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CLI had a good chuckle this week when author and columnist Gene Marks, who writes for major media publications including The New York Times, Forbes, The Huffington Post and Philadelphia Magazine, shared his proposed solution to America’s “Education Crisis” in a recent article. “Students are…
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Chinese is a difficult language to master, but, often to the surprise of native Chinese speakers, more and more non-native Chinese are learning Mandarin. Many native Chinese find this trend fascinating, and they thus provide a language learning environment unparalleled in its encouragement…
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This week’s CLI Perspectives blog entry is written by CLI Immersion Program student Cory Donovan. Cory moved to China in January 2012 without any background in Chinese at all. But Cory’s CLI teachers agree that he is learning Chinese at an astounding speed. What’s his secret? Read…
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On May 4, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will announce further efforts to send more American students to China to learn Chinese language and culture through immersion as part of the Obama administration’s 100,000 Strong Initiative. Robert Roche, chairman of Americans…
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The Huffington Post recently featured an excellent report on what it means to speak Mandarin Chinese and to be familiar with China in today’s ever globalizing world. “Knowing how to speak Chinese and understanding China’s rich history is now recognized as a great asset to any…
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The weather is heating up in Guilin with summer just around the corner, so today we take a look back at cooler days with one of this spring’s most memorable events: CLI’s Flint Hill School China Study Tour.
It’s already been a month since CLI’s FHS China Study Tour, but the memories…
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In an escape worthy of a Hollywood movie, the famous blind Chinese political activist Chen Guangcheng gave his house arrest guards the slip recently. A very interesting international political incident might arise out of this, with reports that Chen may be holed up in an American embassy in Beijing.
Given Chen’s background as a legitimately persecuted activist, I doubt this will end the same way Wang Lijun’s asylum-seeking visit did earlier this year.
Don’t miss Chen’s video appeal (in Chinese) to Premier Wen Jiabao.
More as this unfolds.
Image courtesy of Creative Commons.
UPDATE: Decent English transcript of Chen’s video on the Shanghaiist.
UPDATE: As predicted, Chen is America-bound. Insightful coverage from the New York Times here.
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With reports of his son driving a Ferrari, it should be no surprise that Bo Xilai’s career may be sprinkled with a bit of dishonesty (or maybe a lot of it). When the proverbial shit hit the proverbial fan back in March, I toyed with the idea that maybe Bo’s former police chief, Wang Lijun, was the dirty one and Bo was sacked as a result of political rivalry. But as details and rumors continue to emerge, it’s starting to look more and more like Bo is a man of questionable integrity, with evidence that he and his family moved massive amounts of dirty money abroad. I suppose it’s possible that Bo’s wife and the now murdered Neil Heywood conspired together without Bo’s knowledge, but this is unlikely.
For an excellent update to this movie-style political murder mystery, check out this article from the New York Times.
Image courtesy of Creative Commons.
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An adventurous group of CLI students and teachers found themselves in paradise this weekend – a fool’s paradise. 愚自乐园, or Yuzi Paradise, translates roughly to “Fool’s Paradise”. The 130-acre sculpture park, with clutches of bright spring flowers in full bloom and a jaw-dropping backdrop of…
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This is worth the read. I’ve been seeing so many articles recently about the rise of Mandarin as a key language in just about every market and industry (particularly real estate and luxury markets). The three New York Times articles mentioned and linked in the CNBC report are also all worth the read.
It was a busy weekend in Chinese language news, with the New York Times alone publishing “not one, not two, but three articles” on how Mandarin is taking the business world by storm. From real estate to luxury brand outlets, Western businesses are employing more and more Chinese speakers to…
