Posted on 04/02/2005 3:29:18 PM PST by MadIvan
AMBITIOUS New Yorkers are rearing a generation of little emperors fluent in Mandarin so they will be equipped for a global economy that may come to be dominated by China.
Chinese nannies who can bring up bilingual babies are sought after in Manhattan, and nursery schools are adding the language to their curriculums.
Jim Rogers and Paige Parker are the parents of Hilton Augusta, a 22-month-old blonde, blue-eyed girl. She already understands as much Mandarin as English after her parents hired a Chinese nanny. Their apartment is decorated with words for objects such as table and chair in English and Chinese script.
China is going to be the next great country in the world, said Rogers, a writer and banker. We thought we should start to prepare her at birth for what will be the most important language in her lifetime.
Finding the right nanny took weeks. She had to speak the kind of Mandarin heard in government circles in Beijing. Clifford Greenhouse runs the Pavillion nanny agency in New York. Theres been a tremendous surge in demand. We get dozens of requests a year. It is extremely hard to find the right, well-educated, cultured Mandarin speaker, he said.
Many of the requests come from families of mixed Chinese and American parentage or from parents who have adopted girls from China.
But a good third are from parents who hope to give their children a leg-up in the globalised world. Rogers and Parker plan to enrol Hilton Augusta in St Hildas and St Hughs, a private nursery and elementary school in Manhattan, which is adding Mandarin to its curriculum in September.
Virginia Connor, the headmistress, said the classes would begin with toddlers. Weve been asking ourselves what will children need, not just five or 10 years ahead, but a long way into the future.
Hilton Augusta will be more prepared than most. Her parents have booked a holiday in Shanghai this summer to reinforce what she has learnt and to familiarise herself with the culture.
Rogers said: Im pleased and proud that one day my daughter will be talking about us with her friends and we wont know what she is saying.
Parker admits to misgivings about being excluded from what will be an important part of Hilton Augustas life. I do worry about it a little but the benefits outweigh any uncomfortableness I feel.
"Where are the potential mates for these valued men?"
This will be a terryifying prospect. Considering 1/3 of them will be spoiled pampered "princes" and the rest will be indoctrinated but otherwise ignorant lemmies but with full (sexual) desires the future won't bode well for China.
I could think of another description---but it might get me in trouble with the mods ;-)
from: Nevada Journal-Soft money and cozy relations
But its Rogers partisan generosity that has raised eyebrowsas well as serious questions about the ethics involvedwhen he gave $200,000 of media money directly to a political party.
During the just-completed 98 campaign season, Rogers was asked by U.S. Senator Harry Reid to "give a substantial amount of money to the Democratic Party." Rogers responded positively and told television viewers on October 15, during a broadcast editorial on KVBC-TV in Las Vegas and KRNV-TV in Reno, that he told his friend, "Harry, Im not only going to give you what you asked for, Im going to give you twice the amount ...." Rogers on-air editorial also found its way conveniently into Reids print ad titled "Integrity."
Something told me you weren't going to get any takers :)
That's scary.
Most of them don't speak Beijing Mandarin. There's a slew of languages spoken in China, and Mandarin is the native language to only a small part of it.
Somewhat like if every state in America spoke a different language and official business was conducted in Marylandian.
Free trade bump!
I know your posts now before I even scroll to your name.
You do like to think the worst of Freeper, don't you?
French dominated for two hundred years.
I'm taking Chinese this semester. It's difficult for a guy my age (43) but it also a lot of fun. Practice practice practice.
Bump
Do you really think Freepers don't approve of nannies only because they can't afford one themselves?
Isn't it more likely that Freepers believe the conservative ideal is children being raised by their actual parents?
And you have a problem with Freepers finding fault with Kerry's hypocrisy by his belief that "the rich should pay their fair share, of course, except for me." Is it so wrong to point out hypocrisy in liberals?
You must not like us much, "Old Friend," to think the worst of us.
They might try adding English to their curriculum, the plural of which is curricula.
lol! Should we forgive the Sunday Times or not :)
Some here bristle when you make fun of liberals.
Then they bristle even more when you accuse them of disrupting.
You're right, you're right, you're right. And little Hilton will find herself using the language bit as a prestige wedge anyway.
As for the kids not remembering anything, when I pointed this out to my wife, she said, But if you say you took them, even if they don't remember, they're going to ask to see the pictures from the trip.
Easy, I replied: Tell them they were lost in a fire. You know, the one where dad rescued everybody? That's a two-fer: Save the money, become a hero.
I had a drill seargent who used to say "if you don't like rice you better learn". How apropos.
It's over the top. The wheels are coming off.
I agree, they are destined for the ash heap of history, but until then they have no chance of being a great nation.
On the other hand, there are "memories" I have which have been family stories for so long, it's not clear to me whether the recount of the story is embedded in my brain, or if I remember it myself. So maybe taking a 2-year-old around the world then talking about it til she's 20 is the trick. (hee)
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