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. “There’s 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 Hilda’s and St Hugh’s, 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. “We’ve 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: “I’m pleased and proud that one day my daughter will be talking about us with her friends and we won’t know what she is saying.”
Parker admits to misgivings about being excluded from what will be an important part of Hilton Augusta’s life. “I do worry about it a little but the benefits outweigh any uncomfortableness I feel.”
Not really.
Mandarin is a made up language. They took a dialect from around Beijing and literally made up a new language from it.
"Mandarin" was formed by scholars, not natural evolution.
It was compelled upon the population during the many revolutions of the late 19th through 20th centuries.
The invention of mass communication (telephone, tv, radio, etc) along with a nationalist movement made it so.
Dr Sun envisioned it. Chiang started it calling his national language "Guo Yu"...Mao continued it being different though calling it "pu tong hua"... (however mao distorted things badly-this is the basis of his cultural revolution). None the less people ended up learning mandarin on a wide scale basis.
It is not a native driven language such as the true dialects that have evolved over time.
I can explain the history of Chinese linguistic development and the development of their writing system(s) if you would like.
Very good. That means you can't be sued for malpractice.
Vidistine nuper imagines moventes bonas?
My point is there is value in teaching just about ANY language and culture to your kids. Chinese, while extremely interesting, is not unique in this aspect.
This dead language is killing me...
they don't make good movies anymore.
Agreed and agreed.
:)
Stop, please, stop...and I promise, I will never crack wise about Latin again.
She will always be able to land a waitressing job or working in Starbucks. All she will need for the latter is a nose ring.
That is the joke of all times...and the point of the day. Mandarin doesn't qualify one to do JACK other than talk.
If you are an idiot financial analyst, Mandarin won't help you. You will be an idiot in two languages.
There HAS to be another set of skills there somewhere.
I am speaking from experience.
awww. Go ahead, crack wise. I won't stop you.
In all reality though there is enough gutter Chinese to last a lifetime...I know all I want to know of it, but it does help one get around a bit.
Its kind of like going to the ghetto and hearing some jive talk..."why you front'n homey"...Every city in China has its own BS teenager jive talk like that.
quandoque bonus dormitat homerus!
In regards to Chinese. It is no coincidence that the story originates and focuses on NYC. New York has always been a business capital. It's what the city is about in the same way that Washington is about politics. These parents are seeing the writing on the wall...
Seriously though, what about Yue people? (Nan Yue)? There are tons of races in China spanning from North to South that have all been adopted as "Han"....
We don't need none of that "I am a Swedish-Irish-Polish-Italian-Chinese American" jive going on....
Nah, these parents are snobs.
Wise people make mistakes, but there's no such thing as a stupid question.
Let me introduce you to this guy I just met, maui_hawaii :-)
It used to be French lessons -- which allowed you to flirt with high class type chicks -- but the Chinese thing is different.
All that comes to mind is shizzle my nizzle but that's WHOLLY INAPPROPRIATE. lol
I'll just think of Barbara Billingsley in "Airplane" and hope you don't remember that my sole knowledge of jive is from a 30+ year old comedy movie.
Jive no longer exists in any meaningful way. It's the yiddish theater of languages.
I don't speak any type of Chinese.. I don't even know how I got here. I'm not high class, in any event.
I'm heading to get some sleep now. Blame the DST, which is stealing my hour til I get it back in October. Stealing in broad daylight!
Take care. pleasure meeting you.
And you as well!
It's not the nanny thing that bothers me but rather these people have already assumed that their child will be the center of the universe. They are raising another Paris Hilton. lol The kid is 22 months old and already under bizarre pressure to succeed. My biggest concern at 2 was whether to pee in the potted plants or in the toilet, and I turned out just fine.
I can't get over that this is the very same Jim Rogers who is on Cavuto. He has lost mucho weight since his marriage.
NY tots have been exposed to learning languages for a long time. It has become a status thing. I hear requests for French teachers for children 18 months and up.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.