Earlier quoted context omitted.
The first question they ask is why he studied Mandarin, and (as the first of three reasons) Mark replies that his wife is Chinese.
Americans come in over 31 flavours.
I was made with 23 flavors!
Mark Zuckerberg Answers Q&A in Mandarin at Chinese University
51–60 of 188 posts
Re: Mark Zuckerberg Answers Q&A in Mandarin at Chinese University
#52I wish the exoticising of the East would just go away. This mystique associated upon the Chinese language is horribly old-fashioned. It comes up far too often ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7624342 ) Of course, we should always encourage ourselves and others to learn foreign languages, even if only to dabble. Unfortunately, this is just gimmick, and bad gimmick at that. Compare to a completely normalised (and…
I think you're missing the point. The number of Westerners who become conversational in Chinese is astoundingly low compared to vice-versa. It's known to be quite difficult. Being able to publicly answer questions at a Q&A without falling back to English once is a feat that takes years of learning and practice. It is amazing to me that Mark has been able to find the time and dedication for this while simultaneously r…
I think that the number of Westerners who achieve conversational fluency in Chinese is limited only by motivation and access to resources. It's more difficult for an American than learning Spanish, sure, but wholly within the grasp of anyone willing to put in the effort.
The skill-level displayed in the Facebook video is about what you'd expect from a student having completed about four semesters of Chinese education from a mid-tier state school.
The other video is much more impressive as a display of language skill. There's a natural fluency on display, and it comes from a bunch of regular folks who have the benefit of an immersive learning environment and probably not that much more.
Re: Mark Zuckerberg Answers Q&A in Mandarin at Chinese University
#53his tones are off, but he has a pretty impressive vocabulary
I took Chinese in high school and did ok. Didn't use it and have tried to pick it up twice as an adult and have yet to get the tones down in conversation. Put a book in front of me, I can get it. Let me listen to someone speak it and I am lost. Any ideas on how to conquer that fault?
Setting Siri to Mandarin is great practice.
Re: Mark Zuckerberg Answers Q&A in Mandarin at Chinese University
#54china will rule US in 50 years.
Just like Japan.
Re: Mark Zuckerberg Answers Q&A in Mandarin at Chinese University
#55I wish the exoticising of the East would just go away. This mystique associated upon the Chinese language is horribly old-fashioned. It comes up far too often ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7624342 ) Of course, we should always encourage ourselves and others to learn foreign languages, even if only to dabble. Unfortunately, this is just gimmick, and bad gimmick at that. Compare to a completely normalised (and…
I think you're missing the point. The number of Westerners who become conversational in Chinese is astoundingly low compared to vice-versa. It's known to be quite difficult. Being able to publicly answer questions at a Q&A without falling back to English once is a feat that takes years of learning and practice. It is amazing to me that Mark has been able to find the time and dedication for this while simultaneously r…
Uhm. Hate me for being the downer, but.. isn't he most likely heavily invested due to his wife? And do you think it is harder to learn a foreign language as Joe Random Guy or might it be easier if you try to learn the language of your significant other?
Is it harder to learn a foreign language if you manage a huge business and are insanely rich or is it harder if you work to make do, have kids and not a lot of free time?
Is it a business strategy, a gimmick that the company paid for? A real personal investment?
Everyone learning a completely foreign language impresses me. Zuckerberg just scores really, really low on my utterly personal "Am I impressed" scale.
Re: Mark Zuckerberg Answers Q&A in Mandarin at Chinese University
#56I wish the exoticising of the East would just go away. This mystique associated upon the Chinese language is horribly old-fashioned. It comes up far too often ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7624342 ) Of course, we should always encourage ourselves and others to learn foreign languages, even if only to dabble. Unfortunately, this is just gimmick, and bad gimmick at that. Compare to a completely normalised (and…
Zuckerberg's Chinese does sound pretty awful right now (although his listening comprehension looked much better), but it doesn't seem right to compare him to individuals that are fully immersed in a Chinese-speaking environment (probably for a many years). Also learning Chinese to speak to your wife's family isn't a gimmick.
Re: Mark Zuckerberg Answers Q&A in Mandarin at Chinese University
#57his tones are off, but he has a pretty impressive vocabulary
That's what I immediately noticed - his grammar and processing speed is pretty slow and steady but his vocabulary is incredible. I mean, he's been studying for what, 2-3 years? I wouldn't be surprised if he was in like the top 1% of people studying Chinese, on top of the fact that he has a small company to run.
Re: Mark Zuckerberg Answers Q&A in Mandarin at Chinese University
#58I wish the exoticising of the East would just go away. This mystique associated upon the Chinese language is horribly old-fashioned. It comes up far too often ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7624342 ) Of course, we should always encourage ourselves and others to learn foreign languages, even if only to dabble. Unfortunately, this is just gimmick, and bad gimmick at that. Compare to a completely normalised (and…
I speak Chinese and it is a ridiculously hard language. For a more eloquent response (not mine), see this: http://pinyin.info/readings/texts/moser.html
The OP linked to a dismissal of this article...
Re: Mark Zuckerberg Answers Q&A in Mandarin at Chinese University
#59I've lived in China 5 years now and our skill levels are comparable so I'm pretty impressed. It's really just basic conversation but the Chinese people will love him for getting this far with it. This along with move to join Tsinghua board will create massive goodwill for FB.
Re: Mark Zuckerberg Answers Q&A in Mandarin at Chinese University
#60I wish the exoticising of the East would just go away. This mystique associated upon the Chinese language is horribly old-fashioned. It comes up far too often ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7624342 ) Of course, we should always encourage ourselves and others to learn foreign languages, even if only to dabble. Unfortunately, this is just gimmick, and bad gimmick at that. Compare to a completely normalised (and…
I largely agree that the mystique has to go, and that conversational Chinese is not nearly as hard to learn as believed, but I disagree that Mandarin is easy as a whole.
Characters are hard. There are thousands of them, with only loose auditory or semantic meaning. Learning to write and read Chinese is almost always going to involve rote memorization, hopefully using spaced repetition.
I've been studying Mandarin in a non-intensive but formal class for 6 years, speak a bit better than mark to Mark here and almost definitely with a larger vocabulary (though this could be 100% biased by the intimidation of a large fluent crowd in his case), and cannot even hope to read a simple Chinese novel or newspaper. I've heard anecdotally that doing so requires working knowledge of about 10,000 characters.