Top news
It was a cold lunar New Year for both EARTH and many Hong Kongers.  So, EARTH paid its second virtual visit to Hong Kong's Education City in search of inspiration and found plenty. See Language as Medium under Website Additions and Maintenance below.

Government relations
EARTH is currently working with the Hong Kong Census and Statistics Department to  determine what effect education attainment level has on individual earnings in Hong Kong. Based on the available data the results should be interesting, but leave many questions unanswered.

Since one's attained education level assumes some minimum level of English language proficiency, we should be able to ascertain the minimum level of English required to obtain a certain level of income under Hong Kong's artificial English language demand conditions. This knowledge will provide a useful benchmark for later studies that attempt to ascertain the language's real market worth.

Community relations
In the end it is the Hong Kong, East Asian, and world communities that can reap the greatest benefits from the HKLNA-Project. It is for this reason that EARTH continues in its quest for community support.

• City University of Hong Kong - EARTH offered to present a paper on the economics of Hong Kong's English language industry at the university's up-coming International Conference on Experimental Economics (pdf document - 76KB)
  
• Reaching Out Across the World-wide Web - Thirty-eight new personalized letters of introduction and invitation were sent to five additional German universities after the solar New Year. In total EARTH has contacted 123 German scholars in Japan and Germany. Next stop France!
  
• The EPSON Foundation - EARTH is still waiting for a response to its invitation and request (pdf document - 60KB) for funding from the EPSON Foundation. Receipt of EARTH's request was confirmed.
• University of Hong Kong - Professor Stephen Mathews, author of Cantonese - A Comprehensive Grammar was contacted and information obtained with regard to Cantonese language textbook sales.
  

Website additions and maintenance

New additions

• Quality - Language as Medium, Section III's complement to Language as Tool, was added this month. For East Asians who always think "More English is better", you might just want to think again. This is a story about the shabbier, entrepreneurial side of Hong Kong's public linguistic domain that applies to much of East Asia.
  
• Viewpoint - One new addition this month.
  
• A failed diplomat, and Israel's failing foreign policy -  A conversation in three parts.
  This is a critique on the Swedish Prime Minister's handling of Ambassador Mazel's act of vandalism at the Museum of National Antiquities in Stockholm. Even if you were not aware of the incident this article is worth reading - 28 January 2004 (pdf format - 164KB with photograph).
• Tsong Kit - Chapter 2 of Part II was almost completed, but not quite. This was a tougher chapter than usual, but with less time to complete.
  

Maintenance

• Additional minor changes.

Software update

• No new updates, but no new disasters either. EARTH escaped MyDoom!

Strategy Update
EARTH will continue to push forward with completion of the section entitled Quality and  continue to pursue all of the aforementioned initiatives.

Acknowledgments
This month special thanks go to Dr. Billy Li of the Hong Kong Census and Statistics Department for his cooperation and kind assistance in helping EARTH to obtain needed statistical data. Once again, special thanks are also given to Professor Doktor Peter P. Baron, who provided EARTH with three short German to English translation projects: two speeches and an article submitted to the Financial Times. Dr. SIU Hin Ho should also be thanked for being so patient with regard to this month's rent, as well as Professor Stephen Mathews for his useful input with regard to the Cantonese language market.

Closing Remarks
If you would like to provide support to the HKLNA-Project but are unable to donate to the HKLNA-Project Fund, then at least hire EARTH to provide you with the best in telecommuted translation. Surely many ProZ.com translators would also be grateful. See EARTH's translation services' promotion material or better yet visit EARTH's homepage.

Sincerely,

R. A. Stegemann
hsmr@pacific.net.hk