They all refute an assertion by Lawrence Summers, former president of Harvard University [...]]]> Today’s New York Times features a Room for Debate section about the need to learn multiple languages. Six panelists, including author Stacie Berdan, agree that it is crucial to learn more than one language to operate in the new, globalized world.

They all refute an assertion by Lawrence Summers, former president of Harvard University and former secretary of the Treasury (and a man with a history of making blanket statements), who wrote What You (Really) Need to Know.

 The world is much more open, and events abroad affect the lives of Americans more than ever before. This makes it essential that the educational experience breed cosmopolitanism — that students have international experiences, and classes in the social sciences draw on examples from around the world. It seems logical, too, that more in the way of language study be expected of students. I am not so sure.

English’s emergence as the global language, along with the rapid progress in machine translation and the fragmentation of languages spoken around the world, make it less clear that the substantial investment necessary to speak a foreign tongue is universally worthwhile. While there is no gainsaying the insights that come from mastering a language, it will over time become less essential in doing business in Asia, treating patients in Africa or helping resolve conflicts in the Middle East. [emphasis mine, read more here]

This strikes me as arrogant and short-sighted. Even if more non-Americans are learning English and Google Translate is getting better, that does not negate the value of learning other languages.

Being able to speak more than one language has had an immeasurable impact on my own life.

I learned Spanish before the age of five, thanks to my wonderful Nana Petra. While my parents were working, she totally spoiled me with home-cooked Mexican meals, lacy white dresses, and games of Lotería. She drilled me on pronunciation (A, E, I, O, U) and taught me nursery rhymes.

This early exposure to Spanish paved the neural pathways in my brain to let me think in more than one language.

I continued to study Spanish all through school and all through college, including a year here in Chile.

When I graduated with a degree in Latin American Studies, I moved to China to teach English at a university near Shanghai. I’d never studied Chinese and never been obsessed with Asian culture, but I was able to quickly pick up the basics of child-like Chinese through conversations with vegetable vendors, security guards, and migrant workers on the train.

Over the next few years, I took many private lessons and small-group classes. Thank you Layla and Xiaofei for helping me elevate my Chinese skills from toddler level to that of a nine-year-old who likes to talk about wind turbine engineers and garbage incinerators. Learning Chinese gave me access to get beyond China’s single story, beyond the world of tour guides and textbooks, to take part in everyday life.

Now back in Chile, I use Chinese less. In the last month I’ve used it twice: at a restaurant and with a new Start-Up Chile entrepreneur from China. But linguistic crossover shapes the way I see the world.

Last week I led an entrepreneurship seminar at Casa de la Mujer, a community center in a poorer neighborhood of Santiago. The last day, fabulous Start-Up Chile video intern Javiera came with me to film the class and interview me and the ladies about our experiences. (The video will be ready soon!)

I talked about the course in English and it was SO HARD!  You might be thinking, but Leslie, you’re AMERICAN. English is your first language. How can it be hard?

Since I taught and thought about the class in Spanish, explaining it in English felt distant, foreign, and even patronizing. I stumbled over words; I felt like English made the distinctions between myself and the ladies too dramatic. In Spanish it felt more communal, more egalitarian, more personal. My testimonial, of how leading discussions with these woman has inspired me as an entrepreneur, flowed with enthusiasm in Spanish, but in English it felt forced, hesitant. Good thing Javiera took lots of footage: there should be at least a few clips in which my English is fluent and confident.

Linguistic crossover has had such a profound impact on my worldview. It has given me a broader understanding of words and grammar, but more importantly the tools to navigate the world with flexibility and empathy.

I truly can’t imagine life in only one tongue. I wish every preschooler could have a multilingual headstart!

From today’s El Mercurio: (translation and emphasis mine)

When I was a sophomore in high school, for a chemistry project, I studied baking. I decided to research the chemical properties of flour, sugar, eggs, butter, baking powder vs. baking soda, etc. I then ignored printed recipes and attempted to create tasty treats. The first few were [...]]]>

Students at work! Photo courtesy of Fundación EcoScience

Do you remember doing hands-on science experiments?

When I was a sophomore in high school, for a chemistry project, I studied baking. I decided to research the chemical properties of flour, sugar, eggs, butter, baking powder vs. baking soda, etc. I then ignored printed recipes and attempted to create tasty treats. The first few were far from delicious: a cake chock-full of chalky cocoa powder, concave lemon cupcakes, a mushy cake with too much mint extract. Eventually, by cake number 25 or so, I had created two real recipes: mint chocolate chip cake and apricot muffins.

