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English or languish
Probing the ramifications of Hong Kong's language policy

Quality Assessment
Section Five: Langauge and Society
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Hong Kong's Information Society
The structure, flow, and language of information in Hong Kong society

Households and Consumers

Introduction

Two of the most important reasons given for the promotion of the universal English language requirement in Hong Kong are tourism and information technology. This section and the next examine the importance of IT to Hong Kongers and the Hong Kong economy, as well as some of the likely ramifications that IT has had on Hong Kong's English language industry. In particular this section examines the role of IT in Hong Kong households, some of the more practical uses of IT among Hong Kong consumers, and the ever increasing role of Chinese as the principal method of language input in Hong Kong.

An important task of the HKLNA-Project is to provide perspective where heretofore only government propaganda and media distortion have reigned. In this regard the relationship between Hong Kong's information technology industry and Hong Kong's English language needs is without exception.

Index
Discussion and Explanation

Electronic Business Services
Separating fact from fiction in Hong Kong's IT consumer product market

What do you know?

Electronic business services are services provided by business and government to other businesses, governmental departments, and consumers through electronic means. Because these services are electronic both the frequency and duration with which they are provided and consumed can be easily measured and their associated costs known. Thus, even the importance of services whose marginal cost of provision and use are near zero can be measured.

Although there is little human activity in which language does not play at least some role, the role of language in the provision of electronic business services is crucial, because it is through language that products are identified, ordered, purchased, delivered and received. How much language is required depends of course on the nature of the service. A single automated teller machine that services hundreds, maybe thousands of people a day, requires only a single recorded voice for each language spoken by its customers. This same recorded message can be utilised in thousands of machines. A single webpage advertising one or a large number of products that can be selected, ordered, and purchased over the internet by many millions of people must be created only once and translated only as many times as there are languages of potential customers. Each translation requires only a handful of people including the author of the webpage's content, a translator, a proofreader, and an agent to bring these people together. How many people speaking how many languages are required to maintain these pages and facilitate transactions between buyers and sellers depends of course on the universality of the product and the ability of sellers to attract consumers from different cultures. As any marketeer will tell you, the way to the heart of consumers is through their own culture and language. Though advertising solely in the English language will surely attract people from all over the world, it will only attract those with good command of the English language. These latter may constitute a very large number of people when all countries of the world are included. They may also provide a very strong incentive to advertise only in English at the outset. Nevertheless, as a proportion of the entire world's population these customers likely represent only a tiny fraction. Moreover, if your product is truly popular and universal in nature, your competition will surely obtain it, localize it, and marginalize your own ability to sell it, if you do not localize it first. Thus, whereas many electronic business services and products may be advertised solely in English at the outset, this is surely not where they finish, if they are services and products worthy of world demand.

So, let us take a close-up look at Hong Kong's local market for electronic business services and products, and see what is offered. Table 53 (new window) divides the electronic business services available to Hong Kong consumers into two basic, somewhat overlapping categories: those available to users over the internet (new window) and those not available over the internet -- namely, electronic devices (new window). A brief look at the description (right) associated with each electronic business service (left) in the table should provide you with a good notion of what kinds of services are included in each broad category of service. What makes these broad service categories so very different is their method of delivery and use. Whereas the latter require a special electronic device other than a personal computer or personal computer-like device, the former require only a personal computer and a connection to the internet via an internet service provider.1

After familiarizing yourself with each of the services listed under each broad heading, ask yourself which services are probably used most in your own society. As a further exercise, you might also like to rank them in order of their probable relative importance. You may do this for each of the major categories separately, or for the services of both categories together. Whichever you do, ask yourself which of the two major categories (the internet or electronic devices) are likely used most. If you are not a Hong Kong resident, or have not lived in Hong Kong for some time, you will probably find note 2 (new window) below the table instructive with regard to a somewhat unique, but very popular Hong Kong electronic business service -- the Octopus. Having completed your rankings, either in your mind, your computer, or on a piece of paper turn to graph 86a (new window) and compare them with the results of a recent survey conducted by the Social Surveys Section of the Hong Kong Census and Statistics Department.

