moving back to hk in jan08

E

EC_mum

New member
Hi all,
I have a 11months old baby girl. We are planning to move back to hk in jan. Both of my hubby and I were born in hk but we have been in Sydney for long time. My hubby lived in Sydney since he was 6 and I have been here for more than 10 years already.
We are going back to hk becos of my family business. I m wondering if it is easy to find a job as my hubby doesnt know read and write chinese. He can speak Cantonese fluently in general.
I also want to know the life in hk with a baby.
i know i sound a bit silly as I m originally from hk, but still it is a bit of worry to move from one country to another.
 
Can you be more specific? What line of business is your husband in, for example? There are plenty of returnees working here whose Chinese reading and writing is non-existent/not great.

Life in HK with a baby/babies is great! Different from Australia, I imagine, but you know roughly what to expect i.e. small flats, lack of green space, etc.

If you have more specific questions, I'm sure you'll get lots of great advice and suggestions.
 
We moved back here from Sydney last year (we are both Australian though!) and it is different than Sydney. I would prefer my kids grew up here than in Sydney! Like every city it has its good and bad points.

Living-wise it will depend on what you want. Expat area or local area. Space for kids to run around or happy with high rise living. Also where is your family business as this may have some input to where you live.

I knew two Canadian-Chinese people at my last place of employ who both only spoke Cantonese and they didn't appear to have any problem working. There were also about four of us in the office who were expat with no Cantonese knowledge.

As said before it will depend on your partners industry.

Good luck with it.
 
Thanks for you guys' replies. My partner is actually a programmer in a mailhouse. So the programming language is actually industry standard.
Don't really think he can find a similar job in hk as chinese seems to be essential in a hk mailhouse.
I want to make my question to be more sepcific too. Becos of all the unknowns, I just dun know what I should ask or worry. or maybe i just shouldnt worry anything and just let it be.
i m lost....
 
I'm chinese but not born and educated in HK but has been here about 8 years already, recently had a baby. Chinese is not my first language too but i got to learn it here so i can speak pretty well but of cause,s they will know where i come from after a few sentence. I find having no problem to stay here although it does took me a while to get use to everything here. I refused to compare life in other country as i have been also living in a number of places before moving here.

You will find it ok once you don't compare. HK is nice, full of life!
 
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Thanks mscheerful. Ye, u r right. If I dont compare, then it should be alright. I also want to know if the pram is useful in hk. By the time we go back, my daughter is 1 n a half year old already. The pram might not be neccessary anymore, right?
 
I'm not into IT so not sure but can he take some courses and then go into another IT related industry? If not, he can always try teaching English (loads of tutorial schools).
 
Depends if you go walking/shopping a lot but a lightweight stroller would be handy in case she suddenly wants to nap or you'll have to carry her otherwise.
 
I have to confess that I do not know what a 'mailhouse' is, but I would say it is not absolutely essential for a programmer to read and write Chinese. In fact, I'd say that speaking Cantonese, your hubbie would be able to get a job pretty easily.

Agree that a small stroller will come in handy.
 
I do quite a bit of recruitment and I would slightly disagree with some of the comments and say that Chinese (Mandarin) to a high level is increasingly required. The ability to write Chinese is a minimum in so many positions now too. Of course there are the usual ex-pat exceptions (of which I'm one), but I would just manage your expectations a little as there is a real shift towards language skills being required. Check out the Saturday job section of the SCMP for example - even in an English speaking paper like this, many, many jobs are now looking for fluent Mandarin and Cantonese (even quite junior ones).

I know a Cantonese speaking (but not Mandarin speaking or Chinese writing professional) from the US that has found it much tougher than he expected here as a result.

Don't want to sound too negative - just helps to be fully aware just in case it takes a little longer than you thought for him to find a job he wants...
 
I fully understand it will take some time to look for a decent job. Teaching english is another path we think he can go with, but just not sure if he needs any particular qualification even for private tution.
 
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