Put Mother Tongue First

Recently, Gou Shaohua, a professor at Nanjing University in Jiangsu Province, proposed that star-rated and foreigner-oriented local hotels should not neglect the Chinese language when offering services.

"Irrespective of whether they deal with Chinese or foreigners, the staff at Nanjing Hilton will always speak in English when answering telephones. However, all Hilton hotels in other countries use the language of the host country at first greeting. China is the only exception," said Gou.

There is a suspicion that by giving priority to English, the star hotels are trying to show they cater to elites, as many white collars regard fluent English as a symbol of their status.

Language is a communication tool, so which language should be used depends on public demand. Moreover, in most cases, one's native language can help people best express ideas. Why then do so many Chinese prefer foreign languages, even when there is no necessity to use them? By doing so, instead of winning respect, they are losing their cultural identity.

Integration with the world does not mean that we should abandon our own cultural characteristics, especially our own language, and the overuse of English is actually showing blind faith in foreign culture.

China Youth Daily

Monopoly Profits Unrealistic

Latest statistics from the Ministry of Finance show that in 2006, China's state-owned enterprises (SOEs) reaped a combined profit of 1.1 trillion yuan, up 19.7 percent year on year.

The profit increase alone doesn't tell the whole story, as monopoly industries contributed the majority of the gains. Among them, the China National Petroleum Corp., the country's largest oil producer, amassed 185.6 billion yuan, accounting for 16.87 percent of the total. At the same time, it must be kept in mind that while international crude prices are falling, refined oil products on the domestic market do not become cheaper correspondingly, which indicates that part of the profits made by the oil companies is at the cost of the public interest.

Unlikely to be shared by the public, monopoly profits are digested by the enterprises, resulting in a widening income gap between different industries.

It's noticeable that industries with state-owned enterprises playing a dominant role are always repressed in terms of competitiveness. This is because monopoly enterprises make profits by restraining the competitiveness and dynamics of the whole industry. Without competition, they are reluctant to cut costs, improve management and carry out reforms. Worse still, they are also inclined to avoid competition and control prices by excluding others from sharing key materials.

Only when the SOEs have managed to get listed on the strength of their competitiveness rather than their monopoly status can we say China's SOEs are making real progress and only then can the public share in some of their enormous profits.

Shanghai Securities News

Better Teachers for Rural Students

A policy that encourages new college graduates to teach in rural areas has successfully completed its first three-year cycle in central China's Hubei Province. In the coming years, each year is expected to see about 3,000 college graduates dedicate themselves to rural education.

Most of these graduates were not from teachers' colleges and they received only two weeks' training before they were sent out to rural classrooms, where they have become very popular with students. Given the fact that China's rural education is now struggling with serious teacher shortages, exacerbated by the increase in junior middle school students, their popularity is understandable. In many areas, despite the sharp rise of students in schools, the number of teachers remains the same. It is therefore not surprising to find almost 100 students in a class, or uncertified teachers giving lessons. Nevertheless, there is still a lack of teachers, especially those with a good command of English and computer science. The low salaries and burden of work are responsible for many teachers seeking greener pastures, with old or low-quality replacements coming in to fill the vacancies.

Rural students' love for their new teachers is a stark revelation of just how inadequate the skill of previous teachers has been. This signals that the improvement of rural education can no longer be delayed.

China Youth Daily

Should Unsafe Food Remain on Shelves?

According to Measures for Administration of Food Safety in Circulating Field issued by the Ministry of Commerce on January 1, 2007, unsafe food can remain on the shelves after the retailers have been fined up to 30,000 yuan for their offense.

People have always been worried that food found to be unsafe in one shop may be transferred to another, but to their surprise, the newly issued measures allow these health-threatening food items to remain for sale.

The measures stipulate that shops must stop selling unsafe food immediately after it is discovered. If they continue to sell the food, the punishment will be a fine ranging from 1,000 to 5,000 yuan, while those who refuse to make correction will be fined 5,000 to 30,000 yuan and be named and shamed in public.

How can we expect these soft measures to protect our health? To a large extent, such policies should be blamed for frequent food safety accidents. While shops can choose whether to remove bad food or not, what choice is there for consumers?

Jiangnan Times