Euroasia: Language, Culture and Travel

When I started working as a graduate in 1999, the unemployment rate was 7.5%. The unemployment rate now is about 4.2%. It just seems to me like everyone is so much more despondent this time around.  Is this because we’ve had so many years of low unemployment and economic growth that we’ve forgotten what a recession looks like? OK so the New Zealand Institute is projecting a rise in unemployment to 11%.  At this rate, it seems it will be a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Everyone knows we’re going through a serious recession, but hey, we can’t change that. All we can do is to choose our response. The last thing that we should do is to keep complaining about how bad the recession is to our colleagues, customers and suppliers.  That’s not the best way to build confidence.

So, will the Job Summit on Friday make a difference? I don’t know. Ultimately, it’s up to individuals to make a difference. People with the right attitude committed to delivering superior value.

Times are tough. People are worried that they might lose their jobs as the unemployment rate starts creeping up. Job summit or no job summit. As always, during difficult times, the ones worst hit are the ones who are lacking in qualifications and experience.

It’s time to upskill. It seems university enrolments are up around the country, according to various local news articles.  Recent graduates who can’t find work are going back to university. But so are many students looking at gaining more qualifications in order to keep pace with developments.

During such perilous times, it’s important to understand what skills are in demand and how to stand out from the crowd. In New Zealand, where almost all native English speakers can only speak one language, knowing some basic foreign language can indeed be an advantage. Most of all you demonstrate to prospective employers that you have the ability to persevere with something as well as the ability to work across cultures. As New Zealand becomes more and more multicultural, the ability to communicate across cultures will be as essential as knowing how to use a computer.

New Zealand is an exporting nation. We would be poorer than Samoa or Tonga if we didn’t trade with our friends, and foreign tourists stop arriving. There are in fact more Chinese and Spanish speakers than there are English speakers.  Naturally, these are key languages to learn if one wants to learn how to communicate with our future customers.

But learning any language is useful. New Zealanders have traditionally learnt French, German and Japanese at school. Knowing any one of these languages would be useful. I have written at length about why one should learn each one of these languages, so feel free to check out my blog entries on why learn language

I had a look at our blog stats and surprisingly, one of the posts driving the most traffic from google searches was one I wrote in May 2008 on cross-cultural relationships, exploring some of the reasons why and how cross-cultural relationships happen. It seems a lot of people are interested in the reasons why in most of the cross-cultural relationships, the guy is typically Kiwi and the girl is typically a foreigner, mostly Asian. So the real question is why do Asian girls date Kiwi guys but Kiwi girls rarely date Asian guys?

I found some really funny videos on youtube.com addressing this very topic.

A funny video made by a Chinese guy talking to his Caucasian friend about the reasons Asian girls prefer white guys. Not very scientific but good humour value.

This is another video from a white girl’s perspective. She has real life experience going out with an Asian guy. She addresses some common myths about cross-cultural relationships, and share some of her personal reasons why she prefers Asian guys (eg. she doesn’t like hairy men). Perhaps one comment that stood out is that she thinks Asian guys should be more confident. If an Asian guy thinks that there’s not going to be chemistry with a white girl, then you’re setting yourself up for failure. The key is to just give it a shot.

She seems serious but it’s pretty funny.

This one is more representative. The interviewer actually went out and asked some Asian girls as to why they prefer to go out with white guys. I guess the saving grace for Asian guys is that in response to the question “When it comes to a serious long term relationship, you would give Asian guys a chance?”, all the Asian girls said yes. Phew…. and I can hear all those single Asian men heave a sigh of relief.

There are some sectors calling out for a reduction in the number of immigrants to New Zealand as the economy slows down and jobs become more scarce. This will intensify in coming months as the unemployment rate creeps up. Unions and out-of-work locals will no doubt pressure government to tighten immigration policy. We may see an increase in protectionist measures; more funding for Buy New Zealand made and government bailouts of uncompetitive firms.

In my view, this would be the worst possible response to an already dire situation.

I came across an interesting article in the New York Times by the author of “The World is Flat”, Thomas Friedman a few days ago. He says

If there is one thing we know for absolute certain, it’s this: Protectionism did not cause the Great Depression, but it sure helped to make it “Great.” From 1929 to 1934, world trade plunged by more than 60 percent — and we were all worse off.

Immigrants to New Zealand work the hardest, get paid the least and put their hard-earned money to good use: investing in local businesses and saving for their children’s education. Immigrants are less likely to splurge on non-value-adding plasma TVs and imported Italian designer furniture.

Immigrants, by their very nature, tend to be ambitious and enterprising. Why else would they travel thousands of kilometres to a distant land, far away from their families, to start over?

