Yes Zuckerberg 会讲普通话 - so what?

One of the posts that have gone totally viral on social media is the video of Mark Zuckerberg speaking Mandarin at an event in Tsinghua/Qinghua University recently. At the beginning of the video, good grief, the audience seemed to applaud or laugh (usually at the same time) every time Zuckerberg spoke in Mandarin. And I'm like, okay he speaks Mandarin, I get it, maybe you'd applaud the first time but why the subsequent few times? Duh.  In Zuckerberg's case, okay, he has a pretty impressive command of Chinese: his grammar is good, his vocabulary is impressive and of course, the only problem is that his accent is very strong. As an American, he cannot hear the tones of Mandarin and he also struggles with the many consonant sounds that do not exist in English. Still, his Mandarin is pretty darn good.

This is what irks me: Chinese people fall over themselves the moment a white person speaks Mandarin, even if it is only the basics. Come on people. Oh please. Do white people fall over themselves congratulating Chinese people if we speak English well? Heck, the last time someone tried to do that, I got sarcastic and replied, "thank you, yours isn't too bad either." I guess a lot of it has got to do with our attitude - I would get offended if a white person dared to congratulate me on how well I speak English. I would lash out at them, telling them that English is my first language and that I speak better English than most English people: a fact which is completely true - given that I am British and am more highly educated than the vast majority of my fellow Brits.

There's also the history of colonialism - when the British came to South East Asia, the got the natives to speak English, rather than the other way around. Just look at the way much of Africa is either French or English speaking today (how convenient for us as tourists today), whilst the vast majority of white people in France or England today would not be able to speak an African language from these former colonies. Thus Africans and Asians have always been expected to learn the white man's language and never the other way around - that is why Zuckerberg's Chinese skills have left many astonished. There is definitely an asymmetry in the expectations here - we really need to challenge that.

Yes Zuckerberg can speak Mandarin confidently. 

But isn't it time we dropped this colonial mindset? I don't mean to pour cold water on Zuckerberg's achievements - as a linguist and someone who is passionate about learning foreign languages, I love the fact that Zuckerberg's video has gone viral. It will hopefully inspire others to learn a foreign language, any foreign language, not just Chinese. But can we at least stop applauding like that each time a white person speaks some Chinese? It is getting annoying. After all, there are many reasons why a white person would want to learn a foreign language like Chinese - it can prove to be very useful in business. We should all aim to learn a few foreign languages!

Part of the problem stems from the fact that too many people are monolingual - or at least they are not effectively bilingual. Many Singaporeans may claim to be bilingual, but how many of them are effectively bilingual? How many of you can write a press release or handle a press conference in Mandarin, Malay or Tamil? That is why you are so stunned when you see someone effectively conquer a foreign language. Now I have traveled around many countries where people are a lot more multilingual - take somewhere like Finland for example, where most people speak at least 3 languages (Finnish, Swedish and English). Or Estonia, where most people speak 4 languages (Estonian, Finnish, Russian and English.) And then there are the Swiss who speak 3 or 4 languages (French, German, English and sometimes Italian). I could go on - but these people would look at the video of Zuckerberg speaking Mandarin and simple say, "oh look, he's learnt some Chinese, good for him". They may be somewhat impressed, but only just.

We have to stop treating white people who speak Chinese like some kind of circus act - look, speaking Chinese is a very useful skill in business, it is not a party trick or a circus act and we should respond accordingly: offer modest encouragement and approval, but not applaud wildly as if it was the finale of a Cirque du Soleil show. When I do meet a non-Chinese person who does speak Mandarin, I am naturally interested and curious. So I would ask questions like, "how long have you been learning Mandarin? Why did you learn Mandarin? How did you learn it? What is your motivation to study Chinese? Have you many opportunities to use your Mandarin? What is the hardest aspect of learning Mandarin?" With these questions, I could then have a meaningful conversation with this person (in English or Mandarin, if they prefer). However, I would avoid the phrase, "your Chinese is very good", well, not unless I was genuinely impressed. I reserve my praise for people who are praise worthy, I don't dish them out to be 'encouraging.'

So there you go, Good for Zuckerberg for learning Mandarin, but please, there are thousands of business people in multilingual countries like Switzerland, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Finland, Belgium and even Malaysia who speak several languages everyday without even batting an eyelid or apologizing that "我的中文很糟糕" (my Chinese is terrible). Languages are a great tool in the world of business, but please do not treat them like some kind of circus skills worthy of applause. Well, not unless you're capable of speaking something like 20 languages and you can switch from language to language without missing a beat, like me. Oh okay, go on then. Here's this famous video again.