06.24.2006
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Wakin.com Updated
The "News" section has a new photo log entry about Wakin's arrival in Nanning to prepare for his 20th anniversary concert there. Scroll down to the bottom of the page for the latest link. [Babel-Fished English]
Get Ahead, Learn Mandarin!
China's economic rise means the world has a new second language — and it isn't English
 It's Friday night in Ikebukuro, a Tokyo entertainment district full of cheap bars and pachinko parlors. As the office workers head to their favorite watering holes, three salarymen split from the crowd and enter a decrepit building that stands between a karaoke lounge and a tavern. Ignoring the sounds of sirens, drunken crooning and breaking glass outside, Hidetoshi Seki, Takashi Kudo and Yuji Yano huddle in a tiny room just big enough for a table for four, and open their Chinese textbooks. For the next 50 minutes the trio, all from a small trading company, practice describing their favorite foods and hobbies in Mandarin. Despite their crumpled shirts and five o'clock shadows, they are having a blast. The young female instructor at B-Chinese Language School indulges them as they crack jokes and make fun of each others' muddled pronunciation. Their language classes are the first lessons that any of them have taken since childhood, says Yano, 39. "We sort of unanimously agreed that Chinese would be a useful skill to acquire."
 No kidding. The urge that drives those salarymen to pass up karaoke on a Friday night is increasingly common. In the past, when people set out to improve themselves by learning another language, those that didn't already speak it usually picked English. But while English may be the only truly international language, millions of tongues are wagging over what is rapidly becoming the world's other lingua franca: Mandarin. [Continued]
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ジャッキー・チェンさん、財産の半分をチャリティへ
台湾の人気４人グループ「Ｆ４」のメンバー、ヴァネス・ウー（27）が初のソロ来日公演を行うことになり２日、都内で会見した。７月８、９日に
but it's a nice-looking design and has the latest local news that Wakin's『
