For both parties, then, the journey was a success. Moreover, in an elementary sort of way, it was an educational, even a cultural, experience.

But is this the future of English- language education in Hong Kong?

Happy as I was to arrive at my destination that day, I hope we can do better in Hong Kong's schools.

Indeed, in a classroom environment, I would rather lose my linguistic way entirely than find it through the development of a mixed-code patois that, in the end, will get me no farther in the real world than the confines of a Hong Kong taxi or wet market.

There is no question that Hong Kong beyond its small, elite class of political, business and educational leaders is a city that communicates with outsiders in a mixed code that ultimately amounts to really bad English with Cantonese thrown in when that bad English inevitably ends in total collapse.

Likewise, expatriates who spend much time here learn how to get by in simplified English with tortured Cantonese phrases added to fill the gaps.

Nothing wrong with that, it is the unique way our singular city works. And it works very well.

But it is not the way to run the schools, which are beset by another uniquely Hong Kong problem: a mother-tongue policy that makes perfect sense but a post- colonial culture that still regards English as the ticket to professional and social success, which it often is.

There is no silver-bullet solution to this complicated problem, which is deeply rooted in the city's culture and history.

Since the inception of the mother- tongue policy 11 years ago, the English- language skills of Hong Kong students have clearly declined.

While scores in other academic subjects have risen, that has not stopped parents from clamoring for more classes taught in English, even though many of those classes, given the shortage of teachers who are fluent in the language, are likely to be conducted in a dubious mixed-code.

Now an unpopular government has caved in with a complicated new formula that will allow schools previously restricted to mother-tongue teaching to conduct more classes in English, whether that is an educationally sound decision or not.

According to Secretary for Education Michael Suen Ming-yeung, the new formula will work like this: secondary schools in which at least 17 in 20 Form One pupils are in the top 40 percent of their age group may decide whether to teach in English or Chinese.

Lesser-performing schools will be allowed to use English in up to 25 percent of their teaching time to support extended learning activities.

A mathematical formula intended to solve a language problem is doomed to fail. Ultimately, forget the obfuscating maths. This is a mere political gesture to appease all those anxious parents who have mistakenly come to believe that learning bad English is the key to their children's future success.

What a pity for all those students who fall outside the elite circle of schools that can actually manage an English-language curriculum. The answer is not to teach them courses like physical education in English. Instead, how about this novel idea: Let's drop the mixed-code pretense, recruit qualified teachers to teach classes in English - that is real English - and then employ the necessary time and effort to make those classes work.

It may not be the ultimate solution, but it is a start, not a pretense.

Kent Ewing is a Hong Kong-based teacher and writer