Why the US is the greatest threat to Lagarde at the IMF?

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"It's a victory for France," President Nicolas Sarkozy said of Christine Lagarde's appointment as the new head of the International Monetary Fund.

Christine Lagarde leaves a private TV studio after appearing on prime time news in Boulogne Photo: REUTERS

By Richard Blackden, US Business Editor

It should come as no surprise that the unpopular French leader is trying to put a positive spin on losing his highly-regarded finance minister. And, in one sense, Sarkozy is spot on.

Lagarde becomes the IMF's fifth French leader, and her appointment ensures that the Gallic republic keeps a powerful voice at an institution that has made a comeback thanks to the financial crisis. But Lagarde won't have appreciated her former boss airing his sentiment in public. The 55-year old will start her first day in the job next Tuesday with three question marks hanging over her appointment.

The first and least troublesome one is some inevitable concern within the IMF that she's not an economist. Lagarde trained as a lawyer and spent 25 years working at US law firm Baker & McKenzie before moving into politics in 2005. Some of this will be intellectual snobbery, but some will be legitimate concern over whether she's qualified for the job. She's regarded as highly intelligent and the fund already has an army of economists that matters can be delegated to.

The second is whether her selection was a stitch up. And it was. Europe still wields a disproportionately large amount of votes at the IMF's top table - a gift from history that the continent is understandably reluctant to relinquish. There's nothing she can do about that, and Lagarde has already pledged to make changes to the voting system so it better reflects the shifting balance of economic power in the world.

The third is by far the most serious. As the French finance minister intimately involved in Europe's debt crisis during the last 12 months, will she be able to give the IMF an independent voice and protect the interest of its creditors? Lagarde certainly thinks so. During her job interview last week she told the IMF's Executive Board that "I will not shrink from the necessary candour and toughness in my discussions with European leaders." Adding that "there is no room for benevolence when tough choices must be made."

The former lawyer spent much of the past month visiting China, India and Brazil to assure them that she will not throw good IMF money after bad to solve Europe's debt dilemma. The fund, which means its donors, is supplying about a third of the €110bn that was pledged to Greece as part of the first bail-out in May, 2010. Such assurances appear to have won over those three economic heavyweights, who declared for her rather than Agustin Carstens, the head of Mexico's central bank, and Lagarde’s only rival.

Victory, though, only came when the Obama administration threw its weight behind Lagarde this week. US Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner sang the praises of his former counterpart and new neighbour in Washington DC. But it's politicians in the US capital, rather than Beijing, Delhi or Sao Paulo, that pose the greatest threat to Lagarde.

Despite the warm and no doubt genuine words from Geithner, The White House is increasingly frustrated at Europeans' handling of their own debt debacle. Its latest flaring comes as the US economic recovery is losing momentum, and Obama is trying to wrestle back the political initiative from a Republican party emboldened by the recent US slowdown. The irritation was likely behind an unusual public rebuke to European leaders from Geithner last week when he said it would be better if they could speak with one voice.

A still bigger threat comes from Congress. The Obama administration struggled to push through an extra $108bn in funding for the IMF in June 2009. If bail-out was a toxic word in Washington then, it has only become more so since. So far the contributions from the IMF, where the US is the biggest single donor, have raised relatively few heckles in the House of Representatives or Senate. But with Republican candidates currently vying for the right to challenge Obama next year, the chances are that will change. And any money required from the IMF for Greece's second bail-out will receive far more political scrutiny in the country that will have to dig deepest into its own pockets.

It's to her new neighbours in Washington, more than anyone else, that Lagarde needs to prove that her appointment is no victory for France.

Tsunami of repossessions, home prices declined in UK & US !

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Bank chief warns of wave of home repossessions if rates rise

UKAR chief presiding over £80bn of bailed-out mortgages says 'tough love' would be fairer on those struggling with payments

• Jill Treanor  guardian.co.uk

UKAR chief Richard Banks has warned that mass home repossessions could follow any interest rate rise Photograph: Owen Humphreys/PA

Britain is facing a 'tsunami' of house repossessions as soon as interest rates start to rise, one of the country's leading bankers has warned.

Richard Banks, the chief executive of UK Asset Resolution (UKAR), the body that runs the £80bn of mortgages bailed out by the taxpayer during the banking crisis, also said in an interview with the Guardian that the Labour government's pleas at the start of the crisis for lenders to keep families in their homes was forcing some homeowners further into debt.

