Hakka cultural roots: Metalinguistic awareness and practice principles
Published online on December 03, 2013
Abstract
Through examining the Hakka cultural heritage, the author describes a specific Chinese ethnic group – ‘global Hakka’ – based on its unique Hakka multifaceted languages. These ‘guest’ immigrants integrate their culture and languages into the host province in China or host country outside of China. They seek cultural permanency through active participation in learning a new language or another Chinese dialect for cultural adjustment. Through learning from these clients’ strong adjustment abilities, social workers can practice metalinguistic awareness skills with the application of 10 principles by means of self-evaluation and reflection around their clients’ linguistic learning motivation.