My wonderful mentor and college professor strongly encouraged those of us Saycians to take and learn Chinese in college. He even went to the trouble of making the College find and hire a professor to teach the class. A number of my classmates and I took the class. I also took it when I went to Oxford. I probably did it more to make him happy than my interest. I regret not paying more attention and actually getting into the language. I can remember a bit of the language. I am disappointed in my lack of interest in the class now with the emerging giant in the Far East. Dr. Sayce's point then was "1/5 of the world's population speaks Mandarin not French" My friends that poured themselves into the language did well with it. A number of them went to China after graduation to teach English.
My good friend that is Eurasian now lives outside of Shanghai and owns a hotel and more. She constantly is trying to get me to come out there for vacation.
Okay nice trip down memory lane but what is my point? Why don't I just go find a Mandarin class and start over? I have a growing concern about the amount of products and services being manufactured and created in China. Moreover, the amount of issues with the quality. We have thousands of pets that have died because of the Chinese putting in an additive into a food by product to make it seem better even though it was poisonous. Do they care - nope.
Next case - Tooth paste has been poisoned.
Last night, I saw a case about the tire recall. This is what got me thinking.
Do you remember back in the early 70's when it was "Jap Crap". Now the Japanese make the best of everything. I wasn't old enough to know if there was issues with quality that was dangerous from a health prospective. I have to think the difference is the land mass. It is difficult to have an impact on the food industry when you are an island that imports food.
What do you think the impact of the emerging nation of China will be.... We have already seen the gas price impact. Did you know the busiest Best Buy store is in China? Think about it.
