How Much Food Can You Buy For $5 Around The World?

Here's how much coffee, meat, beer, McDonald's, and more you can buy for $5 in countries around the world. For starters, you can buy a lot of beer for $5 in China.

We ain't Foxconn!

Source: EETimes.com

Here are excerpts from a new online article about my school, The SMIC Private School.

Name a semiconductor manufacturer that runs a school and a real estate business along with their foundry service. There’s only one--Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. (SMIC), based in Shanghai.

Founded in 2000, SMIC symbolizes China’s ambition to become a key player in the global semiconductor industry. SMIC also developed a template for successful recruitment of world-class talent, by building close to its headquarters a residential campus together with an award winning K-12 international school, which as of 2012 had an enrollment of more than 2,000 students.

You’ve probably heard of Foxconn’s dormitories in Shenzhen, jammed with young production line workers recruited from the countryside. Far less known is this semiconductor company–unusual in China or anywhere else in the world–that actually operates a school and provides family living quarters for workers and executives..

SMIC deserves credit for writing a textbook scenario on how to set up a successful operation in emerging markets. The key is the school.

The SMIC School, offering an English Track that runs on a U.S. curriculum, is known as one of the best schools in Shanghai--even better than the American School in Shanghai--by the expatriate community. On the theory that the best school needs the best teachers, the bilingual school recruits its teaching staff globally, including career educators from prep schools in the United States. 

A Harvard Business Review article in 2009 that examined SMIC’s strategy–including the SMIC School–pointed out that “graduates from the school had been admitted to top universities in the U.S., including many Ivy League schools. The school became a popular choice even for non-SMIC employees, which accounted for more than 60 percent of the student body.”

In short, this may be China, but it ain’t Foxconn. 

Read the full article here.

Portrait of a Young Global Citizen

By Wayne Russell

Meet Andrew, a 13 year young man. When I first met him he was four turning five. We met in Shanghai, China: He a kindergarten student, I his teacher. Now Andrew is about to enter 8th grade. With the help of technology and a relationship with his parents I have stayed in touch. What motivated me to write this piece is two-fold. One, I am excited to reunite with Andrew and his family this summer (His family still lives in Shanghai). Two, his mother recently posted a short video clip of him playing his ukulele (He also plays the piano and guitar very well).

When I think of Andrew, I think "global citizen." Andrew was born in the United States and then at the age of three he and his family relocated to China. During their stay in Asia, Andrew has also lived in Vietnam for one and a half years. While is Vietnam Andrew became fluent in Vietnamese, a language that has two more tones than Chinese's four. In addition to his Chinese being pretty good, he is currently learning a fourth language, Tagalog. Tagalog is spoken as a first language by a third of the population of the Philippines.

One day Andrew will enter the workforce with a number of competitive skills. He will not only speak more than his mother tongue, English, but he will be well experienced in working with people from all around the world (He attends a quasi-international school with classmates from many different countries). Andrew will know how to communicate with people with vastly different cultural and family backgrounds and will be able to work through problems when perspectives are night and day.

Andrew will be a well-prepared and competitive citizen in our ever-expanding global economy. I look forward to following one of our future leaders.

Make it a great day or not, the choice is yours.

Cheers!

Expat

Image credit: women-unlimited.co.uk

By Wayne Russell

I grew up in Apartheid South Africa, obtained my higher education in Capitalist U.S.A. and will again educate in Communist China.

With our move to China, it is becoming evident that three countries have become pivotal in the shaping of my worldview. 18 years in South Africa, 12 years in the U.S., two years and counting in China.  Three very different countries and cultures that continue to influence how I view the world and the people in it.

This will be the first time that we as a family unit will be living outside of Texas.  Although Misty has spent 20+ weeks in South Africa over the past six years, and Livia has crossed the Atlantic ocean two times already, this is the first time we will be relocating abroad.  We will no longer be in overseas vacation-mode. Together, we will have to move through the four stages of culture shock.  We cannot live like we will only be overseas for a few weeks.  We will truly discover how to do life in a foreign land as a family.

If triple-citizenship was allowed, our family would probably one day carry three passports: U.S.A., South Africa, and China.  I recently obtained my U.S. citizenship and am absolutely enjoying it.  Being more involved in the fabric of society by practices like voting is educating me what it truly means to be a citizen of a country.  Although I don't see myself voting in a Chinese election any time soon, for multiple reasons, I do see myself being actively involved in a Chinese society.  What does being a citizen in China mean?  This is something that I didn't really reflect upon when I first lived there.  I hope to consider this question more this time in China.

What does the future hold?  Great opportunities.  The challenge is knowing which opportunities to whole-heartily pursue and which to place to the side, at least temporarily.

Cheers!