More on Chinese Food Safety

I’ve already written about Chinese food safety, explaining that Chinese manufacturing as a whole is going through growing pains that have a devastating effect on its victims.
Corporate China will eventually come around and do things right, but not before killing more people and losing much of its market for food products around the world.
This article [...]

Learning Chinese is Easier Than You Think? Afraid Not.

You can imagine what I was thinking when I got this link in a Google alert: Chinese easier to learn than students expect, languages lecturer says
From the article:

“…McClure said he wouldn’t trade teaching Chinese for anything, but also notes that there are also two major misconceptions about the Chinese language.
“Chinese is a fairly easy language. [...]

Chinese Language Programs in Australia: 94% Drop-Out Rate

I wrote a post earlier this year about Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s goal of dramatically increasing the number of Australian students studying Chinese and other Asian languages.The specific goal, in terms of number of high school students studying Chinese at grade 12, was 8,000 students by the year 2020.
So far, it isn’t working out. [...]

Doing Business with the Chinese: Communication Breakdown

Many people ask me what it’s like to do business in greater China. One of my favorite songs from the classic rock era, “Communication Breakdown” by Led Zeppelin, comes immediately to mind.
I speak, read, and write fluent Mandarin Chinese. I conduct the daily business of life, as I have done for the past twenty years, [...]

Learning Chinese: Delusions of Ease and Convenience

I’ve written often and in great depth about the challenges involved in learning Mandarin well. It isn’t something that can be accomplished quickly, yet so much is written in the media and on blogs about learning Mandarin that makes it seem as if people believe that learning Mandarin is akin to learning Spanish or Italian.
Uh, [...]