
English is the language of international commerce and communication. Young professionals working in Hong Kong and doing business with the rest of the world are more likely to conduct that business in English than in any other language, and employers nowadays are accordingly looking for people with a good level of English. You Can Write Better English is a practical handbook to help improve written English, with special focus on mistakes native Chinese speakers routinely make when writing in the language.