Massive China City in New York State?

NARSAddict wrote: Marcelo22 wrote: It's too late for me to learn Mandarin. My mandarin will never be as good as their English so I won't waste my time. Black people definitely need to push foreign languages on our children early on. Spanish/Portuguese + English and u got all the Americas covered, a few countries in Africa and Europe. Our most gifted language learners should tackle Mandarin, Japanese, Arabic. With that kind of thinking, of course you won't learn a language but I feel that if you put in the effort and try a different learning method, like immersion, you can communicate with those who speak a different language.  True you may not be fluent but at least you can say you know a second language.

melikey wrote: Chinese are notoriously racist and ethnocentric. I expect the overall plight of Blacks in America to remain unchanged.

They are long range planners and their tactics are almost faultless. They hold some mighty strong purse strings in the US.

It's not really about language acquisition. Who would argue against the benefits of acquiring a second or third language? It's more about why the push for Mandarin over say, Spanish or German, in Texas?

We'll watch, just as we've been watching them in Africa. Hopefully we'll see the forest, without discounting the trees, before their progress spells bad news for the rest of us.

Those of you experienced sinologists, thanks so much for your perspectives. BHM has a mix of everything!!

Plight of the sea turtles

Students coming back home helped build modern China. So why are they now faring so poorly in the labour market?





“I LEFT in 1980 with only three dollars in my pocket,” recalls Li Sanqi. He was one of the first allowed to study overseas after the dark days of the Cultural Revolution. Like most in that elite group, he excelled, rising to a coveted position at the University of Texas, while launching several technology firms. Now he is a senior executive at Huawei, a Chinese telecoms giant, enticed back by the chance to help build a world-class multinational.

Mr Li seems the perfect example of a sea turtle, or hai gui (in Mandarin, the phrase “return across the sea” sounds similar to that animal’s name), long applauded in China for bringing back advanced skills. In the past such folk reliably reaped handsome premiums in the local job market, but no longer. Sea turtles are not universally praised, the wage differential is shrinking and some are even unable to find jobs. Wags say they should now be called hai dai, or seaweed. This is a startling turn, given their past contributions.



Plight of the Sea Turtles

I sort of like the idea of Portuguese and spanish too. Maybe Arabic. Asian languages are far down my list.

Lots of cultures r now extinct. I'm over it.

liesnalibis wrote: Well there is a Chinatown near my area but it's Vietnamese... I'm not learning shyt.