In a warning that the industry may have been too lenient with some of its customers, he said he believed a policy of "tough love" would be fairer to people facing long-term difficulty in keeping up payments on loans taken out when house prices were at their peak and personal incomes on the rise.

His warning came the day after the international bank regulator said the Bank of England, which has kept rates at 0.5% for more than two years, would have to raise rates shortly to curb inflation.

The Bank of International Settlements said the policy of the Bank of England, whose rate-setting committee is split over whether or not to increase borrowing costs, was "unsustainable".

With 750,000 customers, UK Asset Resolution, set up to run the nationalised mortgages of Bradford & Bingley and parts of Northern Rock, is the country's fifth largest mortgage lender. But 23,000 of those mortgage holders are more than six months behind with payments and Banks admitted the projections for the number of people falling behind on payments could get "scary" if lenders did nothing to prepare for higher rates.

"You can see if you don't do something about it, you can see a tsunami," he said. "If you don't get into the hills you could get drowned by this. If you don't manage this properly it could get very messy."

He regards it is an industry-wide problem, albeit one that might be concentrated at UKAR as its customers include buy-to-let landlords and so-called self-certified borrowers – those without salaried income. UKAR, through three calls centres in Crossflatts, West Yorkshire, Gosforth, Newcastle, and Doxford, Sunderland, has begun cold-calling customers it believes are at risk of falling behind on payments in an attempt to keep their mortgage payments on schedule.

The bank is also trying to tackle customers behind with payments for six months or more and at risk of repossession.

His concern about a surge in repossessions is partly the result of moves by the industry early in the 2008 crisis to grant so-called forbearance to help customers stay in homes by, for example, reducing monthly interest payments. "We as an industry, as a kneejerk reaction in the emergence of the crisis, and because the government asked us to be forbearing to customers in the hope it would all go away, we have been too lenient with some customers.

"It's a tough love approach," he said. "It's treating customers fairly, not nicely, because if you can't afford your mortgage you are only increasing your indebtedness. If we allow you to increase your indebtedness, that's not really fair to you."

This month the Council of Mortgage Lenders forecast a rise in repossessions from 40,000 this year to 45,000 next. This figure would still remain well below the 75,500 peak of 1991. The remarks by Banks follow a warning last week from the new regulator set up to spot financial risks in the system – the Financial Policy Committee (FPC) inside the Bank of England – that warned banks may be providing a "misleading picture of their financial health" if they were not making big enough provisions for borrowers in difficulty.

Forbearance has been brought into play in up to 12% of mortgages, the FPC said.

It also noted that the most "vulnerable" households were concentrated in a few banks. It did not scrutinise UKAR but noted that the two other bailed-out banks, Lloyds Banking Group and Royal Bank of Scotland, had the largest exposure to customers whose mortgages were bigger than their value of their homes.

Last month, the Financial Services Authority issued a guide to handling forbearance in which it warned: "Arrears and forbearance support provided with due care by firms has a beneficial impact for both the firm and the customer … However, where such support is provided without due care or any knowledge or understanding of the impacts, it has potentially adverse implications for the customer, for the firm's understanding of the risks inherent within its lending book, and in turn for the regulators and the market."

House prices down in England and Wales

LONDON: House prices in England and Wales have edged lower this month to show their biggest annual fall since October 2009, a monthly survey from property data company Hometrack showed on Monday.
Average house prices dropped by 0.1% in June, continuing a pattern of modest falls so far this year and taking the year-on-year decline to 3.9%.

Other house price surveys have shown similar price falls over the past 12 months. Prices dropped by around 20% during the financial crisis, but partly recovered in early 2010.
Hometrack's director of research Richard Donnell said that the property market had been less weak so far this year than he had expected.

A general view of houses in Grange Villa, England. — AP

 

“Low transaction volumes, low mortgage rates and forbearance by lenders limiting the number of forced sales have all played their part. While average prices have slipped back by 1%, sales volumes have increased off the back of higher demand and greater realism over achievable prices,” he said.

House prices are under pressure from slow wage growth and lenders' preference for much higher mortgage deposits than before the financial crisis.

Hometrack's data is based on a monthly survey of estate agents and surveyors, asking for average achievable prices for different categories of property. - Reuters

Home Prices in 20 U.S. Cities Probably Declined in April From Year Earlier

By Shobhana Chandra 

Home prices probably decreased in April, showing the housing market remains an obstacle for the U.S. recovery, economists said before a report today.

