69岁的罗杰斯(Jim Rogers)和他43岁的妻子佩奇(Paige Parker) 2007年将他们在纽约城的居所卖掉并搬到新加坡。两人这么做的目的是希望他们的孩子长大后会说中文。这对夫妻在新加坡植物园(Botanic Gardens)对面租了一套房子。之所以选择这个地点，是因为这样他们九岁的女儿Happy就能够进入当地顶尖的南洋小学(Nanyang Primary)学习了。在南洋小学，核心课程都是用中文授课的。Happy四岁的妹妹Bee上的是南洋幼小(Nanyang Kindergarten)。南洋幼小两年的课程完全用中文讲授。

Mr. Rogers, who started Quantum Fund with financier George Soros, doesn't know Mandarin and had never lived in Asia. But he says it's crucial for his kids to learn Chinese naturally from the start. "This is going to be the century of China, so we're preparing them," he says.

和金融大鳄索罗斯(George Soros)一同创立了量子基金(Quantum Fund)的罗杰斯并不会说普通话，也从未在亚洲生活过，但他说，让孩子从小自然地学习中文至关重要。罗杰斯说，这个世纪将成为中国的世纪，我们要为孩子做好准备。

Mandarin is notoriously difficult to learn. The language is tonal, and fluency requires mastering thousands of characters. Mandarin competence takes 2,200 class hours, with half of that time spent in a country where it's spoken, according to the U.S. State Department's Foreign Service Institute, whereas Spanish can be learned in 600 to 750 class hours.

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