What at least some people in the Hong Kong government know

If you are an economist very familiar with the information technology industry, the above exercise probably resulted in no new information. For most everyone else, especially those who like computers and the internet, the results were probably surprizing, and for many maybe even disheartening. Nevertheless, the facts speak for themselves; the information technology industry as it applies to retail consumers, has far more to do with the replacement of machine-like, impersonal sales clerks by no-nonsense, at-your-service, real-time machines, than it does with Bill Gates vision of a world dominated by three-dimensional virtual space. This is not to say that the internet is not growing, rather that it lags very far behind the use of electronically automated machines.

Whereas graph 86a (new window) provides a snapshot of B2C (business to consumer) electronic business services in 2003, graphs 86b and 86c (new windows) provide glimpses of this same activity extending from 2000 to 2003. What we discover in graph 86b (new window) is that with the exception of Octopus and interactive voice response systems (IVRS) the number of users has stopped growing.2 This does not mean, of course, that more uses for these services are not being found, rather that the number of those who use them has remained constant. Whereas IVR systems eliminate the need for telephone operators, Octopus makes gate attendants a thing of the past and replaces the coin in many vending machines. Certain business services offered over the internet appear to me meeting with a similar fate. Though all of the B2C internet services exhibit growing numbers of users some services are growing much faster relative to others. Online searches for goods and services, cyber-banking, and online reservations have demonstrated the fastest growth, followed by online settlements. Other internet services, such as stock trading, online auctions, and attending to customers' needs, remain far less popular and their rate of growth much less dramatic. In the final analysis, when it comes to online services and products, some industries are being truly revolutionized; others are not. In short, virtual reality is not a substitute for the real thing; rather, it is an additional dimension of what we already know and experience, subject to important cultural, technological, physical, and psychological constraints. Obviously IT has captured the imagination of many; for many others it is just another innovative way and different market niche. Certainly it is something that will affect the way many businesses advertise their products and most consumers make payments for certain kinds of goods and services. What the longer term will bring, however, is highly speculative. Yeah, its cool to own a computer, but so too, is it cool to own a lot of other gadgets and household appliances that many people rarely use, or often use in very limited ways.

In order to distinguish between the industry hype of virtual reality and the real world of day-to-day living, just ask yourself about the fanfare surrounding the introduction of the ATM machine -- an event that took place already many years ago. Was there any? Can you even remember it? Then look at where ATM services rank among all electronic business services offered to consumers (graph 86a - new window), and ask yourself where all the noise is coming from about the internet.

Obviously there are a lot of people in the business world who would like to say, "Look at me, I'm Bill Gates!". Obviously there are a great number of people who now own a desktop, where before there were very few. Obviously there will be many more people who own personal computers in the near future. Getting from one's desktop to the head of Microsoft Corporation, however, is your own story, and for most it will remain one of fiction, rather than one of virtual realization. Let us not stop here, however. No myth has ever been destroyed with a simple waive of a hand, and the myths of the English language and IT in East Asia often go hand in hand.


Knowledge begets knowledge and ignorance begets exploitation
The market goes where the numbers are.


Dawn or dusk in the Age of Information?

Surely it is a surprise to few to learn that IT favors those who are well-off. After all, the well-to-do can afford to buy the electronic hardware and software that those, who are doing everything just to make ends meet, cannot. Moreover, once the hardware and software are purchased they require intelligence, time, and education to make them work. Of course, not everyone who is wealthy has a lot of free-time, but these same people are likely to have children and grandchildren to set them up and connect them to the internet at home. If there is justification at work, they will also find someone, who can get them started and keep them running for a small fee. On the other hand, people who are poor are often the same who have little education, because they found it difficult to keep up with their classmates while in school. They are also a fairly poor source of guidance for their children when it comes to getting ahead in society. Moreover, poor people tend to live with others who are poor, and those who are rich with others who are rich. Thus, each group reinforces itself by cultivating a life-style and attitude among its members that make it difficult to leave one's group except by chance or mishap, or by a system of education that provides equal opportunity to everyone's child. Obviously, with class sizes of close to 35 students at the primary level and 40 students at the secondary level, equal opportunity in Hong Kong classrooms can be little more than an enormous paper tiger created by Hong Kong's Education and Manpower Bureau to support some of the highest paid teachers (new window) in the world on the one hand, and justify simultaneously a very limited educational budget (new window) on the other.3 In brief, what personal guidance most Hong Kong children are able to receive must be obtained in the home or not at all, as only children who are outstanding in the classroom, on the play ground, or on stage will attract enough attention to encourage teachers to provide them with the additional wisdom and encouragement they require to make it to, and remain at the top.4 Obviously, parents from poor neighborhoods (in Hong Kong these take the form of high-rise estates) are less likely to be well-educated and less able to provide the same level of guidance as parents of wealthier children.