The S&P/Case-Shiller index of property values in 20 cities fell 4 percent from April 2010, the biggest year-over-year drop since November 2009, according to the median forecast of 30 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. Other data may show consumer confidence held near a six-month low.

A backlog of foreclosures and falling sales indicate prices may decline further, discouraging builders from taking on new projects. The drop in property values and a jobless rate hovering around 9 percent are holding back consumer sentiment and spending, which accounts for 70 percent of the economy.


“Home prices remain incredibly bogged down by foreclosures and weak demand,” said Sean Incremona, a senior economist at 4Cast Inc. in New York. “The picture is unlikely to change much this year. Declining home prices and high unemployment are bad for confidence.”

The S&P/Case-Shiller index, based on a three-month average, is due at 9 a.m. New York time. Survey estimates ranged from declines of 4.9 percent to 3.5 percent. Values fell 3.6 percent in the 12 months to March.

The New York-based Conference Board’s consumer confidence gauge, due at 10 a.m., rose to 61 from 60.8 in May, according to the Bloomberg survey median. Estimates ranged from 55 to 66.7.

Fuel Costs

Some of the improvement probably reflects a drop in fuel costs. The average price of a gallon of regular gasoline fell to $3.57 on June 26, down from a May 4 price of $3.99 that was the highest in almost three years, according to AAA, the nation’s largest auto club.

The projected rise in confidence contrasts with other surveys in which Americans’ moods dimmed. The Bloomberg Consumer Comfort index dropped in the week ended June 19, the first decline in five weeks, and the Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan sentiment gauge fell more than forecast this month.

The Case-Shiller report may show home prices fell 0.2 percent in April from the prior month after adjusting for seasonal variations, the 10th straight decrease, according to the Bloomberg survey.

The year-over-year gauges provide better indications of trends in prices, the group has said. The panel includes Karl Case and Robert Shiller, the economists who created the index.

Shiller told a conference in New York this month that a further decline in property values of 10 percent to 25 percent in the next five years “wouldn’t surprise me at all.”

Fewer Sales

Reports earlier this month showed the housing market is yet to gain momentum. Sales of previously owned homes, which comprise about 94 percent of the market, were down 3.8 percent last month from April, the National Association of Realtors said.

Purchases of new houses dropped 2.1 percent in May, the first decline in three months, according to Commerce Department data. Competition from foreclosed homes is hurting demand for newly built dwellings.

The 1.8 million-unit inventory of distressed homes nationwide that may reach the market would take about three years to sell at the current pace, Daren Blomquist, communications manager at RealtyTrac Inc., said this month.

As house prices decline, owners feel less wealthy and home equity shrinks, making borrowing more difficult.

The Standard & Poor’s Supercomposite Homebuilding index lost 4.4 percent as of June 27 from the end of April, less than a 6.1 percent drop in the broader S&P 500 gauge, which was weighed down largely by concern about the European debt crisis.

Builder Outlook

Some developers expect demand to stabilize following a poor selling season. Lennar Corp. (LEN), the third-largest U.S. homebuilder by revenue, last week said second-quarter sales fell from a year earlier and home orders were little changed, while the average price climbed. The 2010 orders were boosted by a federal tax credit for homebuyers that required contracts be signed by April 30.

“While it’s now well documented that the expected spring selling season of 2011 simply did not materialize, it is beginning to feel like the worst days of the housing market are getting behind us,” Chief Executive Officer Stuart Miller said during a conference call with analysts on June 23.

Bloomberg Survey

================================================================
                              Case Shiller   Cons. Conf
                              MOM%     YOY%    Index
================================================================

