Helping Children to Learn Chinese Language -Childbook.com an Online Chinese Book store

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noreply@blogger.com (Ray Ritchey) — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 05:52:00 +0000

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Doing business in China getting tougher for U.S. companies?

noreply@blogger.com (Ray Ritchey) — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 05:06:00 +0000

Good article in the San Jose Mercury News - Doing business in China getting tougher for U.S. companies.

Key Points:

37 percent of tech companies complained of lost sales because the Chinese government favors products from local companies.
Many U.S. companies, said one example of the new hurdles its members face in China is government procurement policies requiring that products contain intellectual property developed and owned in China.
Tech companies also chafe against rules that require their products adopt China's local technology standards. That means they often must create two versions of a product: one for China and one for the global market.

The reason for the IP policy (owned and developed in China), as well as forcing licensing to Chinese partners if you want to do business in China is the Chinese government wants to be creating IP, and not just a low cost place for manufacturing. China tried to do this with their own 3G standard, which was a failure. They have also tried for their own WiFi standard, which is the reason the current iPhone sold in China does not have WiFi.

China takes lead in clean-power investment

noreply@blogger.com (Ray Ritchey) — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 22:47:00 +0000

China takes lead in clean-power investment - LA Times.

Peter Drucker had a famous question, "Are you doing the right work?" The question for China and other countries, are they making the right investment in clean energy? Some countries have made massive investments in alternate energy that do not make economic sense (Spain is an example of this). The challenge is making the right investments in alternate energy that provide a long term benefit.

China & Godaddy

noreply@blogger.com (Ray Ritchey) — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 21:59:00 +0000

Godaddy is the largest domain registrar in the world. They will no longer sell .cn domains, since China started to demand more info. about their users. Network Solutions is also pulling out.

I am also a GoDaddy user.

In response to new rules, GoDaddy to stop registering domain names in China - Washington Post

In December, China began to enforce a new policy that required any registrant of a new .cn domain name to provide a color, head-and-shoulders photograph and other business identification, including a Chinese business registration number and physical, signed registration forms. That data was to be forwarded to the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC), a quasi-governmental agency. Most domain name registries require only a name, address, telephone number and e-mail address.

In China, the poor stay poor, the rich get ... Tibetan mastiffs?

noreply@blogger.com (Ray Ritchey) — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 01:31:00 +0000

In China, the poor stay poor, the rich get ... Tibetan mastiffs? - LA Times.

My family is a Golden Retriever family :=) Having Golden Retrievers were a fad in Taiwan for a while.

I am now on my third Golden Retriever. I had one as a child. Then after I got married my family had another for 17 years. Super smart dog, may be to smart. And then we just adopted one from a shelter that is being challenging - he likes to chew...

References:

From Taiwan with Love - Golden Retrievers

Google - What Now?

noreply@blogger.com (Ray Ritchey) — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 01:05:00 +0000

My 2 cents :-)

China did not expect Google to do what it did. Forwarding Google.Cn to Google.hk
China's government will "suggest" to Google's partners within China, to find another partner. This will substantially reduce the revenue for Google within China.
China's Golden Wall will continue to censor individual Google pages from Google.hk that Google.cn as accessed from within China.
China's government is going to be very careful on dealing with Google and has not decided how to react yet, beyond the suggestions to partners and blocking individual page results.
China's government has lost face by how Google has thought outside the box.
China's government considers control of information of the Internet within China as key to continuing in power. They don't want an Orange or Green revolution to happen within China.
China's government is favoring Chinese companies over foreign companies. And government run companies over private Chinese companies.
Microsoft will not follow what Google has done.
Leaving China has helped Google's reputation worldwide.
In the long term leaving China as Google has done may actually help it.

References:

Google Faces Fallout as China Reacts to Site Shift - NY Times.
Google does the right thing in China -- will Microsoft follow? - Washington Post
Google or China: Who Has More to Lose? Room for Debate - NY Times.

One Google, One World; One China, No Google

noreply@blogger.com (Ray Ritchey) — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 04:21:00 +0000

Great analysis!

