New York Magazine: Great Toddle Forward

To make their babies competitive in the global economy, parents are making them learn Chinese.  

By Alexandra Wolfe  Published May 21, 2005

Hilton Augusta Rogers, 1 year and 10 months old, as blonde and blue-eyed a baby as ever was born in Manhattan, looked at the waitress taking her parents’ order at Shun Lee West, and said, “Bao bao!” which means “Pick me up!” in Mandarin. Startled, the waitress picked her up. Soon, other wide-eyed waitresses gathered around. One said, “Point to your nose” in Mandarin, which Hilton Augusta promptly did—as her parents, Jim Rogers and Paige Parker, a private investor and an aspiring author, looked on, beaming.

In an age when even a venerable New York institution like IBM has sold its most visible element to the Chinese, the city’s mandarins have realized, for class-preservation reasons, their children must adapt. Which is why Hilton Augusta knows more Mandarin than English: She has a Mandarin-speaking nanny. The lycée is passé (old Europe has no trade surplus), and some parents are scouring Craigslist and placing ads in the China Press for sitters who speak Mandarin, China’s official language. 

JaNiece Rush of Lifestyle Resources, a placement agency, says 35 percent more families have requested Mandarin-speaking nannies this year than last. At the Pavillion Agency, requests for Mandarin-speaking sitters are up tenfold since 2000, says Clifford Greenhouse, mainly from “extremely affluent” parents. Some of these parents are Chinese or have adopted Chinese babies. But others want to give their toddlers a leg up in globalized society.

Private schools have caught on, too. Chapin, Brearley, Collegiate, and Dalton recently added Chinese to their curricula, and St. Hilda’s & St. Hugh’s will start a pilot program for 3-year-olds next year. “We were thinking, How do we prepare them to be citizens in a global economy?” says headmistress Virginia Connor. Even though Mandarin tones can be tricky, she says, “I would argue that if they can say bonjour in French, they can say ‘thank you’ in Chinese.”

Chiefly because of the program, Hilton Augusta’s father is sending her to St. Hilda’s & St. Hugh’s in the fall. With signs all over their house labeling things in English and Mandarin, she will probably be ahead of her class. Her nanny, whose English name is Shirley, says she was told to communicate with her only in Mandarin, and the toddler even has her own Mandarin name, Le Le, meaning Happy.

Finding Shirley was no easy task. Jim Rogers put an ad in the China Press and at first got responses only from people who spoke no English or were illegal immigrants. Then, before hiring Shirley, he had friends (Rogers travels to China frequently) test her Mandarin to find out “whether she speaks gutter Mandarin or a queen’s Mandarin.”

“I don’t want my daughter to grow up and suddenly start talking like a tramp at age 9,” he says. Shirley now lives in the family’s Upper West Side home, and Rogers is feeling good about his investment: “Even if my little girl weren’t very smart, she’s always going to get a job because she’ll be totally fluent in Chinese.”

http://nymag.com/nymetro/news/people/columns/intelligencer/11629/

[Teach-Baby-Chinese] 5 Reasons Why Learning Chinese Could Be a Waste of Your Time

Is learning Chinese a waste of your time?

If you want to maximize your €˜return on investment in terms of a good job, income, and opportunity costs€™, I would have to say this is an almost certain yes. The Economist thinks so too.

While there are quite a few reasons why you might want to study Chinese, let's look at some of the reasons why it could be a waste of your time:

Why Learning Chinese Could Be a Waste of Your Time

1. Many Well Educated Chinese People Would Prefer to Speak to You in English - Even if your Mandarin is better than their English (uncommon, but not unheard of - and no the prime minister's Mandarin in the linked video is definitely not better than the interviewer's English)

2. Little Applicable Value Outside of China - Most mid to upper level Chinese managers speak okay to great English. The only people you typically need Mandarin to communicate effectively with in a business environment is low level management. If you aren’t stationed in China, then, knowing Chinese won't help you much in communicating with most Chinese companies.

3. Possible Negative Market Value - To really be able to use your Mandarin, you will need to move to China, where you may have to take a large pay cut to get a job in which being fluent in Chinese would be an asset. This quote from the economist article linked above sums up things nicely:

Within China companies can hire an expatriate who speaks Chinese. Or, more often, they take their pick from an abundant supply of local graduates in English who are happy to work for 2,000 yuan (£130) a month. I took an 80% pay cut to come here because I wanted to learn the language,€ says Ken Schulz, a software engineer from Silicon Valley who studied Chinese full-time for four years at Beijing's University of Language and now works in the capital at WorkSoft, an outsourcing firm. I'€™m the only foreigner in an office of 1,200 people, and I hardly get any opportunity to use my Chinese.

4. Huge Opportunity Cost - To really learn Chinese well, including reading and writing, you need to spend years studying intensively. These are years in which you could learn several romance languages or another skill set or perhaps even a profession.

