Me no speakee Chinese

The New York Times has an Oct 14th article about the boom of Chinese-language study in U.S. K-12. I think it's awesome that the next generation of Americans can be introduced to what has traditionally been an exotic and misconstrued culture. Even in the Times article partakes in some of that pervasive cultural misunderstanding. It opens with a classroom of third-graders bowing to each other and introducing themselves in Chinese. I've never met Chinese people who bowed upon introduction. Sounds to me like someone is either thinking about classical kung-fu movies or Japanese culture, where people do bow.

Anyway, Scott McGinnis, an academic advisor at the Defense Language Institute in Washington, D.C., is quoted in the article with an astute observation:

"Chinese is strategic in a way that a lot of other languages aren't," because of China's growth as an economic and military force, Mr. McGinnis said.

"Whatever tensions lie between us, there is a historical longstanding mutual fascination with each other," he said. "Planning to be ready to engage with them rather than only thinking of them in terms of a challenge or a competitor is the smart thing to do."

I saw this coming 10 years ago when choosing a foreign language to study as part of my B.A. requirements. Besides being able to communicate with family members, I knew Chinese would be far more important than, say, Japanese, in the coming decades. Even apart from the political situation, you already see far more business news headlines about China than about Japan.

So start looking out for a Chinese-language program for your kids! If you are in the Seattle area, my wife is a native Mandarin Chinese speaker and we've been thinking about letting her work part time tutoring American children in Chinese.