Are You OK? Lei Jun's epic Chinglish goes viral

Hello everyone. 大家好! I have stumbled upon a funny story that has gone viral this week: it is about a speech that Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun gave in New Delhi in epic Chinglish. For those of you who have yet to hear about this story, here it is in a nutshell: the CEO of Xiaomi (often referred to as China's Apple) Lei Jun tried to give a speech at an event in New Delhi in India. He decided to try to use English to address the audience, but he has a very strong accent and at times, seemed to struggle with the English language. At first I thought, okay Chinese guy struggling with English - most people from China barely speak any English at all. Having worked with people from China, I have come to expect them to struggle with English so what's new? Hence when I meet a Chinese person who speaks English fluently (like my former colleague Stephanie), I would assume that they had spent some time studying or working in the West.

But Lei Jun was mocked by Chinese netizens on social media, who had clearly expected the CEO of such a big company to be able to speak much better English. Some of them had been very scathing in their remarks (you can read some of their unkind criticisms here) and let's not beat around the bush here: Lei Jun's English was atrocious, it was not just a question of having a strong accent. I speak Mandarin and I still struggled to understand what the hell he was trying to say. I did wonder if it was a wise move for him to speak in English at the event - an alternative would have been for him to speak in Mandarin and have a colleague deliver an English translation of his speech. I am somewhat sympathetic to Lei Jun - I have worked in many countries and I know what it is like to have to work in a language that is not your first language. It is a struggle which I have had to cope with recently as I had worked on two German contracts last year which took me to Hamburg and Köln - now my German is okay but it certainly is not fluent. I probably struggled in German the same way Lei Jun struggled in English. I can empathize.

As you can see from the latest update of my showreel, I have content in 6 languages (English, German, Inuktitut, Slovakian, Mandarin and Welsh) - some of these languages I am fluent in, whilst I struggle in others. So yes, I know exactly how Lei Jun felt when he was on that stage, struggling in a language he barely spoke. I felt that if I was going to talk about Lei Jun's public speaking, then it would only be fair if I put my showreel up for you to judge me in return (and if Mr Lei or anyone else wishes to bitch about how bad my Mandarin is, then please do go right ahead).

So, allow me to offer you some advice if you find yourself in a position like Lei Jun and have to deliver a speech or presentation in a language you are not fluent in; or if you are a Singaporean with a strong accent and you're concerned about your English being understood by an audience of non-Singaporeans. Allow me to examine Lei Jun's speech and tell you some of the pitfalls you can avoid when doing a business presentation in another language.

1. Less is more: stand up, speak up, shut up.

Here's the first mistake that Lei Jun made - he prolonged his agony (and embarrassment) by speaking for 2 minutes 30 seconds, but he could have easily made the same points in under half a minute. The less time he spent speaking, the less likely he was to make silly mistakes like, "I am rary happy to be in China... to be in India!" But his big epic fail was when he kept asking the audience, "are you okay?" It almost felt like those were the few words in English he actually knew - the very enthusiastic audience in India didn't actually mind or care if they words came across as someone inappropriate, so he kept repeating that question to comedy effect. Let's look at the actual content of Lei Jun's 2.5 minute speech - here is the transcript of his recent speech in New Delhi which has well and truly gone viral.

Lei Jun made many mistakes during his speech.

"Hello, how are you? India Mi fans, I am rary happy to be in China... to be in India. Do you nike Mi 4i? Do you nike Mi Band? Okay. We have a gift for everyone. We will... okay, okay. We will give ah everyone a free Mi Band. Are you okay? Are you okay? Sank you, Sank you. We will give everyone a free Mi Band and one colour free strap. Colour strap.  Do you nike? Sank you, sank you. Sank you rare much."

Now here's the version in proper English: "Hello, how are you? India Mi fans, I am very happy to be in India. Do you like Mi 4i? Do you like Mi Band? We have a gift for everyone. We will give everyone a free Mi Band and a free colour strap. Thank you very much." Now I read that aloud and it took me 18 seconds and already, I was conscious not to speak too quickly. How did Lei Jun drag 18 seconds worth of content into a 2 minute 30 seconds speech? He repeated himself - that is something which nervous people do without even thinking about it. They get nervous and they forgot that they have already made that previous point and sometimes, they deliberately repeat themselves if they are not sure they were understood the first time. Lei Jun constantly mispronounces the word 'like' as 'nike' as in "do you nike Mi Band?" Either you would have figured it out from the context the first time he said it, or you're just going to be left confused by what the hell he is trying to say: actually repeating the word 'nike' isn't going to help you understand it.

Should Lei Jun have been speaking in Mandarin instead?