Why am I telling you this?

Because it’s one of the few school lessons that I can remember in detail.

Why do I remember that baking soda is a base, and it needs to be combined with acidic ingredients like lemon or buttermilk or cream of tartar in order to produce the carbon dioxide bubbles that enable the cake to rise?

Because I didn’t just read this in a book; I discovered it with my own hands and nose and tastebuds.

I believe that hands-on science education is absolutely critical for the next generation of citizens, everywhere in the world. One must have a fundamental understanding of ecology, biology, and other disciplines to be able to make good decisions about food, transportation, and the world in general, but students will only truly remember those lessons if they discover them with their own hands!

My friend María Cuellar is developing a fabulous science education project here in Chile. It’s a bus specially equipped with science experiments, and it will travel to underprivileged schools throughout the country, to reach 10,000 kids per year. I love the name: Con = with, Ciencia = science, and ConCiencia sounds the same as conscience.

María’s enthusiasm is contagious; here’s her description of the project.

Dear friends,

I’ve told you a little bit about this before, but I’ll explain it again briefly. I am part of a group of scientists and entrepreneurs working on a project called el Bus ConCiencia, a mobile laboratory on a bus that will take scientific experiments to the most remote and impoverished schools in Chile.

Although we have enough funding for the investment part of the project (i.e. the bus, the laboratory modification, the development of the experiments), we still need to find funding for the operational costs for 2012 (i.e. gasoline, materials for experiments, teacher trainings, printing costs, etc.). So, we launched the Bus ConCiencia fundraising campaign! It’s on a lovely Argentinean website called idea.me: http://idea.me/proyecto/89/busconciencia

What we want to achieve with the website is crowdfunding. This means that we are interested in having lots of donations, even if they are small. So, if you want to donate 20 or 5 dollars, that’s really helpful!

Here are the instructions, just in case:
1. You go to this website: http://idea.me/proyecto/89/busconciencia?siteLang=en_US
2. Click on the green button that says “I WANT TO SUPPORT!”
3. Go down and click on your “Reward”, that is, how much you want to donate.
4. Choose whether you want to pay for the shipping cost (for us to mail your reward).
5. Go down and click on “CONTINUE”.
6. Write down your information for ideame (this is what we will use to send you your rewards).
7. Click on “I have read and accept the ideame terms and conditions.” Then “SAVE”.
8. Choose your payment method (I highly recommend PayPal).
9. Write down your information and pay with a credit card.

Please share this link with your friends!

Thank you!!
xoxo,
Maria

So far this link has been shared, retweeted, and favorite’d 15 times, which is a lot more than most of the links, pictures, and observations I share on Twitter.

Why this tweet? I have some ideas.

1) Clear Audience. I addressed this tweet towards China-philes. This is a [...]]]> Yesterday I tweeted:

So far this link has been shared, retweeted, and favorite’d 15 times, which is a lot more than most of the links, pictures, and observations I share on Twitter.

Why this tweet? I have some ideas.

1) Clear Audience. I addressed this tweet towards China-philes. This is a relatively broad, inclusive, and self-defined category, and there are a lot of China-philes on Twitter.

2) Specific Keywords. A grad student friend once referred to Harvard as the H-bomb. This name catches people’s attention!

3) Immediate Benefit. The course is available online. It’s free. A Harvard education for anyone with an internet connection and the attention span to sit through a lecture (or 37!)

What do you think? When do you find that your tweets get a lot of attention?

For now, here is a translation of the list scribbled above:

Motivations for Entrepreneurial [...]]]>

We asked women aged 13-70, from the Casa de la Mujer Huamachucho´s Escuela de Verano, about their motivations for entrepreneurial endeavors. This is what they said.

With several Start-Up Chile entrepreneurs, I am leading a five-day seminar at Casa de la Mujer Huamachuco, a community center in one of the poorest areas of Santiago, in the comuna of Renca. Soon I will write more about this experience.

For now, here is a translation of the list scribbled above:

Motivations for Entrepreneurial Activity (emprender is the verb form of “start something, as an entrepreneur.” Perhaps the best translation is “bootstrap.” If you have a better translation, let me know!)

• occupy free time
• generate resources
• grow more
• feel more useful — don´t depend on husband
• feel good about yourself at any age
• surge in life, be something
• be independent, own schedule
• teach values to the children
• develop as a person
• have your own money

Esta semana es el año nuevo chino. Feliz año del dragón!