Date of Release              06/28    06/28    06/28
Observation Period           April    April      June
----------------------------------------------------------------
Median                       -0.2%    -4.0%     61.0
Average                      -0.2%    -4.0%     61.0
High Forecast                 0.4%    -3.5%     66.7
Low Forecast                 -0.5%    -4.9%     55.0
Number of Participants          17       30       70
Previous                     -0.2%    -3.6%     60.8
----------------------------------------------------------------
4CAST Ltd.                    ---     -4.1%     61.5
ABN Amro Inc.                -0.1%     ---      61.0
Action Economics              ---      ---      63.0
Aletti Gestielle SGR          ---      ---      60.0
Ameriprise Financial Inc      ---      ---      61.5
Banesto                       ---     -4.1%     61.7
Bank of Tokyo- Mitsubishi     ---      ---      59.0
Bantleon Bank AG              ---      ---      60.0
Bayerische Landesbank         ---     -4.0%     62.0
BBVA                          ---     -3.9%     60.8
BMO Capital Markets           ---     -4.4%     62.0
BNP Paribas                   ---      ---      58.0
BofA Merrill Lynch Resear     ---     -3.9%     61.0
Briefing.com                  ---     -3.8%     59.0
Capital Economics            -0.4%    -4.1%     65.0
CIBC World Markets            ---     -4.2%     62.5
Citi                          ---      ---      61.0
Commerzbank AG                ---     -4.0%     60.0
Credit Agricole CIB           ---      ---      62.0
Credit Suisse                 ---     -3.8%     55.0
Daiwa Securities America      ---      ---      62.0
DekaBank                      ---      ---      61.5
Desjardins Group              ---     -3.9%     61.0
Deutsche Bank Securities      ---      ---      62.0
Exane                         ---      ---      61.5
Fact & Opinion Economics      ---     -3.5%     59.0
First Trust Advisors          ---      ---      59.9
FTN Financial                 ---      ---      60.0
Helaba                        ---      ---      60.0
HSBC Markets                 -0.2%    -3.9%     60.0
Hugh Johnson Advisors         ---      ---      60.5
IDEAglobal                    ---     -4.0%     60.0
IHS Global Insight            ---     -3.9%     61.0
Informa Global Markets        ---      ---      61.0
ING Financial Markets        -0.2%    -3.9%     63.0
Insight Economics             ---     -3.9%     59.0
Intesa-SanPaulo               ---      ---      63.0
J.P. Morgan Chase            -0.1%    -3.8%     60.5
Janney Montgomery Scott L    -0.3%    -4.8%     62.0
Jefferies & Co.               ---      ---      62.0
Landesbank Berlin             ---      ---      58.0
Manulife Asset Management     ---      ---      61.0
Maria Fiorini Ramirez Inc     ---      ---      62.5
MF Global                    -0.5%    -4.2%     60.5
Moody’s Analytics             ---      ---      59.0
Morgan Stanley & Co.          ---      ---      64.0
Natixis                       ---     -4.0%     61.0
Nomura Securities Intl.       ---     -3.9%     59.8
Nord/LB                       ---      ---      60.0
Parthenon Group              -0.4%     ---      59.7
Pierpont Securities LLC       ---      ---      64.0
PineBridge Investments        0.4%     ---      61.5
Raiffeisenbank Internatio     ---      ---      62.0
RBC Capital Markets           ---      ---      62.0
RBS Securities Inc.           ---      ---      59.5
Scotia Capital                ---      ---      59.0
SMBC Nikko Securities        -0.1%    -3.8%     63.0
Societe Generale             -0.2%     ---      66.7
Standard Chartered           -0.3%    -4.8%     61.0
State Street Global Marke     0.1%    -3.6%     60.1
Stone & McCarthy Research     ---      ---      62.5
TD Securities                -0.5%     ---      60.0
UBS                          -0.2%    -3.9%     62.0
UniCredit Research            ---     -4.0%     61.0
Union Investment              ---      ---      61.8
University of Maryland       -0.4%    -4.1%     60.0
Wells Fargo & Co.             ---      ---      59.3
WestLB AG                     ---     -4.9%     60.5
Westpac Banking Co.           ---      ---      60.5
Wrightson ICAP                0.0%     ---      63.0
================================================================

To contact the reporter on this story: Shobhana Chandra in Washington at schandra1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Christopher Wellisz at cwellisz@bloomberg.net

Raising perfect kids, The Tiger mom's ways!

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Rosalind Corlin and her high-achieving kids, Estephe (left) and Perrine, back in Kuala Lumpur for a short break, showing off the kids’ book, 'The Roar Of The Tiger Cubs'.

By Dr GAN SIOWCK LEE

ESTEPHE and Perrine Corlin, twins aged 10, were in Kuala Lumpur recently to visit their mum’s family, and to promote their new book The Roar Of The Tiger Cubs to help raise funds for their favourite charity project. The children reside in Hong Kong with their Malaysian mother and French father.

Estephe and Perrine shot to fame when they sat the Cambridge University International General Certificate Secondary Exam (IGCSE) Mathematics for 16-year-olds last November, and scored As!

