Article on Teaching Kids Mandarin to Make Them More Competitive

In the New York Metro (via Robotwisdom):

To make their babies competitive in the global economy, parents are making them learn Chinese.

Hilton Augusta Rogers, 1 year and 10 months old, as blonde and blue-eyed a baby as ever was born in Manhattan, looked at the waitress taking her parents’ order at Shun Lee West, and said, “Bao bao!” which means “Pick me up!” in Mandarin. Startled, the waitress picked her up. Soon, other wide-eyed waitresses gathered around. One said, “Point to your nose” in Mandarin, which Hilton Augusta promptly did—as her parents, Jim Rogers and Paige Parker, a private investor and an aspiring author, looked on, beaming.

(Makes me feel more confident in my decision, a few years back, to learn Mandarin, in that, aside from just wanting to learn another language, doing so could be quite useful).