Nos ofrece la oportunidad de destacar un ejemplo exitoso del comercio chino-chileno: la [...]]]> To celebrate the Year of the Dragon, I am trying something new: posting about trade with China in both English and Spanish. The English version of this article is here.

via Wikipedia

Esta semana es el año nuevo chino. Feliz año del dragón!

Nos ofrece la oportunidad de destacar un ejemplo exitoso del comercio chino-chileno: la exportación de las cerezas chilenas para este feriado importante.

Roja, dulce y empacada en cajas de regalo.  Las guindas chilenas son consideradas como algo especial en el año nuevo chino. El eje principal de las exportaciones desde Chile a China ocurre durante este feriado.

De acuerdo a los reportes de Portal Fruticola: 

El próximo 23 de enero se celebrará el Año Nuevo Chino (ANC) fecha durante la cual no se puede descuidar ningún detalle, siendo uno de los más significativos la fruta y en especial, las cerezas.

“Las cerezas se han logrado posicionar como un elemento característico del ANC y especialmente en las grandes ciudades donde  las cerezas son consideradas como un producto de lujo: es un producto importado, por lo que da una aire de exclusividad a quien lo compra y consume; es caro y escaso porque se puede encontrar sólo en esta época. Por último, el color rojo de esta fruta influye ya que todos los adornos van en rojo y dorado. Estos factores producen que se genere una alta demanda y la gente esté dispuesta a pagar muy buenos precios, que es lo importante para los exportadores”, explica Arturo Aranda, country manager de “The Foodlinks” en Shanghai.

Este año nuevo chino será dos semanas antes que el año pasado, lo que es un desafío para los exportadores, lo que significa que el periodo de cultivo también tendrá que ser antes. Tres flotas especiales fueron enviadas a finales de diciembre y llegaron a China aproximadamente entre el 16  y 18 de enero.

De acuerdo a Bernard Wu, el supervisor commercial de la importadora Zhxing Runfeng Food en Guangzhou, “las cerezas chilenas son bien evaluadas por los consumidores chinos principalmente por su calidad, delicioso sabor y buena presentación”.

The FoodLinks, una empresa que conecta a los proveedores chilenos con compradores chinos, plantea que sólo un 3% de los alimentos chilenos exportados son enviados a China y solamente un 0.7% de la comida importada a China viene desde Chile. Esto significa que hay un enorme potencial de crecimiento que sólo requiere un cuidadoso alineamiento entre lo que los consumidores chinos quieren y lo que los agricultores chilenos pueden ofrecerles.

Feliz Año del Dragón!!

In honor of this holiday, I would like to spotlight a successful example of Chile-China trade: Chilean cherries for Chinese New Year.

Red, sweet, and packed in gift boxes, Chilean cherries are a special treat. The holiday is centerpiece of Chile’s exports of high-end [...]]]> This week is Chinese New Year. Happy Year of the Dragon!

In honor of this holiday, I would like to spotlight a successful example of Chile-China trade: Chilean cherries for Chinese New Year.

Red, sweet, and packed in gift boxes, Chilean cherries are a special treat. The holiday is centerpiece of Chile’s exports of high-end fruit to China.

image via Wikipedia

As reports Portal Fruticola:

January 23 is Chinese New Year, a date when no detail can be ignored, since it is one of the most significant dates for fruit, and especially, cherries.

Arturo Aranda, country manager of The FoodLinks in Shanghai says, “Cherries have successfully been positioned as a characteristic element of Chinese New Year and especially in the big cities where cherries are seen as a luxury product: it is an imported product, which gives an air of exclusivity to those that buy and consume them; it is expensive and scarce because it can only be found in this season. Finally, the fruit’s red color matches all the red and gold decorations. These factors lead to high demand and the people are prepared pay very good prices, which is important for the exporters.”

This year Chinese New Year is two weeks earlier than last year, which presents a challenge to the exporters, because it means that the critical date falls earlier in the growing season. Three special charter boats left Chile in late December, to arrive in China between the 16 and 18 of January.

According to Bernard Wu, commercial supervisor of the importer Zhxing Runfeng Food in Guangzhou, “Chilean cherries are welcomed by Chinese consumers principally for their quality, good flavor, and good presentation.”

The FoodLinks, a company that connects suppliers in Chile with buyers in China, states that only 3% of Chilean food exports are delivered to China and just 0.7% of food imported to China comes from Chile. This means there is big potential for growth. It just requires careful alignment between what Chinese customers value, and what the fruit can bring to the table.

Here’s to health, happiness, and prosperity in the year of the dragon!!

