Entries
Saturday, 28 April 2007
CULTURAL POST FOUR:
Across Latin America, Mandarin Is in the Air
By Juan Forero
Washington Post
September 22, 2006
Elizabeth Zamora is a busy mother and executive. Still, for three hours every Saturday, she slides into a battered wooden desk at Bogotá’s National University and follows along as Yuan Juhua, a language instructor sent here by China's government, teaches the intricacies of Mandarin.
Zamora already speaks German and English, but she struggles to learn written Chinese characters and mimic tones unknown in Spanish. She persists for a simple reason: China is voraciously scouring Latin America for everything from oil to lumber, and there is money to be made. That prospect has not only Zamora but business people in much of Latin America flocking to learn the Chinese language, increasingly heard in boardrooms and on executive junkets.
"It's fundamental to communicate in their language when you go there or they come here," said Zamora, 40, a sales executive for the German drug maker Bayer, which is growing dramatically in China. "If you don't know their language, you're lost."
Latin America, with its vast farmlands and ample oil reserves and mineral deposits, has become a prime destination for investors and others from China, whose economy has been growing at 9 percent annually. The total value of trade between China and Latin America rose from just over $10 billion in 2000 to $50 billion last year, according to Chinese trade data.
"Latin American countries want to diversify their markets, and they see a huge opportunity, not just in the present but in the potential for growth," said Chris Sabatini, a senior director of policy for the New York-based Council of the Americas, a business association that encourages trade in the Americas. "Latin Americans, as people in any country, should be opportunistic, and they see opportunity with China."
Chinese companies are investing in farmland and energy installations in Brazil. Beijing has signed a free-trade agreement with Chile, its first with a Latin American country, while announcing investments in the Chilean copper industry and gas and oil fields in Ecuador, Argentina and Bolivia. Beijing has also cemented a $5 billion oil deal with President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, which is seeking to diversify exports to other countries beyond the United States.
The arrival of China in a largely Spanish-speaking region half a world away might seem unusual. But Beijing is in a relentless quest for oil, coal, and iron ore and copper for its factories, soybean and poultry to feed its 1.3 billion people, lumber for housing, and fish meal for its livestock. President Hu Jintao's government, which two years ago pledged $100 billion in investments for several South American countries, said it also wants to bankroll road, port and railroad developments that would help bring exports more quickly to China.
Veering toward China, though, is far from easy for entrepreneurs and students from a region that has long been intertwined with the giant to the north. The United States remains the biggest investor in Latin America, its trade with the region eight times that of China's. English prevails as a second language.
Mandarin, on the other hand, is considered far harder to learn, with dialects and a tenor significantly different from the phonetic cadences of Spanish and Portuguese. Yet the Chinese language is making gains, as is the revolutionary idea of looking west across the Pacific for business opportunities.
"The world is divided into east and west, and the culture is completely different," said Miguel Angel Poveda, president of the Colombo-China Chamber of Commerce in Bogotá. "The only way to get around it is to understand the culture and learn to do business with them, but in their language."
Many of those taking up the challenge are young, like Leidy Catalina Ortega, 17, who recently dropped an English-language class in favor of Mandarin. Her parents want to import clothing from China to sell in Bogotá. If she learns the language, she will help manage the business. "If you're interested and work hard, you can learn and talk almost like they do," she said. "You are afraid at first. Later you get it and move on."
Universities across Latin America, from Mexico to Buenos Aires, are founding Asian studies programs and teaching Chinese. Institutions of all kinds -- some are expensive one-on-one tutorials and others are fly-by-night language academies staffed by illegal Chinese immigrants -- are being inundated with new students.
The University of Buenos Aires started its Chinese-language department in 2004 after Hu led a high-level delegation to Argentina, Brazil and other countries. "It generated so much interest, and people started to say, 'Where is there a place to learn Chinese?' “Maria Chao, the coordinator of the department, said by phone from Buenos Aires.”They see the language as a way to communicate and cut some distance between the two countries."