Moving in the opposite direction is the market itself. In 2000 the median monthly income of Hong Kong households unable to afford a computer was just under HK$12,000. By 2003 it was somewhat under HK$7,000 (Graph 97 - new window) This represents just over a 40% decline in only four years. Of course, the median monthly income of those households with both a computer and an internet connection was substantially higher, but also falling. In short, information technology in the home is becoming more available. Unfortunately, the absence of equal opportunity does not vanish with one's ability to afford a household computer. For example, some households have a computer for each member of the family; other households have but one computer for everyone. See graphs 92a and 92b (new windows). As poorer households tend to have more children than richer households, poorer households are placed at a still greater disadvantage. In 2003 just under 20 percent of all Hong Kong households had two or more computers, more than 30 percent had none. A large number of households had more than two. If the number of computers does not increase with the size of the household, competition for computer use likely increases. Depending on how each household allocates its computer time across its members, many members of many households likely become casual observers of other domestic users, rather than active enthusiasts. Moreover, the problem of computer-deprived neighborhoods does not necessarily disappear with falling computer prices. Consider graph 91a (new windows) how household computer ownership is distributed across different dwelling types. The cut-away section of both pie graphs compares Hong Kong households classified as public rental housing as a proportion of all households (right) and as a proportion of only those households with at least one personal computer. We observe that households classified as public rental housing make up a larger proportion of all households than they do households with at least one computer. As public rental housing is inexpensive, subsidized housing for the poor, it should be readily obvious that the seeds of a culture of information poverty have already been planted.5 In short, the poor and information deprived live together in the same local community. This same phenomenon can be observed with regard to internet access in graph 91b (new window).

In graphs 90b and 90c (new windows) a similar comparison between all households and households with a computer is also made with regard to different levels of income. Whereas those households with monthly earnings equal to or greater than HK$30,000 make up less than a quarter (24%) of all households, they constitute nearly a third (32.8%) of all households with at least one computer. At the other end of the spectrum households with monthly incomes under HK$10,000 make up nearly a third of all households, but as a proportion of households with a computer, they account for not even 20 percent. Obviously, not everyone who is poor lives in public rental housing, but is there not strong reason to believe that similar pockets of information poverty are also occurring elsewhere, where they are statistically speaking less easily observed.6

Further evidence with regard to the development of a culture of information poverty can be found in the responses provided by household members that do not have a household computer or are not connected to the internet. Indeed, the two most often provided reasons for not owning a computer in 2003 were a "lack of computer knowledge" and "no special need for a computer". The response "too costly" came in with a very poor show just about neck-and-neck with the response "access to a computer elsewhere" (see graph 89a - new window). Similarly, the most often provided reason for not having access to the internet was "no special need" (see graph 89b - new window). With much of the world climbing onto the internet the preponderance of the answer "no special need" is particularly disturbing, as it suggests either a canned response given to nosy government officials gathering data from Hong Kong citizens, or real ignorance about one of the greatest inventions since the electric light bulb. Of course, the internet is nothing without a computer, and having a lack of computer knowledge fits well into the overall notion of a culture of information poverty.

Being required to attend a computer class, no more guarantees that you learn enough about computers to operate a computer, than it insures that you graduate from secondary school with sufficient ability to hold an intelligent conversation in the English language. In table 6 (new window) under the heading Hong Kong Generic we observe that a substantial number of human resources are dedicated to the teaching of computer studies. In the table we also discover that this same category of teaching ranks only second from the bottom with regard to teacher training. Although a large number of computer studies teachers apparently hold degrees, more than 60 percent (see graph 2 - new window) received them in a subject area different from computer studies. Counting from left to right in the same graph (new window) also shows that computer studies teachers ranked 24th on a scale of 1 to 30 with regard to their level of professional training in their principal subject area. Even Hong Kong's English language and English literature teachers scored better in 2002; they came in at 14th and 23rd, respectively. Can you now imagine why so many Hong Kong households without a computer claimed "lack of computer knowledge" as the single most important reason for not owning one?

