Isn't it scary..
..to have 2 people tell you in a day that being fluent in English, Chinese, Malay & Cantonese is not sufficient?!
Of these 2 fellas who said that, one's from China, the other's from Turkey. They both raised the need to acquire another language - a European one. French/Italian/German preferred. To only know Asian languages (besides English) is confining oneself to the Asian region? We can't really ignore Europe, can we?
Phew that short conversations I had with them yesterday really showed me how competitive things are now. Of course not everyone even begins to think of aquiring another language. But I've started thinking, how many can one handle? Am taking beginner's Japanese in uni now as an elective and hoping to learn Korean on my own, so its pretty much the limit, else i'll get all my thoughts muddled up..if all else fails, there're always translators around hah.
The next few days schedule looks really tight..Mon - 4 classes & 1 workshop, Tue - 3 sessions till 9pm, Wed all day (hopefully) in the City, Thu seminar in Clayton, Fri meeting in the city. All that plus a ton of reading to get through. Getting rather distracted by some books (which may be a good, or not-so-good thing). Good - its interesting, and its on my fave subject matter of late - globalisation/intl relations. Not-so-good - its distracting me from finishing up all the required readings (which is also interesting, but currently ranks a little lower on the interest threshold).
Current reads:
~ "China and Southeast Asia: Global Changes and Regional Challenges", collection of essays/journals edited by Ho Khai Leong and Samuel C.Y. Ku (2005) -- interesting studies/insight into the region's dynamics.
~ Thomas Friedman's "The Lexus and The Olive Tree" -- this book just leapt to the top of my must-acquire-for-collection book. Very very interesting, and easy-to-read format. Am (still only) halfway through.
~ "Globalisation and Its Discontents" Stiglitz -- i thought it would be talking abt what shaped globalisation etc, but am halfway through this, and so far its been his perspectives as an insider at the World Bank.
Next, next and next on the desk:
~ Gerald Tan's "Asian Development" -- its actually one of my prescribed readings for the ASN unit.
~ William Keylor's "A World of Nations" -- only flipped through it, but looks interesting
~ the Vervoorn text -- the textbook for ASN.
~ New Directions in Tropical Asian Architecture -- I haven't forgotten one of my passions :P
Possible reviews of those books when I'm done, maybe just a simple opinion in terms of ease of "readerbility" (whether its one which's easily understandable or one which's stuffed full of jargon and complicated ideas)
Of these 2 fellas who said that, one's from China, the other's from Turkey. They both raised the need to acquire another language - a European one. French/Italian/German preferred. To only know Asian languages (besides English) is confining oneself to the Asian region? We can't really ignore Europe, can we?
Phew that short conversations I had with them yesterday really showed me how competitive things are now. Of course not everyone even begins to think of aquiring another language. But I've started thinking, how many can one handle? Am taking beginner's Japanese in uni now as an elective and hoping to learn Korean on my own, so its pretty much the limit, else i'll get all my thoughts muddled up..if all else fails, there're always translators around hah.
The next few days schedule looks really tight..Mon - 4 classes & 1 workshop, Tue - 3 sessions till 9pm, Wed all day (hopefully) in the City, Thu seminar in Clayton, Fri meeting in the city. All that plus a ton of reading to get through. Getting rather distracted by some books (which may be a good, or not-so-good thing). Good - its interesting, and its on my fave subject matter of late - globalisation/intl relations. Not-so-good - its distracting me from finishing up all the required readings (which is also interesting, but currently ranks a little lower on the interest threshold).
Current reads:
~ "China and Southeast Asia: Global Changes and Regional Challenges", collection of essays/journals edited by Ho Khai Leong and Samuel C.Y. Ku (2005) -- interesting studies/insight into the region's dynamics.
~ Thomas Friedman's "The Lexus and The Olive Tree" -- this book just leapt to the top of my must-acquire-for-collection book. Very very interesting, and easy-to-read format. Am (still only) halfway through.
~ "Globalisation and Its Discontents" Stiglitz -- i thought it would be talking abt what shaped globalisation etc, but am halfway through this, and so far its been his perspectives as an insider at the World Bank.
Next, next and next on the desk:
~ Gerald Tan's "Asian Development" -- its actually one of my prescribed readings for the ASN unit.
~ William Keylor's "A World of Nations" -- only flipped through it, but looks interesting
~ the Vervoorn text -- the textbook for ASN.
~ New Directions in Tropical Asian Architecture -- I haven't forgotten one of my passions :P
Possible reviews of those books when I'm done, maybe just a simple opinion in terms of ease of "readerbility" (whether its one which's easily understandable or one which's stuffed full of jargon and complicated ideas)
posted by xaverri at 2:53 am
2 Comments:
Maybe Hindi would be a good bet since India is among the fastest growing nations and everyone seems to be moving there. However, it seems like everyone (especially in Business) speaks English there .
Interesting consideration, but fortunately English is widely used :) cos Hindi's not easy to learn hahh
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