But in her wildest dreams, Chao said, she could not have foreseen how intense the interest would be. Instead of twenty students, as she expected, more than 600 signed up for classes. Now there are more than 1,000 students studying Chinese at the university, she said, in nearly 70 classes. Chao, who was born in China and immigrated to Argentina at age 5, said she has been astounded by the interest people have in China. She recently asked a policeman for directions and, without missing a beat, he responded: “Ni hao ma," Mandarin for "How are you?"
In Peru, which has a dynamic Chinese immigrant community and an economy that is growing at 5 percent annually, business people are looking for classes that can quickly give them an advantage as the country's trade with China grows. Joseph Cruz, 46, who has been teaching Chinese for 23 years, will soon launch a course for executives costing $2,200 a year, a hefty sum in Peru.
The course, to be taught at Lima's Catholic University, will not just deal with grammar and vocabulary, but with the trappings of Chinese culture and history, from Confucian philosophy to the importance of tea. "The idea is to use these courses to teach people how Chinese thinking is reflected in modern China," Cruz said. "We're not going to waste their money."
China, too, sees great opportunity in Latin America, said Zhao Xingtian, cultural counselor at the Chinese Embassy in Bogotá. He spoke on a recent night as a Colombian-Chinese salsa band -- singing in both Mandarin and Spanish -- prepared to play at a cocktail party given by the Colombo-Chinese Chamber of Commerce.
"Many Chinese would like to come to this country, know its people, drink its coffee," said Zhao, speaking a fluid Spanish. "It makes us very happy that many Colombians want to learn Chinese. It's a good beginning. It's a good cultural exchange between Latin America and China."
China is dispatching teachers abroad, sending people like Yuan Juhua to countries that just a few years ago gave short shrift to the idea of strengthening ties with Beijing. Yuan arrived here just two years ago to help launch the National University's Mandarin program. Now, her 12-year-old daughter speaks fluent Spanish, and Yuan divides her time between teaching university students during the day and business people on weekends.
The university "didn't have any resources for the Chinese program, so after I came here, everything was a challenge for me," Yuan said. She also found teaching Spanish speakers a challenge. "These two languages are very different, and because of that, it's difficult for Chinese people to study Spanish and people here to study Chinese," Yuan said. Many drop out after level one, the first of four offered. "If they don't have patience and enthusiasm, it's hard to get to level two," she said.
In a break from Yuan's class, Miguel Aroca, a petroleum engineer for France's Total oil company, recounted the difficulties of reaching level two. Aroca, 33 and fluent in English and French, said he wanted to study Mandarin as a hobby. Now he realizes it is a career tool. Mastering it will not be easy. "It went from being a hobby to being real work," he said. "The last exam, I was really stressed out."
MY OPINION:
I totally agree with this article. As everyone is now talking about nowadays, China’s economy is booming and people all around the world, even Singapore, are desperately trying to master the Chinese language, so as to use it as a career tool. China is advancing rapidly, and therefore people believe that mastering the Chinese language might give more advantage when it comes to business.
You may think this article is entirely related to economical globalisation, but however, having the Chinese language as a ‘hot’ topic, and everyone’s desperately trying to learn more about the Chinese language, furthermore, to learn more about the Chinese culture and whatever has got to do with China, and this makes me wonder, will the universal language be Chinese in the few years to come? Will the world be influenced by Chinese cultures instead of Western?
As the latest issues of globalisation are mainly on Americanisation, how various countries are influenced by the American cultures today, that you can see a typical American scene all around the world, in China, India, Britain and even Singapore.
I believe Chinese is an important language in the market; however, in non-economical aspects, I used to think that learning other languages may be very useful, as to learn to communicate with others all around the world. Now that almost anyone can speak English, there isn’t a need to. Have you ever thought that now that people are so eager to learn Chinese, will Chinese ever be the next universal language? That may not be possible, but who knows.
RIMIKO signing off
- because there's really no need to, anymore...
11:45:00 pm
Tuesday, 24 April 2007
ECONOMIC POST 3.Globalism? It is the process "
in which goods and services, including capital, move more freely within and among nations. As globalism advances, national boundaries become more and more porous, and to some extent, less and less relevant. " [Read more
here.] Yes, national boundaries indeed are eroding and becoming increasingly useless. Now we talk about a world economy, a world problem, a world culture, a world bank. Matters are no longer limited to a country, now, the world's business is everyobody's business. The world has become smaller psychologically because what used to be your problem and something that was my problem has now become our problem. It has drawn us closer together.