One Google, One World; One China, No Google

I disagree on one minor part only :-)

Google Elegant Solution to their China Problem

noreply@blogger.com (Ray Ritchey) — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 21:36:00 +0000

Official Google Blog: A new approach to China: an update

Google reply to China is very subtle and elegant.

Google forwarded Google.cn to Hong Kong, where Google.hk is hosted.

My 2 cents:

1. Google HK is still in China.
2. China has made the statement that their employees in China are not involved.
3. Now the responsibility for blocking is with China's government.
4. Google keeps their word by removing censorship, while not directly going against China's law.
5. Google wants to keep their other operations in China.

Taiwan's Hot Springs

noreply@blogger.com (Ray Ritchey) — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 20:15:00 +0000

Taiwan’s Steaming Pools of Paradise - NY Times.

I have heard so much about how great the hot springs are in Taiwan.

Of course he is another way of treating them after an earth quake - From hot springs to a big stink - latimes.com

10 Tips for a Chinese Tutor

noreply@blogger.com (Ray Ritchey) — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 19:00:00 +0000

Some quick thoughts:

1. You are the boss, and the tutor is your employee. So make sure your Chinese tutor understands what you want to accomplish and has a plan. Treat your tutor with respect, but good communication is key. Getting feedback after every lesson is good for both the tutor and you. Ask your child how the tutor is doing and what you learned this week!

2. To make progress in Learning Chinese, a curriculum/textbook helps with a framework and structure. There are brilliant Chinese tutors who don't need this, but for the other 95% this helps a lot. When interviewing a tutor, ask about what materials they plan to use. When selecting a curriculum, it helps to find one that is a good fit for the tutor. ChildBook has lots of sample pages to help tutors choose the right one.

3. Ask about their experience and how they would handle potential issues, such as your child not doing their Chinese home work.

4. Talk about Home Work and have clear expectations in this area. Some Chinese parents expect their kids to be given lots of homework.

5. Ask your tutor what extra material would be helpful and compliment their tutoring. Coloring Books, CDs of Chinese Songs/Stories, DVD's, and Flashcards can all add a lot to teaching Chinese. Games are another great way to Learn Chinese.

6. Have the tutor you are considering hiring do a sample lesson with your child. See how they interact. I would pay for the lesson no matter what. Just because a person is a native speaker of a language does not automatically make them an excellent teacher. And it has to be a good fit with you, your child, and the tutor.

7. Your place or theirs. If you can have the tutor come to your house. This can help your time a lot. Driving can take a lot of time.

8. The tutor may need their own set of textbook to work with your child, so you may need to buy two sets.

9. College Students vs. Professional. If you have a local college you may want to consider using a college student. Or the significant other of a college student.

10. The tutor can also be a role model for your child, so you may want to consider this when hiring a tutor.

Rio Tinto Update

noreply@blogger.com (Ray Ritchey) — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 18:50:00 +0000

Rio Tinto Workers Admit Accepting Bribes in China - NY Times.

Very strange what has happened now...

Jerome Cohen, a professor at New York University and an expert on China’s legal system, says he is troubled by the closed nature of the proceedings Monday, and the government’s attempt to turn this into a bribery case.

“The first thing they did to quell foreign protests was to reduce it to trade secrets,” Mr. Cohen said in a telephone interview. “The second was to discredit the defendants in the eyes of their employers. It was a brilliant move. But there are a lot of unanswered questions. A bribe for what? What did they do for it? Was it with Rio Tinto’s knowledge?”

Reference: Rio Tinto

Saving the Google students

noreply@blogger.com (Ray Ritchey) — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 02:45:00 +0000

With times of budget cuts in education, I do see school libraries as being important. To teach students that not everything you read on the Internet is true is a major task. The ability to question and analyze, and do research. Internet searches are great tools, but it is a huge challenge to find good information. Wikipedia is a great tool, but there are often inaccuracies, some of them deliberate.

I like this quote:

And to most kids, whatever they read on the Internet is "all good." I've been told, quite emphatically, that the Apollo moonwalk never happened, the Holocaust was a hoax and George W. Bush orchestrated 9/11 -- all based on text, photos or videos found online.

