Kevin Rudd, Mandarin master Last week my children started Chinese lessons, thanks to an extra-curricular club which has just been set up at their school. I’ve been saying for long enough that Mandarin Chinese is the language I’d be choosing today if I were their age and thinking about a long-term career choice – so …
A new study by Oxford University and Deloitte calculates the probability that any given job category will be rendered obsolete by machines within the next twenty years. From my perspective, that’s a handy time period to be considering – since it will take me (approximately) up to retirement. I followed the link (you can do …
They used to say that the definition of “cultured” was someone who could hear the William Tell overture without immediately thinking of the Lone Ranger. Well, for those of you who recognise the word “Quechua” as denoting more than just a camping and hiking brand owned by a major European sports retailer, this story may …
he neighbours are having an extension built over the summer, and as a result our back garden is being treated to a high-decibel stream of bubblegum pop from the last 40 years, constantly punctuated with “sponsor messages”. Thanks, guys! Aren’t there any builders out there who like classical music or Cole Porter? Or, failing that, …
A fascinating BBC article yesterday told the story of the “The Dulwich Boys” – a group of, well, boys pressed into service by the British War Office to learn Japanese in a hurry when Japan invaded Pearl Harbour in 1942. Because “learning exotic languages [had not been] a priority for imperial Britain in the 1930s”, …
