Australia gets set to launch bilingual schools

In what I believe is a fantastic initiative from the government, four schools in New South Wales have been set to launch a new bilingual program. Starting initially in kindergarten and grade one, with hopes to spread across all year levels, young students will be exposed to Mandarin Chinese at a very early age. It is believed that the earlier a child is exposed to another language, the greater chance they have of soaking it in and truly becoming bilingual.

The students will initially be taught Chinese for an hour and a half per day, and along with English, will also coincide with other subjects such as history and art. The project is estimated at costing around $2.25 million dollars, and in my opinion, is a great step forward.

Too few Australians are fluent in a second language. If you look at your average European, they can know anything from 2+ additional languages. I guess it’s the result of living on the other side of the planet from approximately everywhere else, but it really is no excuse. Australians are one of the most traveled cultures out there, and having access to a second language would be nothing short of beneficial.

I myself have been struggling to learn Mandarin. Grammatically it is a simple language with far fewer actual words and a vastly more simplistic structure, though the tonal nature and almost inverted* (*compared to English) sentence structure makes it incredibly hard to understand. I have a real desire and interest to become fluent in Mandarin, but whether that actually happens or not is yet to be seen – made all the more difficult that over here I feel silly using even basic Chinese in Chinese run restaurants for fear of looking stupid. At least in China it was used out of necessity – which makes me think that you truly do need to live in a country for a certain amount of time to really master its language.

While I studied French for over 3 years in school, I can barely remember any of it, and it was started in my later student years. I would have liked nothing more than to have been exposed to another language from such an early age that the whole process didn’t feel so difficult to initiate as it now does. Though a French friend of a friend we were recently speaking to at a party got me thinking when he said that anyone has the capacity to learn another language, they just need to commit themselves – himself being a speaker of a good handful of languages themselves.

I often look at Chinese toddlers as they prattle away in Mandarin and think, hell, if that little kid can speak it, how can I not learn at least that much?!

And in completely unrelated news, Microsoft wields the Xbox banhammer.

In other news, I may or may not be affected by Microsoft’s recent ban fest which has resulted in upwards of 600,000 consoles in the US and Canada alone. In fact the bannings for modified consoles have been reported worldwide, with *cough* Australian’s also affected.

Microsoft claims that all bannings were justified and banned consoles were proven to have breached the EULA. Offering no reasoning as to the specifics (thus preventing those with modded consoles from working out a way around the issue), the number of banned consoles could even be as high as 1,000,000. Considering there’s some 20 million xbox consoles out there, that’s approximately 3 percent of the Xbox Live online community.

It makes me wonder whether this is legitimately an effort to prevent piracy, or encourage re-purchasing of new xbox consoles, driving up sales. One also wonders if competitors such as the PS3 will suddenly see a surge in online sales.

While console piracy is nothing new, it amuses me to think back to the sale of consoles and games in China, where practically 100% of them were modified. I am not aware of an Xbox live type service in China, and doubt one would ever make it there, as well – the Chinese just plain and simple wouldnt pay for such a service.

We now return you to your regular viewing…

Not for all the smog in China

If there’s one thing China is well known for these days, it’s smog. As a direct result of almost inconcievable progress, the entire country is constantly submerged beneath a blanket of foul chemical mist. In fact, you would be hard pressed to find a place in the country devoid of it, with even neighbours such as Japan complaining about being affected by it.

Whilst in China, I had the pleasure of exploring quite a few different parts of what is an absolutely massive country, though I don’t think we ever got away from the smog. There were certainly cities where it was better than others, such as Kunming in the south, and then the smaller, much higher places such as Dali, Lijiang and Zhongdian(Shangri-la) – the latter of those being right up in the mountains. Yet even in the mountainouse Zhongdian, I still always wondered if that beautiful mist was in fact mist, or smog.

The following link is eye-opening. To look at the level of black matter on the face mask shown after a mere four hours outdoors in Beijing….well just imagine that stuff lining your lungs. Whilst we were living in Wuxi, Courtney had an almost constant cough, and both of us had sore throats on a very regular basis.

China is a beautiful country, full of amazing culture and super friendly people. Its pollution however, is beyond bad, and I can only seeing it get much much worse before it begins to improve.

Those going there be warned – you are potentially risking your health breathing this stuff in. I used to think – heh, I quit smoking over five years ago, and now while I am here, my lungs are probably worse off than then. And to think, China has more smokers than anywhere else in the world. Double whammy anyone?