In a good way?Let's talk about world economy. All the countries are supposed to be continuously "sparring" with each other for the world to progress as a whole. However we all know that there are many countries which are knocked out early in this sparring match. Time and time again we see articles on the global economy- an improvement in the global economy. Perhaps it is time to think, whether the global economy has really improved at all.
By right or somehow at the back of our minds, something tells us that the rich are supposed to help the poor. But are the richer countries really helping their poorer counterparts? A tsunami has struck! The US has offered $35 million. WHOA! Japan has offered $500 million! The tsunami victims have really met their saviours! Yeah, they have met a generous country but do they really mean to help or just want to gain fame from this situation?
To me, this whole thing about the world economy is childish, so to speak. It is like the usual primary school classroom scene where "he has such a nice pen! Mummy, I want a nicer pen!". Furthermore what we are talking about here is President Bush and Prime Minister then Junichiro Koizumi.
Most of the good deeds done in my opinion are just an attempt to be in the limelight for a moment, just a moment, so that he loses face and I gain fame. I suppose this is not supposed to be, but what a global economy is about. I think the global economy in this sense is merely a source of rejuvenation for countries which have successfully beaten another country to something. In a world so advanced, I simply can't believe that such "childishness" exists in the field of politics.
Yes, I do agree that the global economy has brought about its pros like easier trade between countries because of more free trade agreements etc., however it also has its cons, as discussed in this post. No system is or can be perfect, and this syndrome of "I must win you!" is almost unavoidable for it is an innate part of our human nature. In addition, the global economy is more of the monopilsation and battle of rich countries over who has ultimate control over the world since the rich countries are the ones maintaining the world's progress (unlike poorer countries which can be said to be more of a hindrance). (At the moment, US seems to be the one behind the reins.) Hence we should strive to improve on the pros of the global economy such that state sovereignty is least affected, yet the cons are significantly less
obvious than it is at the moment.
DEBORAH SIM (with thanks to www.lib.uwo.ca for the cartoon) signing off Monday, 23 April 2007
Refer to article
Globalisation: the end of foreign policy from
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/in_depth/uk_politics/2001/open_politics/foreign_policy/globalisation.stmWith globalisation, we have global problems instead of state problems. Global problems like climate change, global warming, bird flu and others can no longer be solved by one country. The whole world needs to do its part in saving the world. Countries can no longer say that that they did not cause the problem and thus do not need to do anything about it. Like what was written in the article, "traditional divisions between Domestic and Foreign Policy are no longer valid", a country's problem does not only involve that country, it may involve other countries or international organisations. One example of a country's problem that involves other countries is the haze. Haze not only affects the country involved, in this case Indonesia, other nearby countries like Malaysia and Singapore are also affected by it. Another example is SARS. It is spread as infected people travel from country to country. The problem was solved only with the cooperation of the world.
In the article, several global challenges were mentioned including MNCs( multi-national cooperations), climate change, NGOs(non-governmental organisations). When governments make important decisions, they may need to consult with MNCs, NGOs, IO(international organizations) which they belong to. State sovereignty is compromised, governments no longer have absolute power.
Climate change, as mentioned above, is a global problem. It cannot be solved with the efforts of one country only. Kyoto protocol was an attempt at solving or slowing climate change but it was not really sucessful as several countries like USA did not sign and rectify it.
MNCs are also a challenge to local and global politics. They provide thousands of people with jobs and boost the economy. If it pulls out of a country, thousands of people would be without a job so in a way, MNCs has a certain power over state decisions.
On the other hand, NGOs do not have any real power but their voice is heard throughout the world. If it critisizes a country, the country would look bad.
There are many global challenges facing political leaders some of which like MNCs, global warming are mentioned above. Political leaders must find a balance between these global challenge and their internal challenge. Countries must sink or swim with the wave that is globalisation.
Political expert Tay Xiu Yu signing off
- because there's really no need to, anymore...
3:13:00 pm
