By: Jasneel Chaddha
Journal Entry from 11/30/15
China. The world's most prosperous economy right now. Its no surprise that Mark Zuckerberg, a businessman, wants to expand his brand and product in a nation like China. Any smart businessman would do the same thing. The only problem is the severe language barrier. Unlike most countries, China does not require its students to study English. Rather, it is offered as an optional course at schools and universities across the country. Zuckerberg knew that in order to be taken seriously among the other business giants in China, he would need to impress them with more than just his product. He needed to impress them with his knowledge, however limited, of the Chinese language. I think its ironic that Zuckerberg has tried so hard to expand to China when his product, Facebook, is blocked across the entire country. Trust me, I know; I went to China for 3 weeks a few summers ago and was Facebook deprived for the entire duration of the trip. Perhaps he sees a future where it won't be blocked. If that happens, however, it will complicate matters for Facebook; China already has numerous social media sites that have millions of users. It will be tough to convince Chinese cities to switch over to Facebook. But I also respect Mark a lot for taking the initiative to learn Chinese, despite his insanely busy schedule. I know how hard it is to learn Chinese; I took it as my foreign language all through high school, and plan to continue studying it here at NYU. It takes a lot of time to master, and he's already pretty good. It is also validation for me that I understood what he said without the subtitles. I guess I did learn something after four and a half years of taking the language. Remains to be seen if Facebook will ever be unblocked in China, but Zuckerberg sure does have quite a few talents. I guess being married to a Chinese woman left him no choice, right?!
Journal Entry from 11/30/15
China. The world's most prosperous economy right now. Its no surprise that Mark Zuckerberg, a businessman, wants to expand his brand and product in a nation like China. Any smart businessman would do the same thing. The only problem is the severe language barrier. Unlike most countries, China does not require its students to study English. Rather, it is offered as an optional course at schools and universities across the country. Zuckerberg knew that in order to be taken seriously among the other business giants in China, he would need to impress them with more than just his product. He needed to impress them with his knowledge, however limited, of the Chinese language. I think its ironic that Zuckerberg has tried so hard to expand to China when his product, Facebook, is blocked across the entire country. Trust me, I know; I went to China for 3 weeks a few summers ago and was Facebook deprived for the entire duration of the trip. Perhaps he sees a future where it won't be blocked. If that happens, however, it will complicate matters for Facebook; China already has numerous social media sites that have millions of users. It will be tough to convince Chinese cities to switch over to Facebook. But I also respect Mark a lot for taking the initiative to learn Chinese, despite his insanely busy schedule. I know how hard it is to learn Chinese; I took it as my foreign language all through high school, and plan to continue studying it here at NYU. It takes a lot of time to master, and he's already pretty good. It is also validation for me that I understood what he said without the subtitles. I guess I did learn something after four and a half years of taking the language. Remains to be seen if Facebook will ever be unblocked in China, but Zuckerberg sure does have quite a few talents. I guess being married to a Chinese woman left him no choice, right?!
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