The+Issue+of+Program+Replacement+with+Chinese

Here are two email posts from TBob Peckham, the quintessential language advocate, concerning the replacement of French language programs (or even other programs, such as German) with Chinese. With the caveat that wider proficiency in Chinese and other less commonly taught languages is necessary for our national defense, use the figures and ideas here whenever and wherever needed in order to combat common public misperceptions about the urgency of replacing western language programs with Chinese in our public schools.

1. From: "Bob Peckham" > Date: December 10, 2010 3:21:06 PM EST To: > Subject: French in Ohio

Do you have any figures on Chinese direct investment in Ohio? If the Chinese relationship is just benefiting big business setting up in China, it is simply robbing Ohio blind. For export trade, every $billion supports or creates 6000 Ohio jobs. Currently 46% of Ohio's export revenues come from countries where French is an official language; 5.5% from China. If Ohio's leaders don't understand where citizens' interests lie, replace them.

TBob Robert D. Peckham, Ph.D Professor of French Chair, AATF Commission on Advocacy Director, Globe-Gate Intercultural Web Project Director, Andy Holt Virtual Library Department of English and Modern Foreign Languages Univ. of Tennessee at Martin / Martin TN 38238 Email: bobp@utm.edu

2, (Posted on June 1, 2011 on FLTEACH): The ignorance and fear I spoke of earlier in "Monolingual is good - country folk can survive" is well known by dishonest people who wish to exploit us

2030 AD: China Owns Us? VOTE NOV. 2nd! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pr3WE6iAhHg

The issue in this political video is a legitimate one; US debt. We did just have a dry run vote for the debt ceiling. The way the issue is treated is not legitimate. The video assumes that viewers believe China owns the overwealming bulk of our national debt. It is in Chinese with English subtitles. Remember monolinguals are actually afraid and bothered by speech in a foreign language. The fact that it is China ads an adversarial demension. The setting is a high-tech auditorium filled with Chinese youth in 2030. The last sentence "Of course we owned most of their debt, and now they work for us".

"Of course we owned most of their debt…" China owns 7.5% of our debt.

Treasury Department Pie Graph, dated September 2010 http://static.seekingalpha.com/uploads/2011/1/18/saupload_to_whom_does_the_us_government_ owe_money.jpg

…and now they work for us"

Things would have to happen very quickly for that one. Lets look at some foreign direct investment figures. We do assume that the Chinese are buying US companies. Since the video was in Chinese, lets use another language other than English ain some slow-growing western countries who happen to share French as an official language

Are the Chinese using their wealth to buy up our companies? U.S. foreign direct investment (FDI) in China (stock) was $45.7 billion in 2008 (latest data available) China FDI in the United States (stock) was $1.2 billion in 2008 (latest data available)

Office of the United States Trade Representative - China http://www.ustr.gov/countries-regions/china

Foreign Direct Investment in the United States: An Economic Analysis (Feb. 1, 2011) http:// www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RS21857.pdf

Table 1. Foreign Direct Investment Position in the United States on a Historical-Cost Basis at Year-End 2009 (in billions of U.S. dollars)

Canada: 225.8 Belgium: 38.5 France: 189.3 Luxembourg: 127.8 Switzerland: 189.4 total 770.8

As simple mathematics will tell you, Western European countries and Canada invested 649.83 times what China did in the US.

"…now we work for therm." If the figures above to not make you doubt the veracity of the science-fiction myth in the video, I can show you the same in one state in the US, which is very dependant on foreign-direct investment.

According to the "International Business" of Tennessee's department of Economic and Community Development

Directory of Foreign-Owned Companies in TN http://www.tn.gov/ecd/pdfs/ForeignDirectory_10.pdf

There are 3 Chinese-owned firms operating in Tennessee, employing 148 people.

There are Belgian-owned firms, employing at least 924 people

There are 85 Canadian-owned firms, employing at least 13,427 people (20 did not report number of employees)

There are 50 French-owned firms, employing at least 8790 people (10 did not report number of employees), or the fairly large percent of French ownership of Nissan through Renault.

There are 8 Luxembourg-owned firms, employing at least 169 people

There are 25 Swiss-owned, employing at least 1367 people

The total number of employees for companies representing French-speaking countries= 24677, that is 166.7 times the number of people employed by Chinese-owned companies. This does not take into account the recent French pharmaceutical giant, Sanofi-Aventis' acquisition ($1.9 billion) of Chattem, Inc. In Tennessee, we are not working for the Chinese

Fear is irrational. The fear of Chinese as adversarial and "owning us" is the kind of exploitation you would expect of any political party, but it should be a wake up call for those who believe in truth and logic. We need a call to all states to require foreign languages, and we need to stamp out the monolingualism and Xenophobia which victimizes us and holds our logic prisoner even now.

TBob

Robert D. Peckham, Ph.D. Professor of French University of Tennessee at Martin Chair, AATF Commission on Advocacy

On NPR, June 27, 2011 media type="custom" key="9885897"