Folium: Latin America Lures Chinese Tourists via CNN
Folium: Latin America Lures Chinese Tourists via CNN
Creative Commons Media via Wikimedia Commons
Folium: Latin America Lures Chinese Tourists via CNN
I remember the opening ceremonies for the 2008 summer Olympics in Beijing, China. The Today Show did weeks of ramp-up and segments on Chinese history and culture. There was something exotic and mysterious about the Chinese people, and even more so after the 1949 revolution and the implementation of communism which constructed a political wall even stronger than the physical one. A country with a 1.35 billion people, natural and man-made wonders, and a language unlike anything heard in the western world.
Now, it’s 2012, and they’re coming to Latin America!
We often think about American and European jet-setters with wild getaways to the Orient, but where do the Chinese go to take a vacation from China? CNN featured the growing tourism market in Latin America, and how Hispanic people are adapting to their new visitors. Additional research shows that learning Spanish and Portuguese is now the new focus of the business world as Chinese manufacturing expands into Hispanic nations. With new manufacturing highlights in Brazil (Rio de Janiero), China’s new world partner is right in our neck of the woods.
Beijing Olympics
However, this isn’t a post on Chinese, Spanish, or Portuguese. This is a commentary on the “shrinking world”. While multilingualism isn’t a popular topic in the United States, when we do learn languages we tend to fixate on just one. We look for the “one” that will solve all of our international dilemmas. Meanwhile China shows us that in order to truly succeed, we should open ourselves to all opportunities. They’re exploring The United States and every other country in the continent! Spanish and Chinese have never gone better together!