Since then, their mother Rosalind Wong-Corlin, 43, who hails from Kelantan but grew up in Kuala Lumpur, has been unofficially crowned the “Tiger Mother of Hong Kong”, coming hot on the paws of the original “tiger mum”, Amy Chua.

Dialogue 11/06/27 Tiger Mom´s Parenting CCTV News - CNTV English

The Chinese American author and law professor’s gruelling and no-nonsense parenting approach extolled in her bestselling memoir Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, released this year, is alternately viewed as oppressive by Western parents and effective by their Chinese counterparts.

Now, everyone wants to know the Corlin children’s story and formula for success, too. Not only do the twins excel in their studies, they are also champions and medal winners in sports such as swimming and judo. In this respect the Corlin kids are very different from Chua’s two children, who are not encouraged to do well in sports.

Here’s a chat with Rosalind, who contributed to two of the 26 chapters in the book written by her twins, during her recent trip home:

Let’s start with a brief life history of the kids ….

When the kids were born in Switzerland, we hired a nanny for the first two years. Then we spent a year in Boston (United States) and then back to Switzerland for another year before going to Hong Kong when they were five years old, where we have lived since. As my husband (a top executive of a US-based medical technology firm) travels constantly on business and my job was equally demanding, I decided that it was time for me to stop work so that I could “watch” them grow and develop.

So, you gave up a promising career in finance and a big salary to adopt an active approach to parenting? What are some of your personal sacrifices, if any, in moulding your kids into what they are today?

To me parenting is a big responsibility that should not be delegated to someone else, not the grandparents, not a nanny, certainly not a maid! Financially, it was a more painful decision as we were down to a single-income family. I soon found out that my journey in motherhood was not so easy. My children were more than a handful. I found a Chinese nanny to help out, and to speak Mandarin with them. I thought it was essential they master one more language and speak Mandarin like a Chinese native speaker.

My challenges today are different; I have to keep them motivated to do their best. It’s tough and requires a lot of time and dedication.

You exposed them to another new language, i.e. Mandarin, at an early age.

That was a good decision because research findings have consistently indicated that bilingualism enhances and strengthens cognitive development in young children.

How did you come to recognise and develop the potential of your kids to achieve what they have managed so far?

Their kindergarten teachers had mentioned that Estephe exhibited an exceptional ability in maths. My father-in-law, a specialist in tuberculosis, who spent a lot of time playing mental and maths games with my children during the holidays, said the same thing. In Hong Kong I got to know Horatio Boedihardjo, the Hong Kong maths genius who went to Oxford at the age of 15. He was doing his PhD at 17 when we started exchanging e-mail.



I asked him if he would meet Estephe and Perrine and show them some maths. When Horatio came back to Hong Kong for the winter holidays in 2007, he spent some time with the kids. He brought me some maths books and quizzes for the kids, and since then I have personally tutored them in maths and science with the help of some university students.

You found them a role model, so to speak. But how did you stimulate/accelerate your kids’ all-round development in the cognitive and psychomotor domains when they were still toddlers?

Just a couple of examples: When we were in Boston we lived at the top of a hotel so the kids would dip in the pool every day. They had floaties but I would remove one individual square foam every week so that by the end of summer they could float by themselves in the water naturally. My father-in-law is an avid reader, he bought them many books which they enjoyed.

My husband and I would read to them every day when they were little, in both French and English. Now, reading is one of their favourite hobbies.

As they grow up and go to school, how do you ensure that they are NOT excluded from the normal socialisation process that takes place in schools? How do you encourage a healthy all-round development that also includes the social and affective domains?

Take swimming, for example. They have good friends in our swim club so this helps them endure the training sessions. They are popular with their peers and the kids in their school. When the National French TV M6 visited their school to film them in class, the crew interviewed their friends to ask if they were “normal” and the response was positive.

They also have many friends from the swim team, the judo club and rugby. I think sport is very important in ensuring a wellbalanced lifestyle and education for the children. It strengthens them emotionally and develops their character. In sport they belong to a team. They learn to respect one another, to have good sportsmanship, to value and build friendship, and to share. I think this is great.

I try to inculcate a positive attitude in their daily life in everything they do. There are times when they may not feel like going for swim training at 5.30am, or doing homework, but they know they have to get these things done. I instil in them the notion that life is a challenge and results or success

comes with some effort and self-discipline.

The same attitude has benefited them in their studies and helped them achieve the academic results they have today.

What else are you doing to structure a stimulating environment for them to develop in the cognitive domain?

