A friend of mine is a school administrator in a wealthy suburban district. We had dinner in New York not long ago and she asked, “We don’t really need to learn Chinese, do we? They’re all learning English after all.” She knew I was going to disgree, I’m sure. The issue turned out to be that she, and the district, had tried to introduce Chinese and failed, and she was hoping that this wasn’t as bad as it looked. I’m now writing an article about why it’s essential that we learn Chinese, and feeling particularly conscious of how much I need to walk the talk, so to speak! I’ve been arranging meetings for and with a Chinese publishing delegation and know how much more I could help - and how much more fun I would have - if I could speak Chinese myself.

In the meantime this morning I’ve been updating the Chinese fonts and tools on my PC, something that I need to get someone here to write up so we can post our recommendations online.