2. Either read from cue cards or use autocue 

If you are struggling to memorize a difficult script in another language, then spare yourself the memory challenge by having the script at hand. Either do it the old fashioned method by writing your speech out on cue cards or simply use an autocue. You don't even need one of them fancy autocue machines that they use in film studios, all you need is a laptop and there are plenty of free autocue programmes online for you to turn your laptop into an autocue machine. At times, Lei Jun struggled to remember his words and using cue cards or autocue would at least eliminate mistakes like that. As an actor, sometimes I have to deal with a brand new script that I have had no time to memorize or rehearse, that is when I have to resort to using autocues - it is such a life saver!

3. Rehearse your speech before delivering it. 

Okay, I realize the CEO of Xiaomi is a very busy man, but it doesn't take that long to rehearse a speech with your colleagues, but you will be amazed how important the rehearsal process is. It is a well known fact that major British politicians always rehearse their speeches before actually delivering them - they would do this with an audience of internal staff who would offer feedback like, "I know you're telling a joke at this point but don't laugh at your own joke - let the punchline do its job and it should be the audience laughing at this point, not you." Rehearsing your speech would also give you a lot more confidence to deliver a good performance before you get on that stage and face your audience, so always find even just a few minutes to rehearse your speech. You will be most grateful that you did!

Always rehearse your presentation and be well prepared

4. Do a double act - get a wingman.

If you have not had the time to prepare yourself to deliver a speech in a foreign language, then it may be safer to turn it into a double act with someone who is fluent in that language. That way, your colleague may be able to jump in and rescue you if make an error. So if I was Lei Jun's wingman, the moment he said, "do you nike Mi 4i?" I would ask the audience, "India Mi fans, do you like Mi 4i? Show me how much you like Xiaomi!" There is a great Chinese tradition of the double act known as crosstalk (相声) - so really, we are not reinventing the wheel here. Besides, it is far less scary to go on stage when you have your colleague standing next to you, ready to help you out if you get into trouble.

5. A preemtive apology to milk the goodwill

Oh I kept apologizing for how bad my German was when I was working in Germany and everyone was so incredibly nice - the more I apologized the more encouraging they were about how much progress I have made in German. Now I don't think my German is that bad, but simply the act of apologizing extracted so much goodwill from the people I was working with. No one ever turned around to say, "oh your German is atrocious."  If Lei Jun had simply said something cheesy like, "I'm sorry my English is not very good, if any of my Indian friends here today want to teach me some English, I would really appreciate it. 请多多指教!" After this act of self-deprecation, it would seem needlessly cruel to criticize the other person's English - one would almost automatically react with grace and kindness instead.

6. Deliver a bilingual speech.

This is an interesting approach adopted by German chancellor Angela Merkel when she gave a speech in the House of Commons in London in 2014: she started in English, switched to German and then switched back to English in the end. Could she have done the whole thing in English? Quite possibly, her English sounded very good (even though she was reading off a script) but she was clearly far more comfortable in her native German. In choosing to speak in German, she was able to sound most confident, articulate and eloquent in the most important parts of her speech and hence she avoided the risk of doing a Lei Jun - people remembered the content of her speech rather than the quality of her English. Nonetheless, she did make an attempt to deliver parts of her speech in English, thus establishing some rapport with her audience. It was a very clever and well-balanced formula. Thus by speaking some Mandarin, Lei Jun would have reminded everyone just what his mother tongue is and that English is in fact a foreign language for him. Many people have defended Lei Jun by asking his critics if they are capable of delivering a speech in a foreign language confidently. It doesn't hurt to remind people that you are in fact making a valiant effort in a foreign language.

Hence if I had been working for Xiaomi, I would have used all of the above to help Lei Jun. In fact Angel Merkel used four out of my six tips above: she read from a script before her, she had clearly rehearsed it, she apologized for switching to German and she delivered a bilingual speech. I would have applied all six of the above points to ensure that Lei Jun could have had a far less painful experience on stage - ultimately, you don't want people to remember your gaffes on stage: that is a distraction. After all, what did you think Lei Jun was doing in India in the first place?

The focus should have never been on the quality of Lei Jun's rather limited English (or should I say, Chinglish), the focus should have been on Xiaomi's excellent products (which are taking the Indian market by storm). Yes you can debate how how English is taught as a second language in China and how business executives need to learn some English to a decent standard to do business abroad, but at the end of the day, all that is ultimately a distraction because people are talking about Lei Jun's funny Chinglish instead of Xiaomi's Mi 4i phone. From a PR point of view, that is an epic fail - not because Lei Jun's English was bad, but simply because people are now talking about him rather than the product. Lei Jun wasn't taking an English oral exam - he was there to promote his products and we should never lose focus on the original purpose of his business mission in India.

So there you go, that's it from me on this topic. What have your experiences been when it comes to public speaking? Have you ever had to deliver a speech in your second language or in a foreign language? Have you ever heard someone struggle to deliver a speech in English? And what do you make of Lei Jun's speech in New Delhi? Please let me know what you think - thank you very much for reading. Or in the words of Lei Jun, "ssank you rare much!"