I have said before that mispronunciation of some letters of the alphabet is prevalent (widespread) in Hong Kong. But mispronunciation of some English words is also prevalent here. One word I have often heard mispronounced by most Hong Kong people, including senior government officials, is the word "facility". The word can be used in many ways. Something that is built to provide a service is a facility. For example, a swimming pool is a facility. Five-star hotels have many facilities, such as sauna rooms and gyms. The word does not have a "k" sound. It should be pronounced as "fuhsility", with the letter "a" sounding like the letter "a" in the word "ability".
Most Hong Kong people, however, pronounce it as "facksility". I have heard many senior government officials pronounce it this way. That is why I was surprised when the Assistant Director of Environmental Protection Elvis Au Wai-kwong pronounced it correctly during an English-language radio interview. He used the word "facility" several times to describe the food waste recycling centres the government plans to build. He pronounced it correctly every time. But his boss, Environment Secretary Wong Kam-sing, made another common pronunciation mistake in a separate interview about the food recycling facilities. He mispronounced the word "modest". He pronounced the letter "o" in the same way as in the word "go". But the "o" in the word "modest" should sound like the "o" in "model". Wong Kam-sing mispronounced it twice during the interview.
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最近我右眼做了手術，醫生告訴我，那幾天內右眼也不要碰水。我知道那會很困難，因為我一天洗澡兩次，每天也洗頭。洗澡的時候，怎麼可能讓眼睛滴水不沾？我朋友建議我洗澡時戴護眼鏡（goggles）。Goggles跟眼鏡相似，但可以緊緊地罩着眼部。人們會戴上護眼鏡（goggles），那就不會有水、塵埃或其他異物入眼。許多泳手也會戴泳鏡（goggles）。但我朋友讀錯了這個字，他說了做"googles"，發音像網絡搜尋器Google。
我曾經說過，香港人讀錯好些字母，情況很普遍（prevalent）。但讀錯英文字詞的情況同樣普遍（prevalent）。有一個字，我常常聽到大部份香港人，包括政府高官也讀錯了，就是facility。這個字可以有許多用法，可以是指設施，例如泳池。五星級酒店也有不少設施（facilities），如桑拿室和健身室。這個字沒有k音，應該被讀成"fuhsility"，那個a的發音像"ability"的那個a音。
但大部份香港人，卻會把它讀成"facksility"，許多政府高官也是這樣讀錯。因此當環境保護署助理署長區偉光在一個英語電台訪問中讀對時，我感到很意外。他說了幾次"facility"，去講述政府計劃建造幾個廚餘回收中心，但他每次也能讀對。但他的上司，環境局局長黃錦星，在另一個訪問中談及食物回收設施（facilities）時，卻犯了另一個很常見的錯誤發音，他讀錯了"modest"這個字，把那個o讀得像是go的o那樣，但"modest"裏的o應該讀得像"model"裏的o音。黃錦星在訪問裏就讀錯了兩遍。
mickchug@gmail.com
中譯:七刻
Michael Chugani 褚簡寧
Source: http://news.stheadline.com/dailynews/headline_news_detail_columnist.asp?id=275588§ion_name=wtt&kw=126