|
Fund manager and investment author Jim Rogers hired a Chinese nanny as soon as his daughter Hilton Augusta Parker Rogers was born in 2003. ¡°You want some solid investment advice? Make your children and grandchildren learn Chinese, because the 21st century will be the century of China,¡± he said. ¡°The 19th century was the century of the United Kingdom. The 20th century was the century of the U.S. The 21st century will be China's.¡± He attached Chinese word cards along with English ones on walls and the sides of the baby¡¯s bed.
American CEOs often take their children on business trips to China, and many British parents hire a Chinese nanny as a way to teach their children Chinese, which is likely to become a powerful international business language in the future.
It is daunting for Westerners to learn Chinese because different tones shift the meanings of words and there are thousands of characters. Westerners often fail to become fluent Chinese speakers despite a lifelong efforts unless they started learning Mandarin in the crib. The U.S. State Department categorized Mandarin as one of most difficult languages to learn along with Korean, Arabic, Japanese and Cantonese. Ordinary Americans must learn the language for 2,200 hours -- 40 hours a week for 13 months -- to become fluent. They need only some four months to speak French and Spanish fluently.
But the zeal for learning Chinese is sweeping the world. In France, the number of applicants for the Chinese speaking test (Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi) increases 20 percent every year. In Britain, Chinese nannies are paid twice the wages of ordinary English-speaking nannies. In New York, nannies speaking both English and Chinese earn US$50,000 a year. The Thai government encourages young students to learn English and Chinese at the same time, saying that they will be defeated if they don¡¯t speak Chinese.
Chinese domestic workers are also popular in Korea, since they can teach Chinese to children in addition to doing the house chores. Many Korean parents want Chinese helpers with a college degree to create an environment for their children to learn Chinese easily from childhood. Some Chinese women prefer a job as a domestic help to a teaching job in private institutions, where they face cutthroat competition.
A survey shows that Korean students spend W100 million (US$1=W917) a head over a lifetime on learning English. But it is a problem of Korea¡¯s language education that many Koreans fail to become fluent in English despite such an enormous investment. The British linguist David Gaddol says, ¡°If you want to get ahead, learn Mandarin. In many Asian countries, in Europe and the U.S., Mandarin has emerged as the new must-have language.¡±
Korea should keep up with the global trend and create a social atmosphere and conditions for its people to learn Chinese without pain but with small costs.
The column was contributed by Chosun Ilbo in-house columnist Kang In-sun.
|
