Ni hao ma?

There was a story on World News Tonight last night about public school districts in places from Brookline, MA to Portland, OR starting to teach mandarin Chinese to their students. This is largely due to the realization of the importance that China will play in tomorrow's economy.

"The Driscoll teachers like to tell their students that if they learn Chinese, they will be able to communicate with nearly a third of the world's population - the seven percent who speak English, and the 18 percent who speak Mandarin."

Kenan-Flagler offers a one year long foreign language class where students learn business communications skills in either Mandarin Chinese, Portuguese, or Spanish. I had originally signed up for it but over the summer I decided against taking it because of the time commitment involved. I can still take it during my second year and I am going to consider giving it a shot.