Had a girlie IBC meetup at Good World today for dim sum (and yes, we had plenty of food leftover). The discussions was ranging from memories and finding out who was where in Chinese School (Dublin, of course, my cousin Ada and I never went to one as we were from down south), arguments of who's older (that was easily dispersed cos I was the oldest of the lot by far, not saying how old I am though), other Chinese cultural meetups, catching up on what each other's doing, and on my side of the table, the importance of knowing Mandarin.
This was a big thing, given that UK has brought in Mandarin in their schools (not post-primary, but primary schools) as a trial run this year. We are so far behind, Leaving won't have Mandarin as there's no budget for it. There are institutions for adults to learn Mandarin, but aside from Trinity, they are all over the place. There isn't a Chinese school teaching Mandarin for kids as far as I can tell from talking to the girls. I think it would be something to push for, Mandarin for everyone who wants to learn it. We understand the importance of learning it as it gives us more credence if we are trying to gain more access into the Chinese market. It's a no-brainer.
We have come a long way from our previous generation of working and toiling away with no holidays in the family business. With this solid foundations, we realised how lucky we were to do what we want and even improve the way the family business is run. There were many things discussed, and the girls I've been talking to were intelligent, hard-working, and like having a good time. It is definitely our time to shine, a Chinatown, Chinese schools teaching Mandarin (nationwide), the world's our oyster.