Coevolving Innovations

… in Business Organizations and Information Technologies

What’s the world’s most popular language?

My eldest son Adam is in Beijing, in his second year of Mandarin language immersion at Renmin University. We’re proud that midway through his second year, he scored sufficiently high on the HSK exam that he qualified to be admitted to the classes with native Chinese speakers. (We haven’t set an expectation that he even needs to pass those classes — this is really about education and not certification — so he’s taken the outrageous step of signing up for third year courses in the social sciences, because he dislikes the first-year Chinese style of learning by rote).

In some respects, this immersion is to make up for heritage language training that doesn’t work well for Canadian-born children, but I guess there was an intuitive reason for his immersion, as I discovered on an Wired article from April 2006:

Mandarin Chinese is already the most popular first language on the planet, beating out English by 500 million speakers. And it’s the second-most-common language on the Internet.

Strangely enough, the idea of speaking Mandarin doesn’t scare me half as much as the prospect of having to type in internationalized domain names into browsers someday as Chinese characters.

The Wired article continues with a description of primary and secondary schools in the United States where Mandarin is being offered. Since I studied French in high school between grades 6 to 12, I have a pretty good idea of the level of fluency that could be attained in a second language when the educational resources are properly marshalled. (I’m not uncomfortable reading the other language on cereal boxes, and can get the gist of random conversations when people passing on the street otherwise might think that they’re speaking in secret code).

It’s not just language, though, it’s also culture. Over the past few weeks, I’ve had some interesting conversations with Adam — who will continue his undergrad studies in material science (engineering) program at the University of Toronto this fall — on topics that I know a lot about: Karl Marx, Adam Smith, capitalism. The funniest conversation recently was about game theory: it seems that in the west, we discuss the prisoners’ dilemma, but in China, there’s more emphasis on three monks, no water. The idea of criminality doesn’t enter the Chinese version.


Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

  • RSS qoto.org/@daviding (Mastodon)

    • daviding: “Web video on "The Sustainable Development Goals: Origins, Co…” May 25, 2023
      Web video on "The Sustainable Development Goals: Origins, Context, and Perspectives" with Ned #NenadRava from @UN @JointSDGFund in discussion with #SystemsThinking Ontario. https://coevolving.com/blogs/index.php/archive/sdgs-origins-context-perspectives-st-on-2023-05-08/ #SDGs #Sustainability #Development
    • daviding: “> Leading #TVO Today’s Asian Heritage Month lineup for May 2…” May 7, 2023
      > Leading #TVO Today’s Asian Heritage Month lineup for May 2023, TVO Original Big Fight in Little Chinatown premieres on TVO, TVO Today, YouTube and smart TV services on Tuesday, May 9 at 9 pm ET.https://tvo.me/energized-communities-battle-developer-pressure-and-anti-asian-racism-in-tvo-original-big-fight-in-little-chinatown/
    • daviding: “Rereading the introduction to the 1969 _Systems Thinking: Se…” May 3, 2023
      Rereading the introduction to the 1969 _Systems Thinking: Selected Readings_ Penguin paperbook surfaces some choices by the editor #FredEEmery that I hadn't previously appreciated. https://ingbrief.wordpress.com/2023/05/03/introduction-systems-thinking-selected-readings-edited-by-f-e-emery-1969/ #SystemsThinking #LivingSystems #opensystems
    • daviding: “The "doable dozen" is a phrase that #BjornLomborg picked up …” April 27, 2023
      The "doable dozen" is a phrase that #BjornLomborg picked up from #JordanPeterson on the April 3 interview. The list is now more complete at Halftime for the Sustainable Development Goals microsite at https://www.copenhagenconsensus.com/halftime> The 12 best policies to scale up, that our experts have identified, cover a wide range of areas: tuberculosis, education, maternal and […]
    • daviding: “A series of articles by #BjornLomborg with leading media out…” April 27, 2023
      A series of articles by #BjornLomborg with leading media outlets has been lined up. This article in Forbes sets a direction. > But in 2015, when the world replaced the #MDGs [#MillenniumDevelopmentGoals], things went wrong. World leaders could again have chosen to focus on a few, crucial targets. They could even have kept the same […]
  • RSS on IngBrief

