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Mark Zuckerberg Answers Q&A in Mandarin at Chinese University

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Re: Mark Zuckerberg Answers Q&A in Mandarin at Chinese University

#91

Post by seanmcdirmid »

philsnow wrote: post #37
thoughtpalette wrote: post #5

Regardless of his technical achievements, learning a second language ( and such disconnected one ) is super impressive. Great job.

Chinese is actually much more similar to English (structurally) than a lot of people realize: It doesn't mark case or gender like English (and it doesn't even really inflect verbs). The word order is for the most part the same or similar (German has this verb-at-the-end construction that you not only have to learn, but you have to train somewhat to remember enough context to bind the verbs to the clauses they apply t…

Chinese is basically English grammar with different words...Japanese on the other hand is much more weird. Getting tones right is key, but they are easy to practice.

Writing is quite hard; I'm conversational but basically illiterate.

Re: Mark Zuckerberg Answers Q&A in Mandarin at Chinese University

#92

Post by seanmcdirmid »

coupdejarnac wrote: post #29
0x0 wrote: post #11

Is Facebook blocked in China these days? It used to be. Must be weird to be there representing a blocked company.

Facebook is not uniformly blocked everywhere in China. I have friends in different regions of China occasionally gain access. As for Zuckerberg's Mandarin, well done, but he needs to work on his accent and tones.

Facebook is pretty uniformly blocked in China. I've never encountered a network where I could access it outside of using a VPN.

Re: Mark Zuckerberg Answers Q&A in Mandarin at Chinese University

#93

Post by kyllo »

Pxtl wrote: post #76
therealdrag0 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Except for accents. Picking up a language as a child is virtually the only way to really nail the accent.

For most people this is probably true, but I started learning Mandarin in college and now have a native-sounding accent, and I know others who have pulled it off too.

I think the key was that in the first few months of studying Mandarin, I listened to recordings of short phrases and repeated them back over and over again until I sounded exactly like the recording. I spent hours in my university's language lab with headphones on, doing this.

But you have to be able to imitate sounds that you hear, and I guess not everyone is naturally good at this. I'd imagine that people who are good at doing impressions, as well as perhaps people with musical talent, have an advantage at learning accents.

Re: Mark Zuckerberg Answers Q&A in Mandarin at Chinese University

#94

Post by kyllo »

pgrote wrote: post #24
mastermojo wrote: post #17

his 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?

Make some Chinese friends and speak only Chinese with them. Really listen to them and try to say the words and phrases the way they say them.

You have to socialize in the language, that's really the only way to learn it.

Re: Mark Zuckerberg Answers Q&A in Mandarin at Chinese University

#95

Post by justicezyx »

hawkice wrote: post #42
Dewie wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't speaking relevant foreign languages considered a plus in business settings? That seems to be the layman perception, at least.

I've been told by Americans doing business in China that, even if you have pretty good Chinese, you don't have good business Chinese unless you specifically know that you do. So you'll get a translator anyway. Understanding the culture is important to understanding the product you provide, if it's at all different, so that can be pretty important.

You are closer to understand culture knowing their languages...

Re: Mark Zuckerberg Answers Q&A in Mandarin at Chinese University

#96

Post by kyllo »

rmason wrote: post #2

Guess the self study has gone well. It appears that he struggles at times but never reverts to English. Betting this video will be widely shared in China.

Yes, in China people really tend to appreciate any effort you make at learning their language. You don't have to be fluent to be appreciated for trying. This will go a long way in endearing him to the Chinese people.

Re: Mark Zuckerberg Answers Q&A in Mandarin at Chinese University

#97

Post by puredemo »

mandeepj wrote: post #85
talltofu wrote: post #31

Highly impressed. I used to brush him off as just another wunderkind who got lucky. In retrospect, his business acumen, especially when acquiring Instagram for a then pricely sum of a billion dollars has made me realize that he truly is special.

Not just instagram. We should not forget to mention Whatsapp, internet via drones and Oculus

Whats App was a huge mistake though. That data is not worth Billions.

Re: Mark Zuckerberg Answers Q&A in Mandarin at Chinese University

#98

Post by adventured »

coupdejarnac wrote: post #29
0x0 wrote: post #11

Is Facebook blocked in China these days? It used to be. Must be weird to be there representing a blocked company.

Facebook is not uniformly blocked everywhere in China. I have friends in different regions of China occasionally gain access. As for Zuckerberg's Mandarin, well done, but he needs to work on his accent and tones.

It's the official position of the Chinese Government that Facebook is not allowed in mainland China. That is plainly the case, and has been for many years.

Re: Mark Zuckerberg Answers Q&A in Mandarin at Chinese University

#99

Post by nether »

adwf wrote: post #81
ezequiel-garzon wrote: post #33

Even if Zuckerberg's main motivation was to learn his wife's language, I believe this will effectively raise the bar for CEOs in the years ahead. I wouldn't be surprised if this seemingly unnecessary skill could signify new business opportunities for large corporations.

It's quite similar to businessmen in the '80s learning Japanese. If you do a lot of business within a country, you are somewhat disadvantaged if you have to rely on a translator.

J. Paul Getty learned arabic to help his oil deals...

Re: Mark Zuckerberg Answers Q&A in Mandarin at Chinese University

#100

Post by justicezyx »

xiaomai wrote: post #56
jamesdutc wrote: post #41

I 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.

I dont deem that "pretty awful". The meaning is accurately expressed. I am not sure if there is a rehearsal, but the effect is pretty impressive.
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