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Chicago school kids learn CHINESE!
Vanity ^ | 1-29-2006 | Dick Bachert

Posted on 01/29/2006 4:43:03 PM PST by Dick Bachert

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To: Dick Bachert

Good.


61 posted on 01/29/2006 5:20:21 PM PST by marron
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To: Dick Bachert

In twenty years the Chinese will have the biggest economy in the world. How are we to do business or compete, much less put lots of spies there if no one learns Chinese?

You might want to rethink your position on this.


62 posted on 01/29/2006 5:21:46 PM PST by Bob J (RIGHTALK.com...a conservative alternative to NPR!)
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To: buccaneer81
Think about this: KNOW THINE ENEMY.

No kidding. Throw in JOB SECURITY as well. Especially working for various organizations within the US intelligence community.
63 posted on 01/29/2006 5:21:48 PM PST by tanknetter
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To: RightWhale
Saussure's Cours is not a bad read.

That's a dangerous suggestion 'round these pahts ;-)

64 posted on 01/29/2006 5:22:35 PM PST by bikepacker67
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To: Dick Bachert

I think learning Chinese is wonderful and it could ONLY help them with every other subject and the world they will grow up in.


65 posted on 01/29/2006 5:24:31 PM PST by Hildy (The only difference between a rut and a grave is the depth)
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To: Beelzebubba
If you think simplicity is the hallmark of a good language, be aware that Chinese has only one-syllable words, each starting with one of 21 consonants, and ending with one of 16 vowel sounds. Not all permutations are used.

So there are only a few of these basic word-blocks and they get used over and over and over again. Simplicity is not an unmixed blessing. Ambiguities similar to puns abound.

66 posted on 01/29/2006 5:24:39 PM PST by VadeRetro (Liberalism is a cancer on society. Creationism is a cancer on conservatism.)
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To: bikepacker67

Sure is. But, you can't tell the players without a scorecard.


67 posted on 01/29/2006 5:25:50 PM PST by RightWhale (pas de lieu, Rhone que nous)
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To: Dick Bachert; DaughterofEve
We placed our daughter in an all Chinese language school at age 3. At the time she spoke no Chinese. Now she is fluent in Chinese and doing extremely well in a top kindergarten in NYC (which is an English only school).

Young children are blessed with amazing linguistic abilities. I believe that learning in Chinese for two years actually improved all of her language skills - Mandarin and English. In fact, you'll find this interesting DaughterofEve, she is the only student in her class that actually read The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe before seeing the movie.

P.S. Our nanny is originally from Beijing and speaks exclusively to both our daughters in Chinese.

68 posted on 01/29/2006 5:27:49 PM PST by True Capitalist
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To: RightWhale

Ya know what it is... I don't want conclusions, I want to have some cool unknown facts, and let me draw my own.


69 posted on 01/29/2006 5:28:07 PM PST by bikepacker67
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To: tanknetter

Yep. This dude is seriously shortsighted. Had I a child in the 1950's or 60's, he would have been learning Russian if at all possible.


70 posted on 01/29/2006 5:29:19 PM PST by buccaneer81 (Bob Taft has soiled the family name for the next century.)
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To: bikepacker67
At a physics conference in 1960:

We sit with the giants on whose shoulders we stand.

71 posted on 01/29/2006 5:31:05 PM PST by RightWhale (pas de lieu, Rhone que nous)
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To: Dick Bachert

Why exactly is this a bad idea?


72 posted on 01/29/2006 5:31:42 PM PST by jamesissmall218
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To: Dick Bachert

http://www.theflasharchive.com/f/f-85.htm


73 posted on 01/29/2006 5:33:48 PM PST by SWAMPSNIPER (MAY I DIE ON MY FEET IN MY SWAMP)
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To: RightWhale

Old Japanese men still sound like that. It takes a lot of practice though.


74 posted on 01/29/2006 5:34:17 PM PST by Netheron
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To: VadeRetro
So there are only a few of these basic word-blocks and they get used over and over and over again. Simplicity is not an unmixed blessing. Ambiguities similar to puns abound.


No argument. But I am not the ignoramus who is arguing that kids shouldn't be studying one of the most-spoken languages on the planet, because it has too many words.
75 posted on 01/29/2006 5:34:26 PM PST by Atlas Sneezed (Your FRiendly FReeper Patent Attorney)
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To: Dick Bachert

Actually, this is brilliant. If I ever have kids, I will probably try to find just such a program.


76 posted on 01/29/2006 5:37:02 PM PST by jude24 ("Thy law is written on the hearts of men, which iniquity itself effaces not." - St. Augustine)
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To: RightWhale
Simplified Chinese has about 2500 words, Traditional has over 50,000. In simplified here are something like 240 radicals (partial words used to convey general meaning). There are eleven basic strokes. There are four(4) full tones and a half tone. Words also have different meanings based on the other words around it. It's enough to make my head explode.

Go to a book store and pick up a Chinese to English dictionary. I use the Xinhua dictionary with English translations the most. There is absolutely no way to sound out a Chinese word. I also have an electronic dictionary that speaks. That helps quite a bit too when I forget how my Chinese language professor said something.
77 posted on 01/29/2006 5:37:04 PM PST by Dutch Boy
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To: Dick Bachert

Knowing a foreign language is a good thing. Chinese, Arabic, and Spanish will probably be the most desirable in the 21st Century. In fact, I learned much of what I know about English grammar in H.S. French class.

The biggest problem I had with the French language, other than the fact that is spoken by the French people, is that as a rule, the final letter is always dropped in pronounciation, so a certain sound can be a dozen or so different words.


78 posted on 01/29/2006 5:38:15 PM PST by fzx12345 (Three lefts don't make a right; they invent one.)
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To: Netheron

The trick is to relax the throat. Otherwise it is a shortcut to a sore throat.


79 posted on 01/29/2006 5:38:53 PM PST by RightWhale (pas de lieu, Rhone que nous)
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To: RightWhale
Isn't that:

In the sciences, we are now uniquely privileged to sit side by side with the giants on whose shoulders we stand

? ;-)

Which to me, seems always the case. I mean... even I know more about the Atom then did J.J. Thomson - and it ain't because I'm gigantic!

80 posted on 01/29/2006 5:38:57 PM PST by bikepacker67
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