    • Introduction, “Systems Thinking: Selected Readings, volume 2”, edited by F. E. Emery (1981)
      The selection of readings in the “Introduction” to Systems Thinking: Selected Readings, volume 2, Penguin (1981), edited by Fred E. Emery, reflects a turn from 1969 when a general systems theory was more fully entertained, towards an urgency towards changes in the world that were present in 1981. Systems thinking was again emphasized in contrast […]
    • Introduction, “Systems Thinking: Selected Readings”, edited by F. E. Emery (1969)
      In reviewing the original introduction for Systems Thinking: Selected Readings in the 1969 Penguin paperback, there’s a few threads that I only recognize, many years later. The tables of contents (disambiguating various editions) were previously listed as 1969, 1981 Emery, System Thinking: Selected Readings. — begin paste — Introduction In the selection of papers for this […]
    • Concerns with the way systems thinking is used in evaluation | Michael C. Jackson, OBE | 2023-02-27
      In a recording of the debate between Michael Quinn Patton and Michael C. Jackson on “Systems Concepts in Evaluation”, Patton referenced four concepts published in the “Principles for effective use of systems thinking in evaluation” (2018) by the Systems in Evaluation Topical Interest Group (SETIG) of the American Evaluation Society. The four concepts are: (i) […]
    • Quality Criteria for Action Research | Herr, Anderson (2015)
      How might the quality of an action research initiative be evaluated? — begin paste — We have linked our five validity criteria (outcome, process, democratic, catalytic, and dialogic) to the goals of action research. Most traditions of action research agree on the following goals: (a) the generation of new knowledge, (b) the achievement of action-oriented […]
    • Western Union and the canton of Ticino, Switzerland
      After 90 minutes on phone and online chat with WesternUnion, the existence of the canton of Ticino in Switzerland is denied, so I can’t send money from Canada. TicinoTurismo should be unhappy. The IT developers at Western Union should be dissatisfied that customer support agents aren’t sending them legitimate bug reports I initially tried the […]
    • Aesthetics | Encyclopaedia Britannica | 15 edition
      Stephen C. Pepper was a contributor to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, 15th edition, on the entry for Aesthetics.
  • Recent Posts

  • Archives

  • RSS on daviding.com

    • 2023/05 Moments May 2023
      Spring full of cultural and family activities.
    • 2023/04 Moments April 2023
      Sightseeing one day in Vilnius, then variable weather in spring in Toronto.
    • 2023/03 Moments March 2023
      Right ring finger in splint discouraged activities, yet last week of month saw flying through Vienna to an intensive research visit to Kaunas University of Technology in Lithuania.
    • 2023/02 Moments February 2023
      Recovery from bike collision with automobile hit-and-run reduced exercise, while continuing social activities.
    • 2023/01 Moments January 2023
      Family time for solar new year and lunar year, otherwise at home writing a journal manuscript for a deadline, and focused on improving wellness.
    • 2022/12 Moments December 2022
      December was full of birthday, wedding, seasonal holiday events, and then family congregated in town to share time together.
  • RSS on Media Queue

    • 2021/06/17 Keekok Lee | Philosophy of Chinese Medicine 2
      Following the first day lecture on Philosophy of Chinese Medicine 1 for the Global University for Sustainability, Keekok Lee continued on a second day on some topics: * Anatomy as structure; physiology as function (and process); * Process ontology, and thing ontology; * Qi ju as qi-in-concentrating mode, and qi san as qi-in-dissipsating mode; and […]
    • 2021/06/16 Keekok Lee | Philosophy of Chinese Medicine 1
      The philosophy of science underlying Classical Chinese Medicine, in this lecture by Keekok Lee, provides insights into ways in which systems change may be approached, in a process ontology in contrast to the thing ontology underlying Western BioMedicine. Read more ›
    • 2021/02/02 To Understand This Era, You Need to Think in Systems | Zeynep Tufekci with Ezra Klein | New York Times
      In conversation, @zeynep with @ezraklein reveal authentic #SystemsThinking in (i) appreciating that “science” is constructed by human collectives, (ii) the west orients towards individual outcomes rather than population levels; and (iii) there’s an over-emphasis on problems of the moment, and…Read more ›
    • 2019/04/09 Art as a discipline of inquiry | Tim Ingold (web video)
      In the question-answer period after the lecture, #TimIngold proposes art as a discipline of inquiry, rather than ethnography. This refers to his thinking On Human Correspondence. — begin paste — [75m26s question] I am curious to know what art, or…Read more ›
    • 2019/10/16 | “Bubbles, Golden Ages, and Tech Revolutions” | Carlota Perez
      How might our society show value for the long term, over the short term? Could we think about taxation over time, asks @carlotaprzperez in an interview: 92% for 1 day; 80% within 1 month; 50%-60% tax for 1 year; zero tax for 10 years.Read more ›
    • 2020/07/13 “Making Growing Thinking” |Tim Ingold (web video)
      For the @ArchFoundation, #TimIngold distinguishes outcome-oriented making from process-oriented growing, revisiting #MartinHeidegger “Building Dwelling Thinking”. Organisms are made; artefacts grow. The distinction seems obvious, until you stop to ask what assumptions it contains, about the inside and outside of things…Read more ›
  • Meta

  • Creative Commons License
    This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License
    Theme modified from DevDmBootstrap4 by Danny Machal