Is Mark Zuckerberg still studying Chinese?

[alantin]

Having lived in an intercultural marriage for almost ten years now, my take on this is that I can't really understand couples who don't learn each others languages to at least some level. We both languages all the time and sometimes even mix them up. Sometimes it's more mine and someone it's more hers, but "actively refusing to speak your native language to your spouse"? Why on earth would someone do that?

 

My wife tells me that in the beginning she strained to speak the standard Japanese to me expecting me not to understand her dialect, but later she slipped with it, I picked her dialect up, and now the Japanese she speaks to me is 100% dialect. It is actually a big relief for her, living in a foreign country and using a foreign language every day everywhere else, to be able to relax and just speak what ever at home. The same goes for me too. It does make a relationship easier when you both speak each other's languages.

 

It is not language partnering or teaching, but instead if you live with someone and talk to them every day, I can't see how you could not become at-least basic everyday conversational in your partners language, if you put any effort into learning it.

 

By the way, on topic; It seems to me that Mark really likes the second tone...

[suMMit]

I was sitting with my wife(chinese) tonight having a beer and there was a Chinese woman behind us speaking English to a westerner. Her accent/intonation was quite poor. I said to my wife "说中文的时候应该是我的发音跟她说英文一样“（When I speak chinese I suppose I sound like her when she's speaking English). To which my wife immediately replied "你的中文发音比她的英文发音好很多“（your chinese pronunciation is much better than her English pronunciation). I'm not trying to compete with that woman or anything, but this kind of encouragement, and said in Chinese is for sure helpful to me. She has also on other occasions told me me things like (when I was sending an audio message) "Go a little faster and don't worry about geeting every single word right". But, I never ask her Grammar/vocabulary/pronunciation questions,  because as others have mentioned, as a wife she is not there to be my teacher. I have a paid teacher for those questions. But, It took me 2+ years of hard work to where I could really speak any Chinese of any significance or usefulness with her, but now she's more receptive than ever. Lately she often starts conversations or asks me this and that using Chinese rather than just me initiating. She also loves it that I can talk to her family now. Sometimes her mom calls about something and she asks me to talk to her because she doesn't feel like getting on the phone with her. Best of all, we are beginning to regularly have a laugh about things in Chinese. It would be pretty tough going if a wife/girlfriend/husband/boyfriend didn't offer this kind of support.

 

Mark Z's wife didn't really sound any better than him. He could hire the best teachers that money could buy, who could surely work with him to get him to speak Chinese in a less "American" sounding way, I wonder why he doesn't.

[alantin]

@suMMit, the complements I get are that I sound native, with intonation stress and everything spot on, when we argue, but more like a foreigner when speaking polite Japanese with strangers.

 

Well, I guess you get good at what you practice. ?

[abcdefg]

1 hour ago, suMMit said:

He could hire the best teachers that money could buy, who could surely work with him to get him to speak Chinese in a less "American" sounding way, I wonder why he doesn't.

 

Maybe he has done that and improved a whole lot. That was my original question when starting this thread. Nobody has been able to find any audio or video of him actually speaking Mandarin since 2015. Maybe today, six years later, he talks like Da Shan. 

[NanJingDongLu]

Maybe Mark feels that some things don't need to be shared on the internet and that's why he's gone quiet on the Chinese. I'm sure everyone having a right to privacy is a big priority for Mr Zuckerberg.

[abcdefg]

Yes, of course, that makes sense. It's also quite possible that his priorities have shifted now that it has become abundantly clear Mr. Xi is not interested in being courted.

[mungouk]

22 hours ago, NanJingDongLu said:

Maybe Mark feels that some things don't need to be shared on the internet and that's why he's gone quiet on the Chinese. I'm sure everyone having a right to privacy is a big priority for Mr Zuckerberg.

 

I was assuming this was the most sarcastic comment I'd read on the whole Internet today, but then maybe sarcasm isn't so easily convertible between cultures... ?

 

[alantin]

1 hour ago, mungouk said:

I was assuming this was the most sarcastic comment I'd read on the whole Internet today, but then maybe sarcasm isn't so easily convertible between cultures... ?

 

I'm sure you misread the intent. I'm sure everyone here has the utmost confidence in Mark's quest for privacy for all.

[Flickserve]

On 5/29/2021 at 11:21 PM, suMMit said:

Mark Z's wife didn't really sound any better than him. He could hire the best teachers that money could buy, who could surely work with him to get him to speak Chinese in a less "American" sounding way, I wonder why he doesn't.

if she speaks mandarin, she certainly wouldn’t be native using it.