China Post issued this stamp for the year of the dragon. Some found it "too ferocious." Read more here on NPR: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2012/01/04/144671003/chinese-year-of-the-dragon-postage-stamp-deemed-too-ferocious

Back in 2008, when I was working for a software social enterprise in San Francisco, I collaborated closely with a organization called NESsT. NESsT’s main office [...]]]>

image source: http://www.nesst.org/?portfolio=domos

One of my goals for this blog this year is to provide a spotlight for Chilean entrepreneurs, in English, to share their stories with people outside this country.

Back in 2008, when I was working for a software social enterprise in San Francisco, I collaborated closely with a organization called NESsT. NESsT’s main office is in Chile and I often chatted with their communications team on Skype. Here is a description from their website:

NESsT develops sustainable social enterprises that solve critical social problems in emerging market countries.

NESsT is a catalyst for social enterprises in emerging markets and worldwide.

We achieve our mission by providing financial capital, training and mentoring, and access to markets for a high-impact portfolio of social enterprises in emerging markets.

We combine the tools and strategies of business leadership, entrepreneurship and investment with the mission and values of the social sector to enable our portfolio to: better plan, improve management capacity, grow, and increase their social impact.

I still receive NESsT’s newsletters. In the most recent issue, I read that NESsT exited two of its most successful social enterprises. One of these is:

– Domos, that sells intra-family therapy services to companies in Chile thus reducing low productivity levels of employees due to absenteeism and stress. The social enterprise reached 300 beneficiaries and generated a 42% rate of profit.

I think this is a brilliant business model. Companies need dependable staff, and who can be dependable when there is danger at home?

Read more at domoschile.cl (in Spanish) or in this English version (thanks Google Translate!)

 Do you ever find yourself on a client call, while simultaneously organizing basketball practice, brainstorming a blog post and daydreaming about lunch? You might be a slasher in need of some serious self-defense.

The [...]]]>

This article originally appeared on Brazen Careerist. Thanks Brazen for depicting me (or at least my message) as strong and savvy! 

 Do you ever find yourself on a client call, while simultaneously organizing basketball practice, brainstorming a blog post and daydreaming about lunch? You might be a slasher in need of some serious self-defense.

The lifestyle of a slasher – a term popularized by Marci Alboher in her book One Person/Multiple Careers – can be invigorating. As a guest lecturer / researcher / translator / web designer / writer, I love playing many roles and connecting with people from many industries and countries.

But it can also be stressful. When you work with people who have committed a larger part of their own “pie” to a certain task, sometimes they demand more than you have to give. Deadlines can overlap. Weekends can disappear. And the slashes that let you use your diverse skills and interests can become slashes that slice into your sanity, stability and mental health.

The word “ninja” gets used a lot in discussions about working independently – and it makes complete sense. To successfully sustain a slasher lifestyle, you must take self-defense seriously, just like a martial arts pro. But here, self-defense doesn’t mean preparing for physical attacks. It means building and maintaining a strong core, to give you the agility and flexibility to rise to the slasher challenge.

Give these slasher self-defense techniques a try:

Create a day-righting ritual

As someone who might work on several projects in one day, how do you start your morning on the right foot?

Try “day-righting,” a term coined by Keith Ferrazzi, author of Never Eat Alone. He says it’s “The 15-Minute Secret for Individual Effectiveness:”

Almost all of you, I’m willing to bet, have a “morning ritual.” But how many of you have created one by design? This is so important for individual effectiveness, for everyone but especially for entrepreneurs who work independently or at home.

I first became aware of this idea when interviewing a pair of salesman for Who’s Got Your Back. Together, they did an early morning gym session followed by a brainstorm, a process they called “day-righting.” After about a month of this routine, the team told me they saw dramatic improvements in their business and their lives.

Ferrazzi goes on to suggest exercise, journaling, meditation and breathing as day-righting options.

My day-righting ritual has consisted of coffee and newspaper reading with my partner, followed by a quick gym workout, a hearty home-cooked breakfast, and then going into the office to start the workday. In the days when I’ve followed at least part of this ritual, I’ve been able to balance my slashes. The days when I’ve skipped the newspaper, workout and breakfast to immediately sit down in front of my computer, a few hours later I realize that my neck is sore and I’ve been clicking around on the computer without getting much done.

Be conscious of stressors in your environment

Is your office filled with the sounds of colleagues talking on the phone, other people’s music, or buses and honking outside?

Read the rest on Brazen Careerist or Business Insider. 

Madam Tusan, a Chinese-Peruvian restaurant, opened a few months ago at Parque Arauco, an upscale mall that looks like it could be in Southern California.

We visited the restaurant after reading this [...]]]> I wrote this a few months back, right when the restaurant opened. A delicious side of modern China-Chile relations! 

