Letters

Given China’s growing global power, readers agreed that learning Mandarin can be an advantage—but warned that mastery of the tongue doesn’t guarantee easy communication in a land of so many dialects

Re “Get Ahead, Learn Mandarin” [June 26]: I wish good luck to anyone who is learning Mandarin. Even after several years spent mastering the language, you will be able to communicate well with only people from Beijing. Linguistically, China is complicated and diverse, like Europe. Each province has a major dialect and many subdialects. Imagine Dutch, Danish, English, Welsh, Spanish and Catalan, all being spoken in the same country! For communicating outside northern China, Mandarin is functional only if the natives feel they would benefit from speaking with you.
Kwok Kian Cheng
Singapore

Your story convinced me that Taiwan should also catch up with the trend, not only in learning but also in keeping Mandarin alive. Languages are the communicative bridges and tools among people and countries; they can create mutual understanding, trust and harmony in the global village. Taiwan should join the world in learning Mandarin to maintain and even boost its economic competitiveness and reduce cultural clashes within Taiwan and with China.
Song Xiaowen
Zhongli City, Taiwan

Students of putonghua, or Mandarin Chinese, need to learn not just a romanization system like pinyin but also simplified and complex Chinese characters. While conversational Mandarin can help you get around town, only fluent literacy can lead to an understanding of the Chinese people. Shortly after beginning my study of the language in the U.S. 27 years ago, I discovered that knowing which restroom to use and how to read a menu, a newspaper or (much later) postings on the Internet are critical to fully participating in another culture. And that’s not all. Language alone is not enough for success. Foreigners in China need to have skills that employers value if they want to get ahead.
David O’Rear
Chief Economist
Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce
Hong Kong

India Ascending
The story on the rise of India [June 19] was outstanding. Visitors in the past might have felt India’s problems were overwhelming, but there is hope for the masses of the subcontinent. It goes to show what can be accomplished by millions of people with a work ethic, an appreciation for education, a culture of thrift and family, and a recognition of the value of being able to speak English well in the global marketplace.
Paul H. Gore
Oakland, Oregon, U.S.

Congratulations on your excellent cover article. India is very resilient—years of occupation by foreign powers could never subdue it. In ancient times India taught the world the intimate secrets of the self. Today it is ready to teach the world how a large mass of people in the largest democracy can rejuvenate themselves. I am really amazed at the transformation of this country and perhaps if one were to fast-forward to 2025, your cover story might then read “India: The Sun Never Sets.”
Dinkar Suri
Bombay

As an Indian from Bombay, I loved reading your stories. From Tarrytown to Tallahassee, people are thinking about India. Colleagues in the Midwest are rushing to do stint work in India, which has come to be seen as a rung on the corporate ladder. Unlike China, which gate-crashed into Western households with everything from kitchen knives to toilet-tissue holders, India has made an unhurried entry through communication portals. But the Indian Elephant must not allow corruption and bureaucratic incompetence to slow it down in the race with the Chinese Dragon.
Krish V. Krishnan
Wilmette, Illinois, U.S.

I was impressed by your reporting on India’s drive to become an economic superpower in the next decade. As an Indian living in the West, I know that India is still crippled by government ineptitude, graft and a weak infrastructure, but it has come a long way since gaining independence. India is not only a self-sufficient economic and nuclear power but also the world’s largest democracy. India has tradition, culture, a sense of community and, best of all, values that have been passed down over thousands of years. I hope that those values are not lost in India’s rise to the top because they are what makes me proud to call myself a 21st century Indian.
Shagun Mehandru
New York City

At Odds Over the War
In “Why Bush is (still) Winning the War at Home” [June 26], columnist Joe Klein asked, “How is it possible … for the Democrats to seem so bollixed about the war and for the President to seem so confident?” The President’s political survival has been tied from Day One to never admitting a mistake. The Democrats, on the other hand, are looking carefully at the problems brought on by the President’s recklessness. Then from their various viewpoints, they are attempting to propose policy solutions that might stand a chance of turning things around in Iraq or at least saving lives. What looks bollixed to Klein appears to me to resemble evidence of a genuine policy debate, which is what many Democrats (and some Republicans) have sought for months.
Ted Pauly
New York City

