It was neither a astounding success nor a miserable failure. I’d call today a good, solid win. I didn’t last the entire eleven hours. I only made it nine before I got a headache, wore out, and called it a day. But I did make quite a few contacts and develop over a dozen good leads.

My prognosis: I can talk to people in person. But now the thought of calling these people back to set an appointment scares me. I hate the phone. I prefer face to face. But there’s no turning back now.

The funny thing is that I actually found the morning networking session invigorating. I enjoyed talking to people! Of course it helped that they were all energized, friendly, and there to make contacts, too. But as the day wore on and people wore down it got more difficult. People didn’t make eye contact as easily. People’s body language just wasn’t as welcoming. I think an eleven hour event is too long, quite frankly.

I did try to go to the last two hours, which were also a networking opportunity. But the energy of the room had changed dramatically from the morning session. People were tired. They were sitting down at tables. They were hanging out with their friends, and no one was budging. I quickly surmised that networking was going to be difficult, even without my headache and exhaustion, and beat a hasty retreat.

Onward to the next phase. It will be interesting to see how many of the people who were so welcoming today are still welcoming when I call them up. I hope I’m pleasantly surprised.

American Thinker published a column by Edward Bernard Glick about his grandmother and her insistence on learning English when she emigrated to America. I’m not above giving some help to immigrants, but I believe she mostly had the right attitude:

She came to America at 13, speaking only Yiddish. When she died some 70 years later, her Yiddish was still perfect. But so was her English. That’s because in the 1920s, teachers and parents did not know about diversity training and political correctness. So they placed her in classes with much younger English-speaking kids. She was ashamed and angry at first, but by the end of the school year she had conquered the national language of the United States. As an adult, she got hooked on New York Times crossword puzzles, which she always worked with a pen. She was very proud of that.

She believed it shouldn’t cost the government an extra dime to bring foreign-born kids up to linguistic snuff. After living in California for 25 years, she opposed bilingual education and ESL (English-as-a-second-language) programs because she observed that they cost too much, took too long, and didn’t work. She used to say that If she had been subjected to ESL and bilingual education as kid she’d now be speaking “Yinglish,” which she defined as Yiddish with an American accent and English with a Yiddish accent.

My wife and I have often discussed what would happen if we needed to move back to her country of birth. Chances are enough people in business speak English I could get along okay. But I would never presume for a moment that I would not need to learn Finnish, or that my kids should get bilingual education at the government’s expense. As difficult a language as Finnish can be, we would still need to learn it. When in Rome, and all that.

Should immigrants get help adjusting to America? Certainly. But that’s what families and churches are for. The government need not get involved, especially with programs that leave immigrants dependent on others to help them get through basic life activities. We’re doing them no favors if they are unable to fend for themselves in their new country because some people think they should be coddled along.

Okay, I’ll get off my soapbox now.

Facts and Opinions opines on the harmful effects of helping your kids out with cash:

You wouldn’t believe this is logical. How could you hurt your children by providing them dollars? Over the long term should you continually give your kids the maximum tax free money gift (currently $13,000 per year) and they come to expect it, you are only enabling their consumer way of life and aren’t genuinely teaching them to be self sufficient.

This idea is covered quite thoroughly in the book The Millionaire Next Door. I know that is one gift my parents gave me–they encouraged all of us kids to pay our own way. I got a paper route when I was nine. I worked part time in the early mornings to put myself through college. They helped by housing and feeding me. I learned to make do or do without, though I don’t recall ever really suffering from a lack of money. I graduated college without a single dollar of student loans to repay. It was a great gift to give myself–and I have my parents to thank for it.

They may not have had a choice–I wouldn’t be surprised if they couldn’t have afforded to put me through college. But by letting me fend for myself more or less, they taught me something quite valuable.