I think it is also worth nothing that Zuckerberg is (perhaps was?) quite talented at Latin and nearly went on to study Classics at Harvard.
Mark Zuckerberg Answers Q&A in Mandarin at Chinese University
61–70 of 188 posts
Re: Mark Zuckerberg Answers Q&A in Mandarin at Chinese University
#62Kudos.
It's very impressive
Re: Mark Zuckerberg Answers Q&A in Mandarin at Chinese University
#63I'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.
I remember reading that he was spending an hour a night on this years ago. (I wish I could remember more) but the key being "years" sticks in my mind, yeah.
Re: Mark Zuckerberg Answers Q&A in Mandarin at Chinese University
#64Would someone please translate the jokes?
Comedy is all about the delivery.
Re: Mark Zuckerberg Answers Q&A in Mandarin at Chinese University
#65I 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…
It's interesting sometimes it's harder to go from language A -> B than B -> A.
If you're born Japanese then you lost the language lottery. Japanese has a limited set of sounds and there are very few close languages grammatically; Korean being the major one. So even the global language, English, is a massive challenge. It's easier for a Chinese person to learn Japanese than the other way round. (Japanese speakers at least have a big leg up on reading Chinese)
I wonder if it's easier to go from Chinese to English, they certainly have more sounds/tones an English speaker will have never spoken. In reality, major different is probably a power difference, it's a lot more useful to know English than it is to know Mandarin in the general case. (If a Chinese student goes to France they'll be using English)
Re: Mark Zuckerberg Answers Q&A in Mandarin at Chinese University
#66Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 t…
I think you underestimate how much time and effort it takes to run a large company. No matter who you are, learning a language takes years of effort and dedication. I probably have 100 times as much free time as he does and would love to learn to speak Chinese, yet I haven't pushed myself to fulfill this achievement. The fact that he has such little free time but still chooses to use it productively is inspiring to me.
Re: Mark Zuckerberg Answers Q&A in Mandarin at Chinese University
#67Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 t…
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Re: Mark Zuckerberg Answers Q&A in Mandarin at Chinese University
#68I 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.
The gimmick is not in his motivation for learning. It's in how this is presented and contextualised.
For further comparison, Kevin Rudd's Chinese-language interview for Mandarin News Australia (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bro4mkb_VKc) and then-Taipei-mayor Ma Ying-jeou's English-language interview for Council on Foreign Relations (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80GysZ3sldM#t=10m). Both Kevin Rudd and Ma Ying-jeou display fluency and mastery of foreign language.
Even Kevin Rudd has to engage in the same ritual formalities: the denial that his 普通話得實在是太好的. (馬英九 is never subject to this.)
Thankfully, Rudd's interview moves past this, and we never have to hear him answer 你喜歡什麼中國菜? or 在工作之外你會有什麼活動?
Re: Mark Zuckerberg Answers Q&A in Mandarin at Chinese University
#69Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
It's interesting sometimes it's harder to go from language A -> B than B -> A. If you're born Japanese then you lost the language lottery. Japanese has a limited set of sounds and there are very few close languages grammatically; Korean being the major one. So even the global language, English, is a massive challenge. It's easier for a Chinese person to learn Japanese than the other way round. (Japanese speakers at l…
Interestingly, in the video linked above, I think the Japanese panelist is one of the more natural speakers.
Re: Mark Zuckerberg Answers Q&A in Mandarin at Chinese University
#70Earlier quoted context omitted.
> learning a second language [...] is super impressive. Perhaps as an adult. But if you do it as a kid in school, then almost everyone can pick up a language or two.
Per hour, adults are more efficient at learning languages. But kids forced into another language typically get more hours of exposure than adults attempting to force themselves to learn a language.
Do you have anything cite for this claim? All the research I'm aware of strongly suggests (1) It's extremely hard for adults to learn new languages - usually requiring many more hours compared to kids learning second language (2) Brain circuitry to hear, distinguish and pronounce new sounds effectively gets shutdown in older age.