I also believe 廣告公司一定要由港鐵方面核實先可以發出. It is a standard procedure. They must have received written consent otherwise they will be in serious legal trouble if they release anything to public under the name of their clients.
Just a piece of faked news. 港鐵 has since cleared up the matter. It is the advertisement agent's misunderstanding that led to the original inaccurate statement release.
港鐵 is way better than Translink or any other Canadian transit system anyway.
福建中學副校長兼資深英文科老師周蘿茜在閱讀公函後分析,信件的格式屬於正式公函,首段文章的頭3句的語氣已經「不太客氣」,首句說明信件的目的是「to reinforce our media placement guidelines」(加強我們對刊登廣告的指引),當中「加強」(reinforce)一字顯示態度強硬,語氣絕非與受眾商討,較客氣的說法應用「reiterate」(重申)一字。
信件第二句以「Should any of the following sitations arise」(假如出現下列情況)來作開頭,亦屬命令用語,接續說「we reserve the right to cancel or reschedule any media insertion」(本公司保留權利取消或重新安排任何於貴報已預訂廣告),更是直接發出警告,絕非「客氣用語」。
「簡直可做反面教材」
除了語氣強硬,周蘿茜指出信件的格式、英語文法均有不少錯處,亦有用句詞不達意、不知所云。例如在日期之前加上「Date」一字是多此一舉,頭一句「this writes to reinforce」的文法就「從來無見過」,「staffs」和「stake holders」錯用眾數等等。她坦言,英文信件居然如此粗疏便「出街」,令人難以相信,「簡直可拿去給學生做反面教材」。