Smart New York kids chew on Mandarin

Sunday Times ^ | April 3, 2005 | Sarah Baxter

[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.”

[Tax-chick]

He looks older. Lefties don't age well.

[Hildy]

Why is this a bad thing? There's nothing wrong with teaching children other languages when they're young, it's the best time to do it. I don't know why I just don't agree with anything that Freepers have been posting lately. By the way, there's nothing new about rich people having nannies. Class envy, that's all.

[NZerFromHK]

Same case for Hong Kong. Chinese culture is quite different in different parts of China even if they are all Han Chinese. I, as originally from Hong Kong, didn't understand much of the thinking of Chinese from Henan or even Shanghai. Most Hong Kong Chinese can't distinguish difference between Sichuan and Cantonese mainland Chinese either.

[sourcery]

I think it is good for these kids to learn Mandarin Chinese

As someone who has bothered to learn Russian, French, Spanish and German, I have to agree with you. My point was simply that the geopolitical/econonmic reasons for learning Chinese are not as strong as the article implies.

[sourcery]

I think it is good for these kids to learn Mandarin Chinese

As someone who has bothered to learn Russian, French, Spanish and German, I have to agree with you. My point was simply that the geopolitical/econonmic reasons for learning Chinese are not as strong as the article implies.

[NZerFromHK]

It is quite true. I was thinking about the riches of classical Chinese culture (which, to be blunt, is dead in China today and live in limbo in places like HK or Taiwan) learning Chinese will enable access to.

[Grendel9]

"Jim Rogers and Paige Parker are the parents of Hilton Augusta, a 22-month-old blonde, blue-eyed girl"....

Says about all I have to wonder about re these two.
They're more concerned about what kind of world the
kid will wander around in 20 years from now...but don't give a damn about what her classmates will say about her being born out of wedlock!. Little Doll's going to to have to think twice before losing her cool when someone calls
her an SOB!

[Shermy]

Awwww...

[Sandreckoner]

"Why is this a bad thing? There's nothing wrong with teaching children other languages when they're young, it's the best time to do it. I don't know why I just don't agree with anything that Freepers have been posting lately. By the way, there's nothing new about rich people having nannies. Class envy, that's all."

There's nothing wrong with teaching your child Chinese. There's something wrong with holding it out to the world as an example of what the smart people will all do because of a belief that China is going to dominate the world. (And that is exactly what Jim Rogers professes: America is going to be sink like a stone, and China will dominate the globe in the 21st century as America economically dominates, say, Mexico.)

See the two different issues?

In addition to appearing on Cavuto (for reasons I can't fathom), Rogers also makes regular appearances with this guy:
http://www.charlesgoyette.com/

[Sandreckoner]

The Chinese language and culture definitely has a great deal to offer. I think if this same story had Rogers discussing that, or having his daughter learn the language of other ancient cultures in order to better identify with artistic and philosophical concepts few would have even bothered commenting on the story.

Because of the combination of China's culture as well as its economic importance in the 21st century even I would love to learn Chinese, but it would be just one on a list of languages I'd like to learn. (Japanese, Portuguese, Russian, etc.)

[NZerFromHK]

"They're more concerned about what kind of world the kid will wander around in 20 years from now...but don't give a damn about what her classmates will say about her being born out of wedlock!. Little Doll's going to to have to think twice before losing her cool when someone calls"

They will think twice when Little Doll comes up to them one day that her Chinese teachers taught her Confucian morals and living out of wedlock is immoral!

[spinestein]

HA HA. These parents are wasting their money hiring nannies to teach them Mandarin Chinese.

I worked in a Chinese restaurant and learned Chinese for FREE.

Of course, I only know words for ordering and cooking food (and washing dishes), and it's not Mandarin Chinese since the family is from the Canton province, but you get what you pay for.

:^)

[NZerFromHK]

The Western post-modern liberals will be shocked when they get into the essence of Chinese culture. All their free love, loose morals, end-justifies-the-means, pacifism at all costs will go up in smoke as Confucian morals are much stricter than even classical Greco-Roman ethics and second only to Christian gospel.

My ancestor Confucius will have no time to tolerate their nilhilism.

[lainie]

They're married.

[spinestein]

I'm confused. I thought Swahili was the hip, new thing.

Or was it Esperanto?

Darn. I'm so out of touch speaking the dead languages like English and French.

[myprecious]

I also question them calling her Hilton.

That was my first clue, too. That poor child.

[lainie]

That is soo sweeet.

Here she is, 22 months old from a New York Metro article.

Hilton Augusta Rogers, 1 year and 10 months old, as blonde and blue-eyed a baby as ever was born in Manhattan, looked at the waitress taking her parents’ order at Shun Lee West, and said, “Bao bao!” which means “Pick me up!” in Mandarin. Startled, the waitress picked her up. Soon, other wide-eyed waitresses gathered around. One said, “Point to your nose” in Mandarin, which Hilton Augusta promptly did—as her parents, Jim Rogers and Paige Parker, a private investor and an aspiring author, looked on, beaming.

In an age when even a venerable New York institution like IBM has sold its most visible element to the Chinese, the city’s mandarins have realized, for class-preservation reasons, their children must adapt. Which is why Hilton Augusta knows more Mandarin than English: She has a Mandarin-speaking nanny. The lycée is passé (old Europe has no trade surplus), and some parents are scouring Craigslist and placing ads in the China Press for sitters who speak Mandarin, China’s official language.

[HitmanLV]

The same geniuses who think that the most important thing in the world is getting into the right preschool.

Frankly, I suspect that these kids will be easy for my kids to mop up the floor with when the time comes.

As one of my idols Mr. Herman Blume once said, "Take dead aim on the rich boys. Get them in the crosshairs and take them down. Just remember, they can buy anything, but they cant buy a backbone. Don't let them forget that."

[myprecious]

What do you can someone who speaks two languages?

Bilingual.

What do you call someone who only speaks one language?

American.

I speak American and Texan.

[OldFriend]

Class envy alive and well today. First we had freepers mad that the Heinz family didn't pay more inheritance tax and now they're mad because rich people have nannies and want to teach their children Mandarin......

sheesh......