

Mark Zuckerberg Speaking Chinese: Brave, Foolish, or Both? - utactics
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/11/mark-zuckerberg-speaking-chinese-brave-foolish-or-both/382254/

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b0o
As a native Chinese mandarin speaker all of my other Chinese friends and
family I spoke to were completely shocked at how well he spoke Chinese. Yes,
his tones are off but the majority of non Chinese speakers tones (and
sometimes my tones are off when I haven't spoken Chinese in a while) are
usually off so when you take that into account, and how he said he wanted to
learn Chinese because of his wife's grandma who only spoke Chinese, its very
cool to see someone in his position (as a multibillionaire ceo) where Chinese
has become a hobby and a passion.

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ashleyp
Who cares? He gave something a go and gave it a shot. I'm pretty sure his goal
has nothing to do with speaking perfect mandarin. If people are going to judge
him and spend their days writing articles about judgement on him and giving
something a go, it's a little sad in my eyes(not necessarily referring to the
article itself as such and i've only scanned through it so perhaps i'm missing
something).

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emcarey
I think this was an incredible move by zuckerberg and he should be applauded.
I studied mandarin in grad school and then spent some time in China studying
female chinese consumer behavior. Though my study participants were excited to
practice their english with me, i was shy to practice my mandarin with them
and I totally regret that as now my mandarin is almost gone. By truly taking
steps to communicate with the very important Chinese market, Zuckerberg once
again demonstrated his leadership skills by being brave as he made himself
vulnerable to mistakes. I'm sure the many people in China who idolize him were
also humbled to see him try something outside the comfort zone of a
billionaire ceo.

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byoung2
I've only been studying Mandarin for a few months, so I can attest to the
difficulty of understanding tone. Having learned a few languages over the
years, including Spanish, Japanese, French, Italian, and Tagalog, I'd say that
the hardest part of the learning process is getting the courage to speak to a
native speaker without looking like an idiot. It's hard enough to order a meal
in the language, but an on stage interview on camera is another level
entirely. I applaud anyone brave enough to do that after just a few years of
study.

