They both come from bilingual education backgrounds.

Yet Singapore university students are better at spotting Chinese grammatical errors compared to their Hong Kong counterparts, reported a study conducted by the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK).

A report in Lianhe Zaobao said 128 CUHK students quizzed on Chinese language errors had a score of 44.1 as compared to the 51.5 score that 104 Nanyang Technological University (NTU) students achieved.

When asked to identify Chinese grammatical errors influenced by dialects and the English Language, CUHK and NTU undergraduates had a score of 47.9 and 65.6 respectively. NTU lead the game by a difference of 17.7.

However, not all NTU students have the same Chinese language capabilities. Senior undergraduates have weaker language skills compared to first-year students.

The different results between Hong Kong's and Singapore's undergraduates may be due to the different language environments in the two cities' varsities, said CUHK's Assistant Professor Wan Bo.

Not the same across the board

Dr Wan, who lectures in the Department of Chinese Language and Literature, added that Singapore undergraduates' exposure to the Chinese Language diminishes as they enter varsity life. As such, they gradually lose touch with the nuances of the Chinese language.

Hong Kong students, however, continue to stay in an environment where the Chinese Language is constantly used.

Furthermore, the Hong Kong universities place emphasis on elevating the standards of their undergraduates' Chinese Language competency and have conducted various kinds of courses to meet this goal. As such graduating students have a more powerful grasp over the Chinese language compared to freshmen.