Finally, let us compare the number of households that claimed they had a computer in 2003 with the number that claimed they did not. Graphs 94a, 94b, 94c, and 94d (new windows) provide this comparison across income levels for each of four different age groups. For each age group the pattern of response was nearly the same -- a monotonic increase in the number of "No" responses as one descends from higher to lower income groups. Still more evidence in this regard can be found in graph 96a (new window), which compares the ratio of Yes to No answers as a single Yes/No index across age groups for each income level. With the exception of the 15 to 24 year-old age group, and what appears to be sampling error for the 65 and over age group (See Note 2, table 96a - new window), two distinct patterns arise. On the one hand, the ratio of households with a computer (Yes) to those without a computer (No) generally declines with age for each and every income level; on the other hand, Hong Kong society appears to be divided into three distinct income groups (high-, middle-, and low-income) with respect to computer ownership. The declining rate of ownership with rising age for all income groups probably reflects the relative newness of personal computers to Hong Kong society. A somewhat similar, but more diffuse pattern arises for the same index when applied to internet access (see graph 96b - new window).
 hk's information society (government expenditure on IT education) | index | top

Chinese for a Chinese society


While still an undergraduate instructor at a prominent Hong Kong university I asked my students to recommend a good method of Chinese input for my computer. I was told Tsong Kit.7 When I asked why they were recommending it, they told me that it was the fastest and most popular method in Hong Kong. This was enough reason for me to get started, so I asked to be introduced. Somewhat later I was handed a three-quarter-inch thick, used textbook written entirely in Chinese and told to download a free educational program from the internet. Though very knowledgeable about Japanese I was only a beginning student of Chinese, and the book was somewhat intimidating. Fortunately, the recommended Chinese software program was easy enough to follow, and after an hour or two of rigorous practice I was able to master the Tsong Kit key board. Notwithstanding, after a full year of subsequent key board use and Chinese input practice, I still found myself having to refer to the book. Though this explained why the book I received was so worn, it did not explain why Tsong Kit is so popular among Hong Kongers. Indeed, as I later learned, there are other input methods far easier to use for those with knowledge of Chinese phonetic transcription and the English language keyboard.

What apparently makes the Tsong Kit input method so popular among Hong Kongers is that evoking Chinese characters on one's computer screen requires no knowledge of their pronunciation, and only partial knowledge of their written representation. This is especially useful, insofar as Hong Kongers are generally not taught a phonetic transcription of their own language in school, save how to write the English pronunciations of their own names and certain place names with the Latin alphabet.8 Moreover, with knowledge of only certain key radicals Hong Kongers can evoke on their computer screens those characters that they can no longer remember how to write. With Tsong Kit they no longer have to run to a dictionary for the correct representation of forgotten characters, because they appear in a program menu with all the other characters containing the same set of key radicals. Finally, because Tsong Kit can be utilised on an English language key board with only simple knowledge of the English alphabet, one does not have to go out of one's way to find a computer that permits Chinese input. In conclusion, despite the high learning curve associated with Tsong Kit, the long term benefits are substantial, and just about everyone in Hong Kong, who spends a lot of time writing in Chinese appears to use it.9 Finally, in 2003 Hong Kongers were asked which method of Chinese input they preferred most and the large majority indicated that key board input methods were superior to electronic writing pens and pads (see graph 85b - new window).

For those who are quick to associate the English language with information technology and Hong Kong business, it is useful to examine just who among all Hong Kongers are most familiar with a Chinese input method. It is not Hong Kong students, housewives, and retirees -- those Hong Kongers most likely able to find the time required to master a Chinese keyboard input method. Rather, it is Hong Kong's employed. More than 2/3 of all Hong Kongers familiar with a Chinese input method belonged to Hong Kong's work force (graph 84b - new window) in 2003!