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

Oh the weather is cold and frightful – and government induced… For what is reported as the 2nd time this season alone, Beijing has been hit by a snowstorm that is the direct result of seeding the clouds. Via whatever means, the clouds are laced with chemicals to create rain – or in the case of winter – snow. During the Olympics, this method was employed to encourage rain showers in order to wash away the summer dust and smog residue of Summer.

I am not sure how I feel about them doing something like this. On one hand I can see where they would need to start taking measures to deal with an ongoing drought affecting the countries north – but at what cost? Would you want to be drinking water from clouds that is the results of chemicals being added to them? The water is already not drinkable – bottled water being the only option. China is affected by pollution caused acid-rain as is, which when you think of it going into the ground that’s being used to grow the majority of the food…well, I think down the track, this is all going to raise its ugly head, but in a big, nasty way.

 

What a lovely bag!

Earlier this year, a Chinese book chain named Xinhua opened a store in Box Hill. In China these stores are typically gargantuan, filled to the brim with books of every description. It would seem that the Chinese have an inherent love of reading as these stores are always full of people – many who choose to simply hang out in the store for a portion of the day to read. It makes me wonder if these people actually ever purchase the books, when they can simply read them in store. I suppose it’s not overly different from local stores such as Borders, who promote in-store reading; even going as far as providing comfortable chairs.

I enjoy going into Xinhua for a variety of reasons, first and foremost because they’re so friendly. I get the impression that they really don’t get much in the way of ‘foreign’ (aka non-Chinese) customers, and they are always really happy to come and offer assistance. The other night, a young guy was happy to point out some new release titles, explaining what the movie was about, where it was from (Japan), and most importantly that they have English subtitles. The guys own English was a bit patchy, which makes me think that he leaps at the opportunity to practice it with a native English speaker.

I have bought a few movies from there, movies which I am certain are pirate copies sent in from China. The whole store would be a fantastic resource for the local Chinese, not unlike certain foreign language bookshops we found in China (Shanghai/Beijing) were to us.

On those few occasions we have bought something, the friendly woman behind the counter has asked if we’d like a bag, to which we said yes, then she’s had the pleasure to point out how lovely the bag is, bringing our attention to the Winnie the pooh and Disney characters covering it. They’re cute in their innocence, and it’s for this reason I love dealing with them.

A link to China

It’s been just over one year now since I returned home from China. While some things have changed, it has not taken long before I have found myself feeling myself in a similar situation to what I was in previously – unchallenged, unsatisfied and to a smaller degree, unhappy.

Moving to China was about attempting to enforce change. Not only did I want to immerse myself in a culture completely foreign to the one I grew up in, I wanted to bump my life out of the rut it had fallen into, shifting the wheels into a different track, leading elsewhere.

Every day since my return I have felt like part of me is lacking. To coin a cliché, I feel like I truly did leave part of me back in China. When I think really hard on it, the negatives of the adventure begin to resurface, but they are easily outweighed by the positives, and I hold on to many fond memories.

I feel like I have a close affiliation with Chinese culture. Of course I don’t really; I mean in my day to life I am not remotely Chinese in behaviour, though I feel a link. I am constantly interested by anything Chinese, where headlines containing the word China continue to grab my attention. I enjoy the company of Chinese – not that I have any Chinese friends, but I would prefer to be surrounded by them than my own countrymen.

As I eat in Box Hill; a suburb of Victoria with a large Chinese population, I am always listening in to the Chinese as they happily talk away while enjoying their meals. I can’t understand what they’re saying, but I want to. Every time I hear a familiar word, I smile. It’s like winning tiny battles, where the more of the language I learn, the more satisfying it is to understand the context of what is an alien language to me. This is not made any easier by the tonal nature of the language which puts it on a shelf so beyond my reach that I wonder if I will ever truly cross over into the realm of fluency.

Hot hot hot!

Last night as I was watching the SBS world news, the weather came on where a 3D globe slowly rotates and they show the temperature of each individual country. As it rolled around to China, it showed both Shanghai and Beijing sitting at around 31 degrees; a big jump up from the 15 degrees that Melbourne is currently (not) enjoying. I thought back to when we were there, suffering through those few months of summer where the humidity had temperatures feeling a good 10+ degrees hotter than they actually were. While a day in Wuxi might have been 28-30 on the weather charts, when humidity was taken into account, the actual temperature really felt somewhere around the 43-45 degree mark.

 

There were days that were so hot it was unbearable. You would wake up in the morning afer a night of air-conditioning flicking – leaving the air-conditioner on lead to sore throats, and would often be too cold regardless. As soon as you hopped out of bed you would feel unpleasant, but as long as you had AC, it wasn’t too bad. You’d shower and feel somewhat refreshed, then get dressed and head out for the day in t-shirt, shorts and sandals. You could never wear socks and shoes, it was simply too hot. And then, as soon as you went outside, you felt the need to shower again.