More than half of Silicon Valley start-ups were founded by immigrants over the last decade. These immigrant-founded tech companies employed 450,000 workers and had sales of $52 billion in 2005, according to research by Vivek Wadhwa,  in an essay published this week on BusinessWeek.com.

The fear that many ordinary Kiwis have is that immigrants will steal their jobs because they are willing to work for next to nothing. Even if this was true (which it is not), so what? We all need to wake up to the new reality. We cannot afford to rest on our laurels and become increasingly less competitive on a global scale. We need smart, resourceful, connected and hard working immigrants in New Zealand. Current immigration policy does not give much scope for low-quality immigrants to enter New Zealand in any case.

The other myth is that immigrants make no economic contribution to New Zealand. Recent studies show the net impact for having an immigrant here is $3.29 billion, or $3547 per capita, while the net per capita contribution of a New Zealand-born is just $915. Immigrants are 4 times more valuable than locals.

Immigrants are willing to work harder and not mind getting paid less. Is that such a bad thing? Are we crying exploitation because we are genuinely concerned for the welfare of immigrants or simply because we don’t want anyone to rock the cushy boat?

Smart, ambitious and hardworking immigrants are good for this country. Having more such immigrants in New Zealand would increase not just the number but quality of jobs, resulting in a more prosperous nation in more ways than one.

The French Film Festival kicks off in Auckland next week. Running from  February 18-26 at Rialto Newmarket, this annual event is bound to attract many local Francophiles.

Tickets cost $15.50. We highly recommend all our French students check out the films on offer.  For those of you tired of reading the subtitles, come along for one of our French courses

According to the official website, the following films are on offer.

Baby Love With: Lambert Wilson/ Pascal Elbé
Love Me No More With: Marie-Josée Croze/ Pierre Vaneck/ Albert Dupontel
A Simple Heart With: Sandrine Bonnaire/ Marina Foïs/Pascal Elbé
Actresses With: Valeria Bruno Tadeschi/Mathieu Amalric/ Louis Garrel
Lady Jane With: Ariane Ascaride/ Jean-Pierre Darroussin/ Gerard Meylan
What if… With Alice Taglioni/Jocelyn Quivrin/Thierry Lhermitte
Guilty With: Hélène Fillières/ Jérémie Renier
Crossed Tracks With: Fanny Ardant/ Dominique Pinon
Shall we kiss With: Virginie Ledoyen/ Emmanuel Mouret/ Fredérique Bel
London mon amour With: Virginie Ledoyen/ Vincent Lindon/ Pascal Elbé
The Great Alibi With: Miou-Miou/ Valeria Bruni Tadeschi/ Lambert Wilson/ Pierre Arditi
Me Two With: Alain Chabat/ Daniel Auteuil
Cash With:Alice Taglioni/ Jean Reno/ Jean Dujardin
Ulzhan With: Ayanat Ksenbai/ Philippe Torreton
Daddy Cool With: Daniel Auteuil/ Juliette Lamboley/ François Damiens
U Director: Serge Elissalde
Asterix at the Olympics With Gérard Depardieu/ Alain Delon/ Clovis Cornillac

If you decide that next year you would rather not rely 100% on the subtitles, come along for one of our French courses starting in March. Check out our French timetable here.

Drake Jazz at the Rotunda
From Auckland City Council, this is a series of 12 weekly jazz concerts performed at the Auckland Domain band rotunda. All concerts take place on Sundays between 2pm and 4pm on the following dates:

Sunday 1 February: Kim Patterson Quartet
Sunday 8 February: Carolina Moon Vazz Group
Sunday 15 February: Pete Barwick Quartet
Sunday 22 February: Foghorn
Sunday 1 March: Grant Winterburn Experience
Sunday 8 March: Brian Smith Quintet
Sunday 15 March: David Edmundson
Sunday 22 March: Neil Watson Three
Sunday 29 March: Grand Central Band

For further information on this concert series look here.

Culture Garden series
From Auckland City Council, The Culture Garden is a series of concerts with a number held at the Wintergarden in the Domain, from 4.30 – 6pm on the following dates:

Sunday 1 February: Nigel Gavin
Sunday 8 February: npme
Sunday 15 February: Baroque on the Rock
For information on this concert series look here.

Summer Tea Dance - Parnell Thursday 26 March, 2-4pm
Dove-Meyer Robinson Park, Gladstone Rd. Featuring Bretts New Internationals. Be dazzled by a 16-piece jazz and dance orchestra with nifty beats from the 1920s, get in the groove to ‘Trad jazz’, or warm up to well-loved tunes by greats like Duke Ellington and Paul Whiteman.