As there are approximately equal numbers of Hong Kongers familiar with computers between the ages of 15 and 44 (graph 81a - new window), there is important reason to pause. Someone who was 44 years of age in 2003 probably sat for the HKCEE between 1975 and 1978. It was within this same time frame that Microsoft hired its first permanent programmer, and Bill Gates dropped out of Harvard University to devote full time to his company. In 1976 Stephen Jobs and Stephen Wozniak founded the Apple Computer Company, and the term personal computer first appeared in print in a major US computer trade magazine.10 To make a long story short the personal computer skills and Chinese input methods acquired by more than half of Hong Kong's work force were acquired either on the job or during precious free time at home. As few employers will allow their employees to spend valuable work time acquiring personal computer skills that they cannot use on the job, this suggests either a very important personal desire to learn a Chinese input method on the part of Hong Kong workers, or an important need for knowing one within the Hong Kong business community. A full 80% of Hong Kong's work force knowledgeable about computers is also familiar with a Chinese input method (graph 84c - new window). Moreover, three quarters of all Hong Kongers familiar with a Chinese input method use a key board input method (graph 85b - new window) as their principal method of input. This means that Hong Kong's business community has devoted substantial time, effort, and/or expense toward the acquisition of Chinese input methods. Finally, many entering the Hong Kong work force for their first time will not have to spend valuable work time learning how to input Chinese characters; because they will have arrived at least partially equipped (graph 84d) -- provided, of course, that they were among those at the top of their class.

The same old story, and still again.

Obviously knowing a Chinese input method does not exclude the use of English in the work place. In fact, a full 20% of Hong Kong's economically active, computer literate in 2003 were unfamiliar with a Chinese input method (graph 84c - new window). Their number is, of course, substantial, but once again -- as always -- a probable far cry from what is demanded of Hong Kongers under Hong Kong's universal English language requirement. Just who are these people? Are they not the same, who advocate Hong Kong's UEL requirement -- the same influential minority who claim to know better about what is good for Hong Kong, than what Hong Kong citizens know themselves? Graph 82c (new window) compares Hong Kongers knowledgeable about personal computers by their level of educational attainment. Each group is represented as a proportion of its total within the entire population. Whereas more than 90 percent of all Hong Kongers with a tertiary education or better make use of personal computers, only about 60 percent of those with a secondary education appear active. This disparity is especially large, when one considers that those still enrolled in secondary school are among those classified as having a secondary education. Indeed, those most likely to enjoy considerable command of the English language; are overrepresented as a proportion of the total computer using population by more than 63%.11

In the end the market will have its way


No matter how self-serving the leaders of a nation are, in a market economy the market will have its way; if it is in the best interest of the market to do so, it is a problem that markets can resolve, and government cares enough about the market to insure its proper functioning.

One sometimes hears in the East Asian press about the failure of certain US software manufacturers to provide adequate instructions in the language of those for which their software is localized and sold in East Asia. You have only to be a user of US manufactured software sold in East Asia with an East Asian language interface to know how serious this complaint is. Certainly it does not arise, because there is no market for the software; otherwise, US software manufacturers would not go out of their way to localize it in the first place. Rather it is because the same universal English language policies that delude East Asians into believing that they have adequate command of the English language also delude Western manufacturers into believing the same.

US software manufacturers are subject to budget constraints just like everyone else, and when they can find a way to cut costs in order to achieve a targeted return on capital, and thus secure reasonably priced capital whenever it is needed, they surely must. Installation instructions are read only once, and then quickly forgotten. The underlying assumption appears to be that there are enough East Asians with sufficient passive knowledge of the English language to sift through the instructions that one time.  What's more, many people do not read installation instructions, until after they have installed their software and discover that their machine no longer functions properly, anyway. This tendency has far less to do with adequate software localization, than it does with the nature of the content of what must be read. Sifting through entire pages of unfamiliar technical language in search of that one problem that can make or break a successful installation does not make for exciting reading, no matter what language it is written in.

In the end, East Asians who fault US software manufacturers for failure to cater adequately to the language needs of East Asian citizens could better direct their attention toward their own governments' language policies. US software manufacturers are simply responding to East Asian markets, as they find them. Moreover, unlike the myths surrounding the need for the English language in East Asia, the problem of inadequate localization is likely to go away on its own. In graph 80b (new window) we observe that knowledge of personal computers among Hong Kongers has been growing at an average annual rate of 5.6% for the past two years. In graph 83b (new window) we observe that during this same period increasing numbers of Hong Kong users became knowledgeable about Chinese input methods. Although it may take time for Western software manufacturers to separate fact from fiction with regard to language use in East Asia, the message will eventually get through, and they will respond. For if they do not, they will surely lose. Who will win? Those who cater best to local customer needs!