 

The humidity was various degrees of disgusting. You became used to living with a constant sheen of sweat all over your body, with large wet patches beneath your armpits. You would reach around and feel your back beneath your top and it was completely soaked – dripping. As you walked around feeling uncomfortable, you would notice that the Chinese were wearing long pants and long shirts; completely dry. While some walked around in jeans and regular wear, others – mainly older men, walked around in rolled up singlets with their big bellies sticking out, fanning themselves with hand-made bamboo paddles.

 

Some days I miss China so much that it almost makes me feel anxious. I feel like I need to go back there to get it out of my system. Other days I remember specifics such as the almost unbearable Summer and I am happy to live in a country with a much more moderate temperature.

 

Few and far between

As my life has become progessively busier my spare time to blog has steadily decreased though I promise it’s not forgotten! A lot of interesting China related news has occured over the past several weeks which I have been keeping an eye on. Firstly we had the anniversary of the Tiananmen massacre pass by without issue, incident or even word. While the western nations put up articles and features detailing that particularly dark part of China’s history, the Chinese made every effort to ensure the date passed by quietly and without notice. I suspect that most of China’s youth are not even aware of it and have considered quizzing one of my former students who I email from time to time. CNN ran an interesting series of question & answer sessions with Chinese teens asking what they knew of the event and their associated thoughts and it was interesting to find that those who knew about it were upset by it, and approximately half of them were not aware of it, or gave it little creed due it sounding something like ancient history.

 

We also saw an Australian Rio Tinto employee, Stern Hu, arrested in Shanghai by Government operatives. It was reported that Stern Hu had stolen state secrets in relation to a recent falling through of a huge deal between Chinalco and Rio Tinto. While there’s been pressure on Australia’s Prime Minister to act, it’s been increasingly obvious that despite being fluent in Mandarin, Kevin Rudd has little to no influence, let alone respect, within the Chinese Government community. While old Johnny Howard was seen by many as being beyond his years, he was respected by many world leaders; something that takes time to nurture. All I know is, whether Stern Hu is innocent or guilty, I personally wouldn’t want to be held by the Chinese with a charge against my name. The Chinese are well known fabricators of mis-truths and when their mind is set on something, well let’s just wish Mr Hu luck; innocent or guilty.

 

And finally we have the violence against the Uighur minority in the eastern city of Urumqi. China has admitted to killing approximately 13 Uighurs who were reportedly attacking Han Chinese citizens and would not respond to typical anti-rioting tactics. This is not a new issue and is if anything a re-occuring event. The Uighurs have been treated poorly and it has reached a point where they will take no more. Unfortunately this explosion of anger was directed at the Han Chinese of which many Uighur’s consider their oppressors. Rioting and taking the fight to the Han Chinese however is the quickest path to extinction as the Chinese have no qualms about cracking down with a clenched iron fist. It’s amazing the comparisons that arise between Tibet and Urumqi when you look at the facts – if you can find them.

Cleaning up the economy

China has announced that it expects upwards of 40 million people to be unemployed during 2009.  Already, something like 25 million migrant workers have lost their jobs leaving many families in a very difficult situation. Once upon a time, the majority of the poor Chinese would scratch out a living as farmers in rural areas. As this particular line of work quickly became a hard way to earn a very minimal wage, these farmers began to head into the cities and work in factories – thus, migrants.

All of the main cities are filled with them, and they are generally very easy to spot with their often darker skin and infinitely more weathered look. Often you will see them lining the walls of train stations, sitting there beside huge bags carrying everything they own.

In an effort to counter unemployment, the Chinese Government is moving to train many of these as housekeepers. There is a supposed shortfall of roughly 10 million housekeepers which has me wondering, just who are these people needing housekeepers so badly that there is a shortage? Either way, it is a good initiative by the government as around 60 percent of housekeepers are middle aged and come from the pool of migrant workers themselves.

Another day another mining incident.

It’s been reported that at least 30 workers are dead in a mine blast near Chongqing. Every couple of weeks something like this will occur to the point that you’d be pretty bloody desperate – or probably more accurately ; have little to no choice, when it comes to working in a Chinese mine. I would love to see the statistics for how many Chinese miners die every year as only a fraction of them would be actually reported by the Government. As China advances into the modern world, things like improving the safety for works needs to become a top priority. While terribly interesting as a culture, and on the surface appearing to becoming modern, China still has an incredibly long road to tread before it can call itself 1st world.