Story highlights
Mark Zuckerberg makes headlines for addressing China event in Chinese
Many made fun of him, but others admired the attempt
Facebook's founder is one of many native English speakers who can talk in another tongue
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg already owns a good chunk of the Internet, but on Wednesday he won it as well when he spoke Chinese to an audience at a Beijing university.
Media, including CNN stablemate CNNMoney, lit up – sometimes snarkily.
“Mark Zuckerberg addresses Chinese university in fluent mandarin,” the UK Guardian observed.
“Zuckerberg’s Chinese speech gets mixed reviews,” sniffed the BBC.
“Zuckerberg, in all-Chinese Q&A, says Facebook has ’11 mobile users’,” headlined CNNMoney.
Some commenters ripped into Zuckerberg. Others admired the fact that he’s been learning a complex language while most of us are snoozing in front of YouTube.
Zuckerberg is far from the only well-known person to speak multiple languages. Certainly performers born in non-English-speaking countries have often found it necessary to learn English to make it in America. But there are also plenty of Americans (and Brits!) who have versed themselves in other tongues.
Check out the gallery for some examples.