"A household located in the northern part of London is looking for an remarkable and experienced educator to guide their youngest child on his early path to turning into an English gentleman."
When reading this listing, you might easily miss the term "beginning" as simple figurative language.
But, it may be the crucial element of this unique position posting, as it seeks to find a teacher for a infant.
Hundreds of applications have since been received since the unidentified family advertised their request for the £180,000 per year tutor, who has to be "a uniquely qualified person".
Over the last few weeks, the advert has attracted notice throughout the media, with several asking why?
Innovative Idea
A tutoring expert, CEO and founder of a global tutoring firm, which is helping the family in their hunt, explained that notwithstanding initial scepticism, he considered the concept "forward-looking", and "innovative".
When he met the family, he said they recognized the unusual nature of their request, and how young their son is.
However, they clarified that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had postponed until their firstborn was five, and by that point "cultural conditioning had already become established".
But what does the family indicate by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "all-encompassing", the expert answered. "The way you eat, the way you speak".
He said the elder child had picked up "really subtle, body language" from the family, and had assumed their cultural norms. The family explained to the consultant they wished to avoid this pattern to recur with their younger child.
The intention: To hire a English tutor, who needs to speak with standard English accent, to guide the baby from the very start.
Natural Absorption
"A great deal of the learning at the start here is rather osmotic," stated Adam.
It's by means of this subtle influence that the family are expecting the child will acquire the English characteristics they aim to cultivate.
Adam said the tutor needed to be someone who studied at "the right kinds of schools – similar types of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The tutor must be the right kind of person, they'll be doing things they may not realize they're doing, simply by nature," he added.
Cost Not Relevant
The family told the expert the chosen tutor should ideally also have knowledge of or passion in equestrian activities, alpine skiing, artistic pursuits and music so as to shape the child in a diverse set of hobbies.
More than that though, he said the family desired the tutor to register the child on a range of courses so the child would be "horseback riding and starting an musical instrument by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's view, helping their son grow into a "British gentleman" will result in success and open doors.
"Considering the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's certainly a class statement," he adds.
But, in spite of all this instruction in "Britishness", would the child absorb so-called cultural bias from the globally influenced family he is raised by anyway?
"Yes", answered the CEO. "They realize this may not work, but they've merely embraced the perspective of, 'why not attempt it and let's go as soon as we can', because the expense of it is not relevant," he said.
Overly Optimistic
Several in the tutoring industry who express similar concerns.
Peter Cui, head and founder of a tutoring service, who supplies individual instructors, commented that "the journey of adopting dual cultures, or indeed, becoming oneself, is something that must be experienced personally, not designed."
Peter explained that he had emigrated from China to the United Kingdom at the age of 7 years old, and had been brought up experiencing and practicing both cultures. He progressed to learn at Cambridge University.
"The idea that one individual can act as a representation of English culture, a person who can somehow transfer the attributes of a British gentleman to a 12-month-old child, seems to me optimistic and unfeasible," he stated.
"Based on my background, engaging a typically British tutor from infancy will not instantly achieve the result they want.
"I never had such a figure, and however I have been lucky enough to live numerous of the experiences they aspire for their son."
He added: "The reality is, cultural identity cannot be forced from the external environment; it must be embraced, and it must originate internally."
Buying Britishness
Certainly, English culture is something Adam hopes can be taught – and marketed.
"I think the situation that the global community regards us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