Saving the Google students - LA Times.

Over Reactions to Chinese Paper?

noreply@blogger.com (Ray Ritchey) — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 02:33:00 +0000

A Chinese graduate student wrote a paper on attacking the US power grid. Why? Because the data was available, where in other countries it is not. The paper created quite a stir and the question was it an over reaction with a bit of paranoia? What type of image is being projected by China to the US? How is China being perceived?

My 2 cents...

I understand the concern in the US, since the Chinese government has built up large and state of the art cyber force and seems to be using it. The hacking of Google, along with 26 other US companies was impressive. But it still has not been proven that Chinese were behind it, may be, some computers in China had been hijacked. And no, I don't want to buy a bridge in brooklyn :-)

The US has a cyber force, but due to legal issues such as liability has not used it against other countries in retaliation to cyber attacks. Due to the legal issues that have not been resolved yet, I don't see the US using their cyber attack abilities yet. I do worry that a lot of computer networks in the US, including power companies, are very vunerable. If Google can get hacked, I don't have faith that a power company is unhackable.

Academic Paper in China Sets Off Alarms in U.S. - NY Times.

More China Vs. Google

noreply@blogger.com (Ray Ritchey) — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 15:56:00 +0000

It seems before Google made it's announcement that the Chinese government was also beating it up through the state media with false accusations. Probably as a way to indirectly help Google's Chinese competition.

For Chinese people, loss of Google would mean 'nothing but darkness - Washington Post

The question is what will Google continue to operate in China? It seems the search part will stop, but will other services continue?

Guess which dinner this was?

noreply@blogger.com (Ray Ritchey) — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 06:23:00 +0000

Great article - America's Real Dream Team - Thomas Friedman

Guess what formal dinner had these guests...

Linda Zhou, Alice Wei Zhao, Lori Ying, Angela Yu-Yun Yeung, Lynnelle Lin Ye, Kevin Young Xu, Benjamin Chang Sun, Jane Yoonhae Suh, Katheryn Cheng Shi, Sunanda Sharma, Sarine Gayaneh Shahmirian, Arjun Ranganath Puranik, Raman Venkat Nelakant, Akhil Mathew, Paul Masih Das, David Chienyun Liu, Elisa Bisi Lin, Yifan Li, Lanair Amaad Lett, Ruoyi Jiang, Otana Agape Jakpor, Peter Danming Hu, Yale Wang Fan, Yuval Yaacov Calev, Levent Alpoge, John Vincenzo Capodilupo and Namrata Anand.

No, sorry, it was not a dinner of the China-India Friendship League. Give up?

O.K. All these kids are American high school students. They were the majority of the 40 finalists in the 2010 Intel Science Talent Search, which, through a national contest, identifies and honors the top math and science high school students in America, based on their solutions to scientific problems. The awards dinner was Tuesday, and, as you can see from the above list, most finalists hailed from immigrant families, largely from Asia.

Finish the article America's Real Dream Team - Thomas Friedman

Learning Chinese Reviews

noreply@blogger.com (Ray Ritchey) — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 06:19:00 +0000

A listing of all the reviews for childbook.com

Triads, Tongs, and the Chinese Mafia

noreply@blogger.com (Ray Ritchey) — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 23:51:00 +0000

A friend of my wife, from Hong Kong, mentioned that the Hong Kong Mafia will often determine who the winner of a beauty contest is in some type of exchange. I was surprised to hear that triads were still very powerful outside of the movies.

So I did a bit of Googling...

Basically after 1949 they got eliminated in China after the communist took over, so many moved to Hong Kong. Some Triads may have up to 30,000 members today in HK, estimate 80,000 total in HK. Seems to be several societies and do all sorts of crimes. Software counterfeiting, drugs, and smuggling people seem to be major sources of funds. From what I read they have some influence in the movie industry, counterfeiting, as well as relations in Chinatowns in the US. Tongs and Triads both seem to have a relationship to Chinese street gangs in the US. Tongs were formed in the US by immigrants, where Triads have a longer history going back to resistance against the Manchus.

