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.”
Gee, I wonder if that might have something to do with it rather than the chinese economy. Did the author check to see what the chldren of Polish or Ukranian Americans spoke? How about Arab Americans? The French Canadians?
I wonder how disappointed these parents are going to be when the Chinese empire breaks up and Mandarin ends up being spoken in only one nation among the many that will be the product of the break up.
What an original couple.
Thanks for the links, a veritable mother lode of info
such as this:
...his status as the co-founder of George Soros' Quantum Fund.
Not your ordinary "couple".
Our kids are being taught speak 4 languages and I think it is wonderful.
This could be a problem because girl babies are not valued in China, and many were killed at birth so their parents could try for a boy under China's one child per family rule.
If they're so keen on things Chinese, couldn't they just move to Chinatown? Their kids could find plenty of Chinese-speaking people there. Could grow up real bilingual that way.
Their wedding. Note globe cake.
The Chinese nanny is mentioned here when the little darling was only eight months old. The current article makes it sound like something new.
It's very easy to find info on these people since they never shut up talking about themselves.
well, as a Chinese I think it is good for these kids to learn Mandarin Chinese. But then again I must agree with you the international tongue will be English. Simply because it is because great classics of the Western Civilizations (Cato, Aristotle, Cicero) could be mastered in English as well as Latin or classical Greek plus the classics from the "more modern" times Britain, America, and Europe.
But Chinese also offers a window to the rich ideas like Confucius (I'm proud to say I'm one of his 76th male line descendents). If these rich leftist kids have a contact with Confucian culture and ended up turning more socially and morally sober and seek the truth in Christ, then I say mroe power to them. (Confucian thoughts have very little time for today's post-modern nilhilism)
Now that you mention it, she sounds as if named after daddy's favorite golf courses.
Is that the father of the bride helping her cut the cake ... or just the sugar daddy?
Holy smokes, I was about to look this nimrod and his wife up and send them an email before I your links made it clear that he's _THAT_ Jim Rogers.
This guy is a complete and utter loon. Seriously. He's completely detached from reality, and has one of the biggest hard-ons for China out there.
As has been pointed out: In China, meanwhile, they're learning to speak English. Europe speaks English for business, the Indians do it, the Japanese do it, and increasingly the Chinese do it. It's not a bad idea to learn Chinese, especially if you to work on the mainland, but the idea that the Chinese language (or the Chinese economy) will ever be dominant is bizarre.
I do find it worrisome that papers like this repeat the "may one day be dominated by China" meme, as every repetition gives it a further sheen of truth in the eyes of those who are willing to lend weight to China as a result. Fascinating that Jim Rogers, whose goal seems to be to do just that, is the topic yet again.
From a country of more than 1 billion? No way these uneducated masses will conquer the world
In all seriousness, this is important. I am convinced that a person cannot truly understand a culture without mastering the dominant language. A our intelligence performance in the Mideast has shown, you cannot just rely on native speakers who may not fully understand American culture or who may not accept or support American culture. At different periods of my life, I have learned Spanish and Thai and my experience has been that the manner of communication, word patterns, politeness, cures, humor, etc. all flesh our and explain much about beliefs, social structure, power, and the like. "Have them learn English" may allow them to communicte with us but not allow us to communicate with them.
"She had to speak the kind of Mandarin heard in government circles in Beijing."
There is only one flavor of Mandarin chinese. Also, they blew it scheduling a trip to Shanghai to learn about the culture. First, Shanghai is probably the most cosmopolitan city in China, and while it will be the economic hub of China, it hardly represents the culture. Second, the Shanghainese dialect is the standard language in Shanghai, not Mandarin, so while some Shanghainese will be able to understand the little darling, not all will (my mother-in-law only speaks Shanghainese, and my FIL is only marginally conversant in Mandarin). That being said, my chinese wife and I will be teaching our daughter (5 mos.) Mandarin and Shanghainese in addition to English Texas-style (no Spanish, though).
Mr. Billionaire Sugar Daddy himself. When he was 62, she was 36.
I imagine most people count their first memory as being at LEAST age three or four.. if they're lucky.
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