Posted on 03/07/2007 4:00:43 AM PST by Jedi Master Pikachu
Cantonese is a much nicer sounding language. Both Cantonese and Mandarin are tonal but Mandarin sounds harsh and it seems that a speaker cannot help sounding officious. Cantonese makes for a much more pleasant sounding speech and the speaker necessarily sounds much less like he is spouting the official line.
You gave me considerable information, but you did not answer the question.
Personally respect your opinion on the topic, but was actually looking for more of a Christian (or even Judeo-Christian) opinion about the verses.
As for your question about mercy, again, practically a HYPER-vegetarian. Eat vegetable products, milk, yogurt, rennetless cheese, and eggs (white). Animals should be [considered] humanely, but shouldn't be considered human. A vegetarian can be every bit as unmerciful as a carnivore (meatarian--because of herbivore/vegetarian so carnivore/meatarian), and even more so. Whether some guy eats meat or doesn't doesn't make him particularly merciful or unmerciful either way.
If you're thinking in practical terms, it is probably better to have your kids learn the language of a country that has a significant population *and* has a comparable salary to that of the US. From that standpoint, it's pointless to learn either Spanish or Chinese, since they can hire lower-paid locals with English skills. Think French, German or Italian.
But as Americans, there are significant business opportunities in Latin America and China. I am an entrepreneur and I would want my kids to explore that as well.
Europe is a far bigger market than either Latin America or China will be, for probably the next 50 years. Besides, you don't need to speak the language - you just need business savvy and a local translator. Europe is a far easier place to do business than China - it's got bigger markets and fewer protectionistic regulations. I personally know several people who have gotten ripped off in China - and they are native Chinese speakers. I don't know anything about Latin America, but have heard that doing business there is even tougher than China.
If you're an importer, buying stuff from Chinese suppliers makes sense. But that requires no Chinese. You only really need Chinese if you intend to sell into the Chinese market - without going through distributors. And if you're going that route, you're gonna need business skills more than you need a command of spoken Chinese.
Great points. Thank you very much. Do you do business at all in China?
I just thought of an interesting example of someone who did a lot of business with foreigners without knowing the language - Michael Dell. He imported a heck of a lot of PC parts from Taiwan back in the days of PC's Limited in the late '80's (before it became Dell Computer, and before all the production moved to China). I bet he speaks little or no Chinese. The guy was just business-minded from an early age.
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