Does NCLB Promote Monolingualism?

noreply@blogger.com (Ray Ritchey) — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 21:15:00 +0000

Interesting article - Does NCLB Promote Monolingualism? - Education Week.

The problem I see is there is not enough true bilingualism being taught in schools, where students are expected to be fluent in both languages.

Problems I have seen in Chinese Schools:

1. All they learn is Characters, and they can't hold a conversation in Chinese.
2. It's more like baby sitting for after school and in the summer.
3. They teacher just goes over the same thing, over and over again never moving forward.

Some Chinese programs are much better than others. Having a good Chinese curriculum helps. As well as letting the students know and understand why are they Learning Chinese.

Book Talk: "China Watcher-Confessions of a Peking Tom"

noreply@blogger.com (Ray Ritchey) — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 20:59:00 +0000

I wish I could go... Book Talk: "China Watcher-Confessions of a Peking Tom" at USC on April 1st.

Looks very interesting!

12 Zodiac Crayon Carved

noreply@blogger.com (Ray Ritchey) — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 22:01:00 +0000

12 Animals of the Chinese Zodiac carved in crayons. Amazing. Which is your favorite?

China - The upcoming superbubble?

noreply@blogger.com (Ray Ritchey) — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 20:49:00 +0000

Interesting point of view. The article also mentions how China has under appreciated their currency, as well as the problem of inefficient growth.

China: the coming costs of a super bubble - China may seem to have defied the recession and the laws of economics. It hasn't. When China's bubble bursts, the global impact will be severe, spiking US interest rates.

Business Sours on China

noreply@blogger.com (Ray Ritchey) — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 20:37:00 +0000

Business Sours on China on the front page of the Wall Street Journal.

Good article that covers the high/lower points including:

What the article did not mention is how the changing of China's top leadership in China may be influencing the current economic nationalism and merchantism in China.

New Practical Chinese Reader 6 is Out

noreply@blogger.com (ED Blogger) — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 06:20:00 +0000

We don't have it yet, but I'm sure we will offer it as soon as available. And yes, I will update all of you as soon as ChildBook has it.

In the meantime, if you need any of the items in New Practical Chinese Reader 1-5, we do have the textbooks, CDs for the textbooks, workbooks, CDs for the workbooks and teachers' guides.

Please note that there are different CDs for the textbooks and workbooks, so you learn a lot more words than when using the usual textbooks that come with only 1 CD per level.

One nice thing about New Practical Chinese Reader is they have videos of the storyline in the textbook series. If you haven't seen the videos, here is a sample of the dramatization:

Do check out all the videos and use New Practical Chinese Reader for your Chinese lessons. This series is especially made for late teens or early 20's set to learn Chinese easily.

China's Currency & The Big Mac Index

noreply@blogger.com (Ray Ritchey) — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 04:54:00 +0000

There have been several articles about how China's currency is being deliberately undervalued as a way to keep China's exports at a high level. By having an undervalued currency China's exports are more competitive due to this cost advantage. The IMF has a report that China's currency is undervalued, but the Chinese government has been blocking it's publication.

A more useful tool I have found for comparing currencies is The Big Mac Index published by the Economist. The Big Mac Index compares the cost of the Big Mac in different countries. Per the index, China's currency is undervalued by 49%. Paul Krugman uses 20 to 40%. Other countries that are competing with China, such as Taiwan, Thailand, and Indonesia also have undervalued currencies. Krugman also has a interesting technical explanation on why it does not matter if China starts to sell it's US treasury holdings - China's Water Pistol - Paul Krugman Blog

Another good article that mentions the IMF and China - China Uses Global Trade Rules to Its Advantage - NY Times.

Google in China Update

noreply@blogger.com (Ray Ritchey) — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 04:44:00 +0000

It seems that Google.cn for search will end. The challenge for Google has it been doing more good by being in China, and returning search results that when censored, tell the user they have been censored, or not being available and forcing users to around the Golden Wall (inconvenient), or to use a local search engine that censors without telling you. And of course by leaving China, Google may be losing out on the Chinese market that is growing, but with government favoritism for their competitors.

Google '99.9%' certain to pull China search plug - The Register.