High-Tech Referees
Re “Technophobia” [June 26], your article on why high-tech solutions aren’t being used to reduce referee errors in football: Football’s world governing body—the Fédération Internationale de Football Association—shouldn’t be so closed-minded about the effects of modern technology in assisting referees. Its argument that video consultation affects the speed and fluidity of the game may be valid for now. But it must allow for experimentation. Technology evolves. Maybe someday the technology will be improved so that it won’t disrupt the game. What we fans want is entertainment, fair play and justice in refereeing. It is annoying when a team puts up its best against an opponent, only to lose the game to the referee.
Elvis Ahanonu
Jos, Nigeria

TIME recommended giving football the same number of officials that tennis and rugby matches use. But just one additional assistant referee with a TV set would be enough. Referee errors get more annoying as TV coverage matures to perfection: instant slow-motion replays from different angles show exactly whether a foul was real or faked, a hand blocked a shot from scoring or a player stood offside. Everyone can see what really happened, except the referee who has to make the call. The referee reviewing the video replay could communicate with his colleague on the field over his earphones in a matter of seconds—a short time lag to forestall crucial injustice and worldwide frustration.
Nicolas Gessner
Paris

The Taste of Freedom
Thank you for Chiu Hei-Yuan’s viewpoint “Growing Pains” [June 26], on Taiwan’s political mess. As a native of Taiwan, I have always been very proud of our bloodless transition from Chiang Kai-shek’s authoritarianism to full-fledged democracy. Democracy means nothing less than all the political, press and religious freedoms we currently enjoy. It certainly does not mean having a totalitarian dictatorship appoint an unelected administrator for us. But the Chinese Communist Party thinks it is possible to impose such fake democracy—its “one country, two systems” policy—on Taiwan. The party’s efforts are in vain. We have tasted true freedom; therefore we shall never again give it up. The future of Taiwan can be decided only by its 23 million people. Chiu is correct: “The island’s democracy is here to stay.”
Eric Kai-Hsiang Yu
Taichung, Taiwan

Taking On Terrorists
I am glad that the U.S. military forces finally killed terrorist leader Abu Mousab al-Zarqawi [June 19]. But does that solve the problem of terrorism? No. President Bush must begin to lead by example instead of by force. Democracy cannot be exported from a land where human rights are abused and ignored. Democracy is not a coalition of willing armed forces but a coalition of people. The world’s problems today can be solved only by inculcating the maxim that the pen is mightier than the sword rather than the one that says power flows from the barrel of a gun.
Samuel Nwankwo
Madrid

A Budding Entrepreneur
Microsoft chairman Bill Gates announced last month that he was giving up his day-to-day duties at the company to devote more time to charitable giving—and with Warren Buffett’s blockbuster $30 billion pledge to the Gates Foundation, he will be busy. TIME’s April 16, 1984, cover story profiled the future philanthropist:

“Gates has spent most of his life around computers. He initially encountered them as a seventh-grader in 1967 when the proceeds from a mothers’ club rummage sale were used to buy a machine for Seattle’s Lakeside School. Gates devised a class-scheduling program so that he could take courses with the prettiest girls … Teaming up with Paul Allen, a friend and schoolmate, Gates formed a pint-size company, Traf-O-Data, that studied traffic patterns for small towns near Seattle. When he was 15 and a tenth-grader, the company grossed $20,000 … While he was working as a congressional page in 1972, he and a friend snapped up 5,000 McGovern-Eagleton campaign buttons for a nickel each just after South Dakota’s George McGovern dumped Missouri Senator Thomas Eagleton from the Democratic ticket. They later sold the scarce mementos for as much as $25 each.” Read more at timearchive.com.