Madam Tusan, a Chinese-Peruvian restaurant, opened a few months ago at Parque Arauco, an upscale mall that looks like it could be in Southern California.

We visited the restaurant after reading this tempting review in the September 30, 2011 edition of Wikén, the Friday magazine of Chile’s most prominent newspaper, El Mercurio, I translated parts of it into English. 

Chifa Cuisine Arrives in Chile: Fusion of Chinese and Peruvian Gastronomy. by Bárbara Muñoz S. 

Cebiche con wantanes? Not only is it possible, it’s delicious. The tasty mix of Peruvian and Chinese cuisine – sweet-and-sour, intense, and with an important historical weight – has just landed in Chile, in the Boulevard of Parque Arauco, by the hand of Gastón Acurio and his ultimate whim: Madam Tusan.

When he was a child, Gastón Acurio – today a super-famous chef, mega-businessman, and face of the Peruvian gastronomic revolution – asked for “una chifa” for his birthday. His parents thought he wanted to celebrate by eating at one of the many Chinese restaurants that existed in Lima, known as “chifas.” But what he had in mind was something else: he wanted to HAVE a chifa.

When I visited the restaurant, I spoke with Liliana Com, who was visiting from the main location in Lima to manage the Santiago location’s opening. Liliana is “tusan,” or Peruvian-born Chinese.

I asked Liliana about the derivation of the word “tusan.” Does it come from the familiar Chinese words for “earth” and “three”? Not directly, she explained; there are specific words for different generations of Japanese descendents – issei, nissei, sansei for first, second, and third generation, respectively – but not similar words for Chinese descendants, at least not in the Peruvian vernacular.

The first Chinese arrived in Peru around 1854, when slavery was abolished and landowners needed a new labor source.

The El Mercurio piece describes how this migration shaped Peruvian cuisine.

“Many of those Chinese stayed to live forever and never stopped eating their food. In fact, part of their payment was in rice,” explains Liliana. The combination of Chinese techniques and Peruvian ingredients gave rise to chifa cuisine. As time passed, the immigrants and their families installed themselves on Capón Street, in the center of Lima, which developed into a Chinese neighborhood. “In this time the chifas in Lima were opium dens and a kind of red-light district where the ‘madams’ reigned over the places,” tells Liliana. From that comes the name Madam Tusan.

When I pulled this newspaper clipping from my bag, Liliana pointed out that El Mercurio misquoted her. She clarified that the Chinese neighborhood was “not a place for families,” but the Chinese restaurants were NOT opium dens and brothels. She became quite animated when she said this, as it clearly touched a nerve.

So, you might be wondering, how was the food? Delicious!

My companion and I started off with fresh juice (the restaurant had yet to receive its liquor license.)

Then one of the dozens of attentive waiters (unusual in Chile – this country is not known for customer service) presented three types of chili sauce. The spiciest one featured crushed peppers from Jilin, China. The second mixed Peruvian chilies and crushed ginger. The third was hoisin con rocoto: a blend of hoisin, the sweet sauce that traditionally accompanies Peking Duck, and rocoto, a Peruvian spice paste.

Next we enjoyed the butifarra china, a plate of three delicate sandwiches filled with pork, cilantro, julienned vegetables and hoisin con rocoto on steamed buns.

The Pollo Bruce Lee – which came with a warning of solo para valientes – reminded me of the gong bao ji ding (chicken with peanuts, chilies, and other vegetables) that I ate so often in China.

Our most elaborate dish was camarones rellenos a la naranja, enormous shrimp stuffed with almonds, battered, fried and topped with a sweet-and-sour orange sauce and green onions. It reminded me of a dish you might find at an upscale, fusion-inspired restaurant in San Francisco.

Our final dish was a simple chaufa con pollo, fried rice with chicken and eggs. It was tasty and simple, and closer to home cooking than the complex dishes that sat beside it.

My Chilean dining companion found the food spicier than what he normally eats. (Chilean food is relatively bland: lots of bread, sandwiches, and barbecue.) But he really enjoyed the mix of flavors and the overall experience.

He also loved the design of the red leather chairs.

Overall, our experience at Madam Tusan lived up to its tantalizing review, and showed a stylish, modern, and globalized face of China in Chile.

Madam Tusan. Boulevard del Parque Arauco. Avenida Presidente Kennedy 5413, Las Condes, Santiago.  Call for reservations: 02-2190152. Lunch for two, including non-alcoholic beverages and tip: 30.000 Chilean pesos (roughly $60.)