Some Like it Haute

As of 11:17am this morning, I have

gone through all my favourite food blog links.
cleared my doubts on what RSS feed is all about.
searched Amazon for best-selling books.
visitedDaily Candy for my daily dose of frou-frou frivolousity.
read up on Edelman's blog to find out more about what they are talking about.
picked out and devoured interesting articles from my Knowledge@Wharton email suscription.

What a busy morning it has been.

Update at 3.45pm

My sister will find this interesting. She has often commented on how important it was to have native-speaking nannies or tutors teach children the language.

Apparently, in the lesser known state of Connecticut, au pairs from China are becoming very much sought after. This is because with China firming up their economic prowness, parents are alerted to the benefits of exposing their children to Mandarin language.

Joan Friend, now retired but previously former president of a technology company, says

"I think China will rule the banking world in my children's lifetime, and I want them to be able to participate in that if they want to."

This, in my opinion, is strategic thinking.

Another mother Ms. Jean Lucas said her husband, a manager of a hedge fund, initiated the search because "he did not want to raise culturally narcissistic, monolingual children."

Now having been on exchange program, I can testify to that. You may not realise this but being able to speak more than one language creates a sense of worldliness, which monolinguists have troubling understanding. When I was in Copenhagen, I met many Europeans who could speak at least three or four languages and I was terribly relieved by my slightly-shaky still fluent grasp of Mandarin. I can name so many of my peers who turned their back against their mother tongue and I wonder if they will feel the brunt of scorning the language in time to come.