Ghastly article over at The Guardian which illustrates not only the stupid prevailing attitude towards other nations (all this crap about the French should have stopped long ago, that it continues in faux self-mockery is ungainly) but also the reason why we will always be a nation that is proud to be monolingual i.e. proud to be isolated, proud to be stupid... It's a shame really, the BBC deserves credit for starting a project such as this - teaching Chinese to children - and more activity in this area is to be welcomed. So what if Chinese linguistic power may not actually match Chinese economic power. So what if Chinese is really difficult. So what! It's better to try and fail than to never have failed at all. Plus, I'd wager that with young kids, who will be divested of any of the negative attitudes which prevail at the level of general society towards languages, will lap it up and show us how it's to be done. So here's to the BBC, and here's to the kids. Chapeau!