5. Non-Negligible Maintenance Costs - Even though I speak Mandarin when dealing with customers, read a Chinese magazine / newspaper daily, watch a bit of TV, and speak almost exclusively in Mandarin with my girlfriend (and some friends), my Chinese skills are slipping. It takes a lot of effort just to maintain, nonetheless improve, your Chinese.

Do I Regret Learning Chinese?

No, but from a practical standpoint there are many things I could have done with my time to get into a better job and develop a skill-set that is worth more on the job market. Learning Chinese was a good move for many other reasons, just not the ones that have to do with making money or getting a better job.

And if you've already set yourself on the improbably hard journey of learning Chinese, this commentary won't sway you one bit anyway.

http://www.thechinaexpat.com/5-reasons-why-learning-chinese-could-be-a-waste-of-your-time/

Why teaching toddlers Mandarin Chinese is a smart investment

By Melanie D.G. Kaplan | October 20, 2010, 2:00 AM PDT

Now that China is the world’s second largest economy, it’s no surprise that a booming language immersion program has seen a 300 percent growth in demand for Mandarin Chinese.

Yesterday I spoke with Leslie Lancry, the founder and CEO of Language Stars, which offers full immersion language classes to toddlers, preschoolers and elementary school children. She currently has 15 language centers in Chicago and Washington, D.C., and offers programs at 140 elementary schools, teaching Spanish, French, Italian, German and Mandarin Chinese.

Lancry, who speaks five languages besides English, says Mandarin is the most popular first-learned language in the world and the second most popular language on the Internet. Parents recognize that learning Mandarin—and starting early–will help their children, she says, “It’s an investment in their future.”

You have launched dozens of programs in Washington and Chicago. What can you tell me about trends in language education and the demand for different languages in the U.S.?

Spanish has consistently been 60 percent of the demand for the Language Stars program. It’s not surprising, because parents realize their children can get reinforcement in the U.S. because it’s so wildly spoken.
But we’ve seen a phenomenal increase in the demand for Mandarin Chinese, which has increased by 300 percent in the last four years. It’s our No. 2 program. We think that’s driven by many factors, but the most compelling is parent recognition that it will help their children down the road. It’s an investment in their future.

Tell me more about that.

Generally, China’s emerging market standing makes Mandarin an especially attractive language. Mandarin Chinese is the most popular first language on the planet. It beats out English by 5 million speakers. And it’s the second most popular language used on the Internet. So it’s no surprise that parents will want their children to learn this.

Is Mandarin harder for children to learn than other languages?
Chinese is a tonal language—in which the same combination of consonants and vowels can be pronounced totally different ways– and it’s much easier to learn that in earlier years. The younger they learn, the more authentically they can reproduce these sounds. Our focus is on the spoken language. As far as that goes, it’s no more difficult for the kids than the other languages.

What about the other traditional languages that Americans study, like French?
French is staying flat, and we anticipate that it will remain approximately where it is. German and Italian are solid heritage languages. Often a student enrolled will have more reinforcement because one of the parents or grandparents speaks it.

Why have you started with D.C. and Chicago?
We are targeting 10 to 20 cities with a mission to revolutionize how and when children learn a language. We chose Chicago and D.C. first because they had a base of parents and educators who support this.

When do most students start to learn a language now?
In junior high or high school, which is precisely after the natural window of opportunity to learn a language closes. Every human brain has the capacity to learn a language the same way we learn our native tongue. Every child up until about adolescence is capable of learning a second or third or fourth language as long as they have an immersion experience.

How much immersion do they need?
If a child is immersed by a native speaker at least once a week for a significant period of time, they will be able to do three things:

1. They will be able to use the language spontaneously, without translating through English. We often see that come out at snack time. They will ask [for a snack] naturally in another language. It’s adorable.
2. They will have the correct native accent. The brain is able to reproduce sounds, and they can pick up on their teacher’s native accent.
3. They will benefit cognitively. Kids who learn more than one language young become smarter. There are studies that show, all other things being equal, kids who know more than one language score higher on the SAT.

How young can kids start your program?
One.

One? How does a 1-year-old take language classes?
Our teachers know what the goal is that week, but from a child’s perspective, they are in an exciting parents and tots program that happens to be in another language. Unbeknownst to them, they are absorbing a foreign language. They are in their formative years.

How do you advise a parent on which language is best for their kid?
We generally say is doesn’t matter, as long as your child learns a language young. The decision should be driven by two things:

1. What language is most likely to have reinforcement outside the classroom?
2. Which language do you think will give your child the biggest advantage in the future?

Some parents end up enrolling their children in more than one. Children are able to learn many languages at once. We have a child who has taken all five of our languages. He turned 10 and just recently graduated from the program.

If you had a toddler now, what languages would you have him or her learn?
Probably every language we offer. They can absorb a limitless amount of it. I’d rather them be doing that than doing the same things in English.
Relative to 10 years ago, Americans have completely changed their outlook about learning a language. We’ve seen a shift about the age that parents want their children to start learning. Imagine—10 years from now—this entire generation of [American] children, in all kinds of professions, being able to speak Mandarin Chinese fluently.

Source:Why teaching toddlers Mandarin Chinese is a smart investment