Conclusion

Chinese input methods are alive and well in Hong Kong and growing. Whereas English may be a quick way to attract a lot of people to new electronic business services that do not depend on a specific locality for their provision, those who succeed in the end are those who cater best to local needs. Moreover, when it comes to information technology in the service of consumers, the most important services provided are not of a virtual sort; rather, they are electronic devices that replace people, otherwise compelled to behave like machines. Surely, information technology is a boon for at least a portion of humanity!

Once again, there is an important disconnect between what "is in the air" in Hong Kong and what is on the ground. Moreover, the people who are pushing Hong Kong's UEL requirement are likely the same who are pushing Hong Kong's IT consumer industry -- people well-informed about how best to serve themselves, but inadequately informed about those whom they are paid to serve. It is the same tragedy over and over again -- a developmental state with a vision of a future that serves its elite in the name of its people.


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1 A computer in this context refers to a computer designed for individual use. Personal computers include desktop computers, laptop and notebook computers, as well as personal digital assistants (PDAs). Servers, workstations and terminals of mainframe or minicomputers are not included. Personal computers may be connected to form a Local Area Network (LAN) or Wide Area Network (WAN). (text)

2
Interactive voice response systems (IVRS) refer to automated voice systems that are accessed via telephone lines or mobile telecommunications network. The most common use of IVRS is that where a consumer calls a business or government office and is routed through a voice menu of alternatives leading to a particular source of information. In effect, interactive voice response systems are eliminating the need for telephone operators. (text)

3 Hong Kong Government, Education Department (Education and Manpower Bureau), Statistics Section. April 2002. Enrolment Statistics 2001. Chapter 3 Primary day schools. Chart 11 - Average class size in primary day schools by sector 1992-2001, p. 53. Also, Chapter 4 Secondary day schools. Chart 13 - Average class size in secondary day schools by grade by and sector 1992-2001, p. 88. Private Hong Kong international primary day schools average about 25 students per class, and their secondary counterparts between 20 and 25. (text)

4
See graphs 7, 8, and 9 and table 6 (new windows) under the heading College Bound for a quick review of how this same phenomenon plays out with regard to course make-up and teacher training and education. Training students to score well on machine-scored tests and training them to function in the work place and society as a whole are obviously two very different matters. (text)

5 The notion of a culture of information poverty was taken from another notion developed many years ago in the United States to describe the living conditions of USAmericans born into urban ghettos. The general notion then was that poverty is a self-perpetuating sub-culture from which few escape. As many USAmericans continue to live in poverty today the notion is still valid. We are a product of the social environment in which we are raised, and it is difficult for any of us to escape this environment without help from the outside, mishap from within, or a revolution of the environment itself. Since people living in poverty are often abandoned by society at large, cultures of poverty are found the world over. (text)


6 It is certainly possible that other stastistical data bases might contain the information required to assess this problem more thoroughly. (text)

7 Though written Tsong Kit with the Latin alphabet the pronunciation of this Chinese input method is much closer to Tsong Git. In order to obtain a glimpse of what one must learn to make this input method a usable work skill, please refer to EARTH's introduction to Tsong Kit for Chinese Beginners in an Apple Operating Environment with Chinese Language Kit (new window). (text)

8
There is hardly a Chinese name in Hong Kong that does not have at least three pronunciations: one corresponding to the English rendering, one corresponding to the Chinese symbol as spoken in Cantonese, and one corresponding to the same character as spoken in Mandarin (Putonghua). Moreover, there is often more than one acceptable way to express the same Chinese character in English. The net result is a substantial amount of phonetic chaos for everyone, that is especially difficult for those who do not grow up in the chaos. (text)

9 There are times when common knowledge and science do overlap. Of all people who could know best what is and what is not the most popular Chinese keyboard input method in their own region, would it not be students? (text)

10 Ken Polson. 1995-2004.
Chronology of Personal Computers. [online document] (31 May 2004). (text)

11 This number is obtained by subtracting
the proportion of the entire population who use computers from the proportion of those with a tertiary education who use computers and then dividing this difference by the proportion of the entire population who use computers. (text)
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