- Top Features:
- War Room
- Glenn Greenwald
- Broadsheet
- Joan Walsh
- Camille Paglia
- Since You Asked
- Follow Salon:
Read other letters about this article
I do not regret for one second teaching English to Taiwanese children. I agree with the longtime stance of one of my best and oldest friends, who runs a translation company in Taiwan (pristine.com.tw) -- the more communication there is in the world the better off we all are. And in the overall globalization debate, my sympathies tend to lie more with people earning a dollar a day in the developing world than with laid-off workers in the West, as well.
I also tend to use strong language to make a point. So, no, I don't really view aspiring Chinese as my "nemesis." But I think I can take strong satisfaction in teaching kids to read and write English, knowing that I have made a difference in their life, and at the same time wonder what the macroeconomic effect of such behavior might be on myself and my own kids. This is much more obvious a question, I think, when we look at venture capital funding going to China, than it is when we talk about teaching English.
