Recently, The New York Times reported about how knowing Mandarin Chinese is a skill that is in great demand in London’s real estate market. The reason is there are more affluent Chinese property buyers in England’s capital willing to pay in cash, which makes knowing the Chinese language valuable.
In a thought-provoking New York Times article, “The World is Flat” author Thomas L. Friedman tries to find out why America is now No. 11 on Newsweek’s list of the best countries in the world. He explores the cause behind the low motivation of American children to excel at school. Perhaps if modern Americans were more like the Greatest Generation who survived The Great Depression, Nazism, and Soviet Communism, then America would be on the right track.
China and India have been catching up to America not only via cheap labor and currencies. They are catching us because they now have free markets like we do, education like we do, access to capital and technology like we do, but, most importantly, values like our Greatest Generation had. That is, a willingness to postpone gratification, invest for the future, work harder than the next guy and hold their kids to the highest expectations. In a flat world where everyone has access to everything, values matter more than ever. Right now the Hindus and Confucians have more Protestant ethics than we do, and as long as that is the case we’ll be No. 11!
Come to the Frankfurt Book Fair and join a new book launch with Peter Weidhaas, author of “See You in Frankfurt!” and “Life Before Letters.” Mr. Weidhaas is going to share his stories of how the Frankfurt Book Fair found its soul, and how a man confronted his past by writing his future.
Book Launch Location Information:
Date: Wednesday, October 6th, 2010
Time: 10:00 a.m.-11:00 a.m.
Venue: Forum Dialogue, Hall 6.1 E 913, Frankfurt Book Fair,
Reineckstrasse 3, 60313 Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Guest of Honour: Juergen Boos, Director of the Frankfurt Book Fair
Bloomberg Businessweek has a thought-provoking article on the rise of China, past Japan into the world’s economic No. 2 spot, and how Japan might be the model it follows, which may not be the best for China as it would lead to turmoil and disquiet.
Bloomberg Businessweek’s John Lee writes,
Although “capitalism with Chinese characteristics” does not seek to replicate any particular model, its similarities to the Japanese approach are striking. Like Japan in the 1970s and ’80s, China is nearing the end of its reliance on exports and fixed investment to drive growth—and looking to shift toward policies that can enhance domestic consumption. To achieve this, it is seemingly blessed with an authoritarian government that can concentrate on policies that need not sacrifice the country’s long-term interests for short-term political expediency.
The Oxford English Dictionary (OED), the world’s most definitive work on the English language, may no longer be printed because of the Internet’s negative impact on print book sales. It all boils down to economics: online OED subscribers in America now plunk down $295 annually, while the massive 20 volume set, last published in 1989, costs $1,165. To date, there have been 30,000 sets sold. The print version is commonly found in university libraries, while its price and size render it beyond the reach of the average reader and student. Nonetheless, the 130 lb. OED is the only dictionary that provides examples of English words stretching back hundreds of years in history.
Two experts blame the iPad and e-books for the demise of print books like the enormous OED set:
In the Daily Telegraph, Nigel Portwood, the chief executive of OUP, claims that,
The print dictionary market is just disappearing, it is falling away by tens of per cent a year
Mr. Portwood further commented that printed dictionaries have a shelf life of about another 30 years, with the popularity of e-books and devices such as the Apple iPad and Amazon’s Kindle ever increasing the pace of change.
Also in the Telegraph, Simon Winchester, author of “The Meaning of Everything: The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary,” also realized that the switch towards online formats was imminent:
Until six months ago, I was clinging to the idea that printed books would likely last for ever. Since the arrival of the iPad, I am now wholly convinced otherwise. The printed book is about to vanish at extraordinary speed. I have two complete OEDs, but never consult them – I use the online OED five or six times daily. The same with many of my reference books – and soon with most. Books are about to vanish; reading is about to expand as a pastime; these are inescapable realities.”
For those with limited means, there is always the online Compact Oxford English Dictionary and OneLook Dictionary Search, all of which pales in comparison with the larger subscription-based OED website and its weightier original and unabridged print version.
