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Zuckerberg can be annoying in at least two languages

by on24 October 2014



Chinese stunned

A Chinese audience was amazed when Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg hosted a Q&A in Mandarin. Zuckerberg gave a 30-minute question and answer session in fluent Mandarin at a Q&A and apparently, it was not about ordering a sweet and sour pork and rice, or asking where the loos were and was pretty challenging. He was talking in Beijing because if he had talked in Mandarin on a American University campus they would have just thought he was insane and locked him up.

The Facebook chief executive is known to have been studying the language for several years, having mentioned his interest in Mandarin in an interview with Oprah Winfrey in 2010. To be fair Mandarin is a pretty tricky language and standing up in front of kids at Tsinghua University in Beijing and talking about social notworking must have been hard. Commenters on the post described his efforts as "seriously impressive" and "pretty cool."

Zuckerberg said there were three reasons why he had chosen to study Mandarin. First, because his wife is Chinese and her grandmother only speaks Mandarin so he began learning to be able to communicate with her. Second because China is an influential country and he felt studying the language would help him better understand its culture. And finally because Mandarin is really hard and he likes challenges.

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