More than 30% of Hongkongers say they judge their co-workers’ abilities in the office based on their accents when speaking English. The findings were revealed in a survey of 1,000 Hongkongers by language learning platform Preply, which also found that Millennials and Gen Z are most guilty of workplace accent bias. The study also showed that while Hongkongers most want to be fluent in Japanese, Korean and Cantonese, they are not open to learning Lao, Khmer, and Hindi.

31.7% of Hongkongers admit to accent bias

According to the survey, 31.7% of Hongkongers confessed that they allowed colleagues’ accents to affect their opinion of their skills on the job. This tendency appears to be more common among younger professionals, with 39.9% of Gen Z respondents and 30.7% of Millennial poll-takers conceding that they allow the way their co-workers speak English to influence their perception of them.

hongkonger accent bias workplace
Millennials and Gen Z members of the workforce are most guilty of accent bias at work (© Fotostorm)

Other studies have also found that accents can have a bearing on whether employees get hired or are given the chance to travel for work. For instance, a 2023 SAP survey showed that 17% of international business travellers felt they were not given opportunities to travel abroad for work because of their accents.  A study published in SageJournals the previous year revealed that a candidate’s accent has a direct bearing on whether they are hired for a job or not.

Languages that Hongkongers wish to learn

The Preply poll also uncovered which languages Hongkongers want to be fluent in the most — and which ones they are not keen to learn. Japanese was the most popular pick among survey-takers, with 64.2% saying they want to be fluent in it overnight, followed by Korean (42%) and Cantonese (24.9%). However, the least favoured choices when it comes to language proficiency for Hongkongers are Lao, Khmer, and Hindi — with just 1.4%, 2.4%, and 2.8% of respondents saying they want to learn them.

Image credits: NanoStockk via Canva

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From the Middle East to the Far East and a couple of places in between, Anjali has lived in no fewer than seven cities in Asia, and has travelled extensively in the region. She worked as a lifestyle journalist in India before coming to Hong Kong, where her favourite thing to do is island-hopping with her daughter. You can check out her musings on motherhood, courtesy her Instagram profile.