LiLy2021 wrote:
Experienced wrote: As I said before, anybody here with young children or grandchildren would be wise to fund Chinese language training for them. As for Putin and Russia, they will become a vassal state for China. The Chinese are re-creating the Mongolian Empire under Genghis Khan without firing a single bullet.
Ragingbull, please stop spamming the board. Monotony of repetition is not required on a board whose posters' level of intelligence is average or higher.
I have recently come to know about Mr. Experienced age. Your mind is still at hair-splitting sharpness despite your advanced age. God bless you, Mr. Experienced.
Growing up, my mother (a woman who had very minimal education) kept telling me how the West needed to wake up fast before the Chinese would stomp them under their feet. I should make a disclosure that 50% of my roots is Chinese, and I never made any attempt to hide it. I am comfortable in my own skin, but other than my brown hair and brown eyes and my understanding of the Chinese culture, I am as Canadian as can be. I am Lily Wilkes and I am Canadian. :-)
One of my favourite books is (Sun Zi Bing Fa or Sun Zi's Art of War). I highly recommend this book to those who haven't already read it. It's actually required reading for all CEOs of the worlds' biggest corporations. Sun Zi emphasized how costly a war can be, and so the best battle is the one won without being fought. China is clearly winning this battle without shedding a drop of blood. One of the very famous strategies ("stratagem"would have been a more appropriate term--out of the 36 by Sun Zi) is the third one, known as "The Offensive Strategy". I don't like this English translation because it does not reflect the depth of Sun Zi's brilliant mind. "” ("Jie dia sha ren") Literally, it should be translated as "kill with a borrowed knife". This strategy is self-explanatory. It's applied when the one does not have enough power to initiate the act or does not want to have to bear the consequences of the act. One can achieve one's goal through the facilitation of a third party, who might not even know they're being taken advantage of. Killing is easy. Killing without leaving any trace of blood or evidence is an art. You can cast your suspicions and conjectures, but you will never have any evidence because it's a "borrowed knife".
I agree with Mr. Experienced that you should help fund your kids' or grandkids' Chinese language classes. It's not just a language spoken by 2.7 billion people, but it's in fact a very beautiful language. I'm not saying it because it's part of my roots. The Chinese are also very proud of their language and culture. Being able to speak their language can be a game changer if you were to do business with them. But it is a very difficult language to learn. Its alphabet has 270 radicals (now simplified to 214, compared to the 26 letters of the English alphabet) and they can go up to as many as 17 strokes. Each word can require several radicals and you have to memorize the order of every single one of them. If you have time to learn both Cantonese and Mandarin, that would be great, but if you have to choose one, definitely go with Mandarin. There are 23 provinces in China and each has its own dialect. Cantonese is just one of the dialects spoken by people from Guangzhou and Hongkong. People from Fijian speak a different dialect etc. but everybody has to learn Guo Yu (national language, which is Mandarin). However, I feel that learning a language, just like learning any new skill, you have to like it first.
You bring me back to the memories of some of the Cantonese songs I grow up with.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XTD9ZUJX_sQ
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=V6Q-4euGPmA
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=fqbsmE3KIno