Selene Tsoi

Home Undergraduate Program Life After the Department Selene Tsoi

BA in Applied Linguistics, 1992; MA in Linguistics, 1994
Deputy Director, Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office, New York

I'm currently Deputy Director of Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in New York. Our office is part of the Hong Kong Government, and is responsible for representing Hong Kong and furthering Hong Kong's interests in the Eastern U.S. This is my fourth post in the Government since joining as an Administrative Officer in 1995. The Administrative Officer grade is responsible for overall policy making, including proposing new legislation or changes to existing legislation. We are posted to different departments every few years to promote cross-fertilization of ideas and to forge a more unified direction for Hong Kong as a whole. Many of our current cabinet ministers began their careers in the civil service as Administrative Officers.

[How has your education in Linguistics helped you in you current career?]

Critical analysis skills, research and paper writing, readiness to debate and explore all logical alternatives ....

On a more prosaic level, it has been remarkably handy to be able to phonetically transcribe (and hence accurately reproduce) the surnames of diplomats stationed in Hong Kong. And on a number of occasions, drawing a tree or two has helped me to decipher otherwise totally convoluted legalese.

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