On his show last night, ‘Piers Morgan on Shanghai’, Piers reported research which suggests that ‘83% of Chinese people believe tomorrow will be a better day than today’.Now, while my first reaction was to concoct a witty retort to this claim, the reality hit home so hard that I immediately resisted and realised the power of the message. It certainly shows the level of passionate optimism amongst the Chinese population and, if the ‘power of positive thought’ is half a successful as I believe then we had better beware.
I guess that if you surveyed a statistically significant sample of UK people in the current climate you may find a similar response; in their case it would be to the unspoken sub-text, ‘It can hardly be worse’. But from the Chinese it would definitely reflect a belief that they are striding forward to be the leaders of the world-order in days to come. Piers said that Shanghai will be the world’s richest city in less than 20 years.
My message to business would be, “So, let’s regain our positivity and start thinking like the Chinese and if you haven’t formulated your Chinese strategy yet, start thinking.” And to APA members, “Forget French, start learning Chinese”.
Remember to put 14th February 2010 in your diary. Not for St. Valentine’s Day but for the start of the Chinese New Year – the Year of the Tiger. If you consult Wikipedia it tells you that the motto for the Year of the Tiger is ‘I win’ and the colour is purple – so it bodes well for APA Members!
Gareth, APA
4 comments:
I strongly agree with this item, there are far too many negative people about! Gloom and doom prevails. Let's all get happy. Recession is a state of mind guys, let's smaile ourselves out of it.
I think APA should launch a campaign to give everyone a virtual daily hug. I send one to you!
Good idea! Can APA negotiate a discount on Chinese Language learning materials please?
Hi Sue, just spotted this come in. I am going to the Learning Technologies Show at Olympia next week to speak to some of the industry leaders; especially Rosetta Stone. I wll let you know how I get on.
Dani, I will if you will. I will loook into it.
Post a Comment