I provide opportunities for them to master different languages. They go to the French School, currently in the bilingual section – 50% English and 50% French. They have Chinese tuition at home. The school caters for French nationals whose mother tongue is French. We will move them to the Island School in August, one of the English Foundation Schools in Hong Kong. For maths and science, they will be in higher level classes or given work at their level because they are ahead of their peers in these subjects. In Mandarin they will be in the class for native speakers.

It’s great that this school has this flexibility to cater for kids with different abilities in certain subject areas. This certainly is a way of putting Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences into practice! What about their moral and values education?

I try to inculcate good values by involving them in worthy causes. They now know they have a social responsibility. Writing the book has been a good start as this has allowed them to contribute the proceeds to a nonprofit organisation, “Bring Me A Book Hong Kong”, which promotes literacy in children (www.bringmeabook.org.hk).

It is widely acknowledged that human potential, some extraordinary, remains largely untapped in most people throughout life. As far as academic pursuit goes, what is your main focus?

When they were younger, the focus was on developing their minds, consistently encouraging them to ask questions both at home and in school. In the past year, they have matured a lot and acquired a lot of knowledge.

They can now combine both, applying the knowledge they have acquired in novel situations, to solve problems, synthesise new ideas ... they have shown this in their book.

This reminds me of what Confucius advocated, that learning and thinking must go hand in hand. “Learning without thinking leads to bewilderment; thinking without learning is futile.” One last question for the “tiger mum”: How would you describe your relationship with the kids?

I am strict with them, but there is a very warm and close bond between us. I organise both fun times and work times for them. Whatever I do they know that it is for their good. They know I sacrifice a lot of my time for them. For me the most important thing is that I will always have a close relationship with them. In my opinion, strengthening and sustaining this bond is the biggest challenge for parents as the kids grow up.

Twin power

I SHOWED up for my appointment with Estephe and Perrine Corlin at Kuala Lumpur’s Royal Lake Club swimming pool where they were training with their “tiger mother” Rosalind Wong-Corlin.

According to Rosalind, the kids were preparing for an open water meet in France in August, and their coach did not want them to miss three days of training even while holidaying in KL! So, Rosalind, herself a former Malaysian national swimmer, had to take over coaching duties here.

The children were in their swim gear, complete with caps and goggles. They were adorable and, yes, “normal”, coming across as perfectly well-adjusted, with a healthy tanned complexion and cheerful impish smiles.

Estephe is the older (by a few minutes) and more bubbly and chatty of the two, while Perrine is like a little lady, demure and sweet.

We started out talking about The Roar Of The Tiger Cubs, their new book that details their lives thus far and their drive for success.

First, tell us why you wrote the book.

Estephe: We want to share with the other kids that if you think you can, you will! Everything can be done if you put in your effort.

Perrine: Yes, I want to tell other kids that “the world is your oyster” ....

Estephe: In the book, we tell stories about our lives, precious moments that we will always remember ....

Perrine: ... and experiences which have helped us in growing up.

What’s the writing process like?

Estephe: We worked over three months, we used materials from our diaries, our collection of photos and drawings.

Perrine: We discussed, shared ideas ... Mum always helped and encouraged us.

After these few initial questions which broke the ice, the kids opened up and there was no telling who was saying what ... each had so much to offer.

To sum it up, their outstanding achievements in both studies and sports notwithstanding, Estephe and Perrine are very much like other kids their age. They got very enthusiastic and excited once they started talking about their hobbies which include playing chess, skiing, watching DVDs and hiking with their parents, sailing with Dad. In short, just spending time and having fun with their folks.

Like kids their age, they use the computers and the Internet for their school work, but said they have no time for social media such as Facebook. Estephe loves playing rugby, and Perrine likes singing and is a fan of Lady Gaga.

Since the interview was conducted in English, I decided to test their Mandarin. I was impressed to find them speaking like mainland Chinese, and having already read quite a few Chinese classics.

They also offered to show me their Chinese names by writing them out.

Before we said goodbye, I gave them a little pocket book of Chinese proverbs and idioms illustrated with cartoons. They were quite thrilled as they are familiar with many of the phrases. At this young age they can already appreciate the legacy of this priceless language that is deeply rooted in history, culture and tradition.

* Dr Gan Siowck Lee is an education specialist and consultant, and former associate professor of Universiti Putra Malaysia. The Roa r Of The Tiger Cubs is available locally at all major bookstores.