Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg Delivers a New Year’s Message
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Stephen Lam/Getty Images(PALO ALTO, Calif.) — Say what you want about his accent, but Mark Zuckerberg’s Mandarin lessons are clearly paying off.
The Facebook CEO, who charmed a crowd in China last October by speaking in their native language, released a video Thursday in Mandarin wishing his followers a Happy Lunar New Year.
“This is a moment of renewal and celebration each year. I hope you have a wonderful time surrounded by friends and family, and I hope that the Year of the Sheep brings you health and happiness,” Zuckerberg wrote in English below the video, which has garnered nearly 2 million views and more than 123,000 likes since it was posted Thursday morning.
The 30-year-old billionaire has been busy running his company and learning Mandarin, something he chose as his “personal challenge” in 2010. Zuckerberg said one reason why he wanted to learn the language was so he could communicate with some of his wife’s relatives.
Zuckerberg’s dedication to learning the language caught the attention of Bill Gates, who said in a Reddit “Ask Me Anything” last month that he feels “pretty stupid that I don’t know any foreign languages.”
“I took Latin and Greek in high school and got A’s and I guess it helps my vocabulary but I wish I knew French or Arabic or Chinese,” he said.
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