The Next Must Learn Language...

I remember awhile back when Japanese translator were desperate needed. Pretty much all of the software that were written would be localized to Japanese. Japanese translator, teacher and engineers were definite on demand. I even managed to learn Japanese but sadly I have given them back to my teacher and friends. But now …

With China has captured majority of the market shares, what do you think the next must language would be? What would us, the parents, do to prepare our next generation for this new wave? 

You have probably guessed it by now ...

In fact, ,I just read an article on The Wall Street Journal—“To improve Kids’ Chinese, parents Head to Asia.” And we are talking about Western parents with no Chinese ancestors in their bloodline—Chinese has becoming a MUST learn language!

Property of telegraph.co.uk

Able to speak Chinese would give one an ability to communicate with roughly 14-15 percents of the world population. And from the economic stand point, it would definitely enable someone's wing to spread much wider than you could imagine --think 1.3 billion!

An immersion Mandarin language has been slowly capturing parents in the US --and we are talking about Chinese parents and beyond. I personally have met many non Chinese descendants kids and adults who are pretty fluent with Chinese and they are amazingly good!

Chinese language is definitely a different animal to tackle, with its thousands of characters to learn and not to mention its five tones that one has to master. According to The Wall Street Journal, "But this time, after-school classes aren't enough for some people. Families are enrolling their children in Mandarin-immersion programs that are springing up from California to Maine. They are hiring tutors, Skyping with teachers in Beijing and recruiting Chinese-speaking nannies. Some are stocking their playrooms with Disney videos in Mandarin—not to mention the iPhone apps aimed at making kids into Mandarin speakers."

Now the question is Are you keeping up with the wave yet? 

Be thinking about that question and I hope you enjoy this little journey with me visiting the "Next Must Learn Language!"

Until next stop,

Angela

Not bad! Not bad!

The other day my older one was reading my younger one’s essay that she wrote for her literature class. I loved it so much that I have encouraged her to enter into Sandra’s writing workshop and Writing prompt of the week. (http://journeyofmylifendestiny.blogspot.com/2012/06/somebody-that-i-used-to-know.html)

After reading it, her only comment was “Not bad!”

I can't help myself but asking, “I don’t get it why do we use double negative words?”

“Mommy, double negative means positive!”

“Very true! But, there are so many positive words out there. Why would you want to illustrate something you like with double negative words.”

I went on, “To me, those words are used because we don’t feel like we want to acknowledge how good the other person’s creation that we tend to use double negative words.”

I guess my point was we don’t have to exaggerate the admiration or encouragement but we could truly pick something we like and elaborate on that. It is more meaningful than a generic word, “Good job!”

My girls know when I praise them …l always try to praise them on what I truly believe is good. If I have nothing better to say … I would try to keep it to myself unless my constructive feedback are meaningful for them to advance themselves, otherwise—keeping my mouth shut.

After couple minutes, she came back and told her younger sister, “You know what I like about your writing, it is the part where the conversation took place between the main character and the teacher.” Then she went on, “I also really like your endings and it reminded me of a movie where that monk spoke about…”

As you can tell, a very simple but truthful comments have sent the whole conversation into a very positive direction where they both chatted for a little bit more about the writing and the monk.

If you have a choice using a positive word versus double negative word, what would you choose?

I hope you enjoy this little visit on “Double negative words,” as much as I enjoyed writing it and experienced it thru my own life.

Until next stop,

Journey of Life