Shall we talk, shall we talk bilingually? (Cherry MAK)

Hi everyone, it's me again!

Guess what, as usual, I'm going to share some bilingual stuff with you all:)

Different from what I posted before, today we are going to look at 

"foreigners speak in foreign language."

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Firstly, I would like to share a clip which is about Mark Zuckerberg speaking Putonghua during his visit to Tsinghua University.

Here's the video...

Isn't it awesome that Mark Zuckerberg can speak Chinese? 

(Although he speaks with lisp sometimes...Haha//

and if you cannot catch up what he said, a brief script is provided below)

Mark Zuckerberg ：大家好，我是 Zuckerberg。我的中文很糟糕，但是我天天都會用。我覺得自己還需要練習。

主持人：大家對於你能說中文非常吃驚，你為什麼要學習中文？

Mark Zuckerberg ：第一，我太太是中國人。她在家說中文，她的奶奶只說中文。我想要跟她們說話。
幾年前我和太太決定結婚。我要求她教我中文，她非常吃驚。第二，中國是偉大的國家，所以我想學。第三，普通話很難，我一直說英文，但我喜歡挑戰。

主持人：那要不今晚我們就挑戰一下吧。您來了中國幾次？

Mark Zuckerberg ：四次。我去過北京、上海、杭州和天津。我在北京的時候，我要坐很快的火車（即高鐵），我想去天津看看霍元甲的家鄉。我喜歡這個電影，所以我要去看看。

主持人：原來你是霍元甲的大粉絲，所以要去霍元甲的家鄉看看。那你最喜歡哪個城市？

Mark Zuckerberg ：我最喜歡北京。

主持人：那你來中國有什麼計劃？

Mark Zuckerberg ：這星期我參加了清華經管顧問委員會，我來參加委員會的會議。我覺得清華的學生很好。明年我們將在中國展開招募。我們上個月招募了 20 位中國學生。

主持人：為什麼你要參加清華經管顧問委員會？

Mark Zuckerberg ：首先我要感謝錢院長。我非常關心教育，我在美國做了很多支持教育的事情。我希望參加清華經管委員會能為我提供一個好機會，學習和支持中國的教育。

主持人：這個月你去了好幾個國家，您的行程是怎麼安排的？

Mark Zuckerberg ：這個月我去了印度、印尼、韓國和日本。我們想要更多人用網路。

主持人：你強調了要聯繫世界。從什麼時候有這個想法的？

Mark Zuckerberg ：2004 年的時候，我想要聯繫整個哈佛的人。其實我一直想要聯繫整個世界的人。當我創立了 FACEBOOK 後，我們很高興幫助學生聯繫世界。其他公司不相信我們可以做到，但我們相信，我們現在有了 13 億用戶。

主持人：這裡有很多同學想成立公司，你有什麼建議呢？

Mark Zuckerberg ：我覺得最好的公司，不是因為創辦人想要成立公司，而是因為創辦人想要改變世界。如果你只是想要成立公司，你會有很多想法，但不知道哪個想法最好，最後影響公司的發展。但反過來，如果你想要改變世界，有了很好的想法才去創業，這樣你才會成立好的公司。

主持人：在創業的過程中，你的成功秘訣是什麼？

Mark Zuckerberg ：我覺得最重要的是不能放棄。另外，你可能還需要做很艱難的決定，比如解僱一些員工。放棄是很容易的，大部分都會放棄，最後堅持下來的是少數人

主持人：你對中國的創新有什麼想法？

Mark Zuckerberg ：我覺得中國有很多最創新的公司。我昨天晚上跟小米的雷軍吃過飯。小米是非常誠信的公司，很快發展，他們有很好的產品，他們很便宜。我覺得小米會發展很快。另外，騰訊的微信也很大，部分中國人用微信和 QQ。淘寶創造工作機會。我覺得中國人有很多創新的公司。

主持人：馬克對中國創新還是很有好感的。你對 Facebook 在中國計劃是什麼？

Mark Zuckerberg ：我們已經在中國了，我們幫助中國公司成長國外客戶，中國公司用 Facebook 廣告 （連接世界），lenovo 已經在印尼用我們的廣告賣新的手機。另外，我們想要幫助世界其他國家去連接中國。杭州和青島也有 facebook 頁面。我們和城市合作發展頁面，分享中國文化。

主持人：問些個人問題，生活細節，你喜歡什麼顏色？

Mark Zuckerberg ：我喜歡紅色或綠色，因為 facebook 是藍色。

主持人：你喜歡什麼中國菜？

Mark Zuckerberg ：我在北京喜歡胡同小吃但也喜歡北京烤鴨

主持人：那你在工作之外有什麼活動？

(Credit to: OCobsession)

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I got a question, 

why Mark Zuckerberg had to use Mandarin in his speech instead of using English?

Many netizens deduced the reason for him to speak in Mandarin was that he wanted to impress the Chinese and Chinese government, so that the ban on Facebook could therefore be removed.

Do you have similar thinking with the above?

I would not comment on this, but I just want to tell you that people who can speak more than one language really benefit more than those who can't.

To a certain extent, bilingualism is not simply a kind of abilities, but also a kind of strategies. 

Don't you think so? :p

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Due to the rise of Chinese's position in the world, Chinese culture is getting prominent these day.

Have you ever heard about the saying, 

"It is better to travel ten thousand miles than to read ten thousand books" ?

It is a very famous Chinese saying and do you know who applied this saying in her speech?

Here is another clip I want to share.

I bet you know who is her, right?

Even if you don't know, you can find her name from the title of this vid^^

In 3:49, Michelle Obama quoted the saying.

Although she didn't expressed it in Chinese,

 the intention for her to cite this sentence is quite explicit... 

(Watch the whole video and you'll understand what I mean~)

**HIGHLIGHT: Last but not least, she said "XIE XIE" fluently :)

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Indeed, foreign celebrities or government officials speak Chinese is not surprising at all.

A few years ago, Hilary Clinton and Timothy Geithner already used Chinese expression and spoke Chinese respectively during the period of U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue.

 Below are some links that can help you to dig into the issue.

美高官见了中国人必说成语

开幕式美国官员大秀中文 期待双方“风雨同舟”

中美戰略對話 蓋特納大秀中文

(Since the sources I found mostly in Chinese, 

I'm sorry that if you cannot understand the content of the above links)

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Except the case of Mark Zuckerberg, typical bilingual practices are found from the other two cases.

They tried to use a little bit "they code" in their speech to deliver the main idea. Sometimes we may underestimate the effect of minimal or token bilingualism and treat it as gimmick. However, this approach played a very important role in the above two case. For the former, by using the Chinese expression and "XIE XIE" in her speech, Michelle Obama reinforced the importance for American young people going to China which is one of the purposes of her speech and appealed both the Chinese and American audience. For the latter, the application of bilingualism was the highlight of the event which aroused the attention of the general public toward this dialogue.

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In my opinion, it is very difficult for an individual to master two languages or more.

But I think it will be easier if you can switch between languages which do not require you to be good at those languages. When you are talking, just use the one that you think you can convince the others. And by doing so, conversation can become more interesting and sometime you'll get some unexpected reward. (?!) 

Well, anyway, it is prevalent to talk bilingually.

(Mark Zuckerberg have to speak English with his grandma but Chinese with his wife's grandma and both Chinese and English with his wife..................haha)

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"Am I too simple and sometimes naive to think like that?"

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CHECK OUT STH INTERESTING...

How presidents TALK BILINGUALLY:

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That's all for today.

Thank you for your time!!!!!

Cherry Mak ;D