I read with great interest the Times reporter Clifford Levy's article "My Family's Experiment in Extreme Schooling" (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/18/magazine/my-familys-experiment-in-extreme-schooling.html?_r=1&hpw). He talked about putting his three kids into a Russian school when they did not even speak Russian at the time. Needless to say, they were utterly miserable. Fast forward 5 years, they loved the school so much, doing well academically and socialized with the other kids as if they were Russian.
It reminds me of my childhood friend Marianne Mavrakis, whose parents taught French at Peking University for several years. I think our friendship started around the age of 7. She and her older sister were going to a school where most of the foreigners' kids attended. Back in the early 1980s, there were so few foreigners living in Beijing that there was no need for international schools. Nowadays in major cities like Beijing and Shanghai, international schools of all kinds grow like mushrooms. You can choose to go to any kind. Marianne spoke Chinese without a trace of accent. When I went to her place, she did all the translation, since her parents could not really communicate in Chinese. It's interesting how a child only pays attention to what interests her. I remember a lot of things Marianne and I did together. But I remember nothing about her father. The only memory I have of her mother from that period is the fact that she could bake really good apple pies, which I insisted getting a piece before going off to play with Marianne every time I get to their apartment. And the only memory I have of her sister Eve from that period is one time we hid underneath the bed and Eve came into the room looking for us and getting frustrated, to our great amusement. I was very sad when Marianne returned to France after her parents' assignment was finished. A few years later, she came to visit me for a summer, and she could no longer speak Chinese. Her sister Eve who's a few years older, still could speak very good Chinese. She too was in Beijing that summer, and had grown into a stunning beauty. That's the year when she perhaps got introduced to the movie industry, as Bernado Bertolucci was filming "The Last Emperor" in Beijing. Eve became an assistant to him. Later on, she worked as a production designer and met her future husband Ewan MacGregor. I attended Marianne's wedding in Carpentras in the south of France - but unfortunately have since lost touch with her again. By then, even her sister Eve had forgotten most of her Chinese.
One of my former investors who is living in Shanghai told me that it would be really sad if Winston does not grow up to speak perfect Chinese. He's an American business man who has decided to invest in China and raise his two boys to speak both English and Chinese perfectly. I suppose our own line of work render us biased in terms of what's most important. In his line of work, a perfect understanding of Chinese language and culture is something one cannot get at school, and yet of utmost importance. For a Chinese friend of mine who works at Google, she said that she could not understand the importance of teaching Chinese to the kids. Instead, she thinks that social skills are really important because she feels that it's an area of weakness for her. Michael of course predictably emphasizes science. As for me, I suppose that the chance of Winston following my footsteps or Michael's footsteps is very slim. But it will be wonderful to grow up exposed to dramatically different cultures, and to be completely Chinese in front of the Chinese, and completely American in front of the Americans.
Michael has not got tenure yet. When he does (I hope that he will), I am thinking that he should take his sabbatical either in China or somewhere in Europe. This way, all of us including Winston will be utterly immersed in a totally different culture for an extended period of time, instead of just a short vacation trip.
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