Hot Language of the Moment: Mandarin Chinese

As some of you know, I’ve been taking Mandarin Chinese lessons at Langara College. I just completed Level One over the holidays and will be going back this Saturday for Level Two. My whole reason for taking it was to allow me to communicate better with my contacts in Asia. During my trip to COMPUTEX in Taiwan, I felt pretty useless. All my non Chinese friends would look at me for guidance when it came down to lay down the native tongue. I would just look back and shrug. I figured that it was a good idea simply because of my travel and my business. Turns out that Mandarin is now one of the hottest languages to learn.

I was reading in the paper the other day that even as far as Alabama (what the hell?), people are learning Mandarin, and there is a shortage classes and instructors. Today, in the local paper, I read that even the local government is sending officials with the most likely chance of interacting with Chinese VIPs to Mandarin crash courses put on by UBC. The crash course not only covers common phrases, but also culture and customs so that they can best interact with Chinese officials. This is likely in preparation for the 2010 games and to fix relations with China that were botched by the current Canadian Federal Government.

Looks like I better concentrate and pay attention in class. Otherwise, my non Asian friends will be translating for me in Taiwan this year
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Eating Books

One of the New Years Resolutions that I’ve decided to start early is to read more books. I was never a readaholic in school. In fact, the only time I ever went to the library was when I HAD to go with the class. Even during College and University, the library just wasn’t a place that I gravitated towards. I was always drawn more to the resources available on the web. As a result, I now make all my income from it.

I went out to the local Chapters bookstore to find some good reading material. I also wanted books where I could learn something from. I’m not a fluffy fiction guy, though I did get into reading Harry Potter at one point. I read the first three books on my PDA. Someone had leaked it onto the web and I came across a copy while looking for free apps for my Palm. Anyway, I started thinking of subjects that interested me and personal finance and investing was one of them.

The first book I picked up was “Why We Want You To Be Rich”: A collaboration between Donald Trump and Robert Kiyosaki, the “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” guy. I love the show “The Apprentice” and I had read The Donald’s book “Art of the Deal”. I really got nothing out of “Art of the Deal”. I don’t even remember it.

“Why We Want You To Be Rich” is basically like a long interview as Donald and Robert weigh in on subjects like the world economy, investing, and common questions asked of them like “I’m a Baby Boomer with without much money. What should I do?” It also had a lot of “Edumercials” that sold their education services. After the read, I think I’m going to stick with watching the show “The Apprentice” rather than reading more of Trumps books. I didn’t like the first one, and I didn’t really care too much for what he said. Kiyosaki on the other hand I felt contributed much more to the book. That’s why the next book I picked up was “Rich Dad, Poor Dad”.

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Updates and Stuff

I thought I’d just do a bit of housekeeping and update you folks on stuff that you may or may not want to know about. To start, I mentioned that I was going back to school to improve my writing and learn Mandarin. Both classes are finally done, and I learned quite a bit.

My writing course was taught by a successful independent writer by the name of Brian Payton. Brian has written for a number of publications such as the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Boston Globe, Globe and Mail, and Canadian Geographic. Brian is currently promoting his new book “Shadow of the Bear - Travels in Vanishing Wilderness“. Since my background was never a writing one, I learned a lot from Brian’s lectures and the real world knowledge that he imparted. He’s given me a new found respect for print media and the inspiration to improve my craft. It was hard for me to believe that it was his very first time teaching.

My Mandarin class went both good and bad. I was the bad part. I never studied. When I studied, it consisted of me listening to the lesson on CD before class. By the end of the class however, I must have retained something because words all of a sudden began to mean something. After our final oral test, the teacher encouraged me to go to level two. She said that I had the confidence, but I need to practice more in order to retain it. I will be going back to school again in January for level two. Hopefully by the time COMPUTEX rolls around, I’ll be good enough to survive in Taiwan.

AGLOCO added a new feature that tells people what percentage of top users you are in. I nearly popped a plug seeing it say “You rank in the top 0.72% of all members”. This means that 99.28% of people aren’t doing as well as I am. Come on! Haven’t I scared you people away already?

My daily and often multiple daily updates have increased my blogs value to the point that Text Link Ads was able to sell a link on my site. They have me listed here. I’m only $40 bucks a month! That’s a bargain! However, they take 50% of the cut. That’s pretty high, but it’s free money so I’ll take that for now. Seven spots left folks. Better hurry!

That’s all I got for now. I’m sure I’ll think of more later.