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Zuckerberg bombshell: Man married to Chinese woman speaks Chinese in China

Oh stop the world, we want to get off

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg shocked a Chinese audience with his mastery of Mandarin – a language that's as difficult to master as his website's privacy settings.

The advertising kingpin was speaking at Tsinghua University in China, where he stunned attendees by ditching English and speaking in Mandarin for more than half an hour.

In a video posted to his Facebook page, Zuck appeared to be less awkward in Mandarin than he is English, apparently cracking jokes and playing the crowd.

Hard to believe, we know, because speakers of Ingerlish are more used to seeing Zuck-all charisma from the Facebook chief.

In a Facebook post, Zuck said: "We discussed connecting the world, Internet.org, innovation and the early days of Facebook.

"Tsinghua is an amazing center of learning and research, and it has been inspiring to be with so many talented future Chinese leaders."

He has been learning Mandarin for several years now, although this is probably down to his need for marital harmony than a desire to dominate the Chinese market.

"My wife [Priscilla Chan] is Chinese," Zuck said. "Her family speaks Chinese, and her grandmother only speaks Chinese. When Priscilla and I decided to get married, I told her grandmother using Chinese. She was really shocked.”

He praised Xiaomi as an "innovative" company and had this advice for anyone seeking to become a digital mogul:

“Most innovators will give up, but the best innovators do not. So believe in your mission. Don’t give up. This is very important.”

So, kids, keep on learning those verb conjugations and one day you will be as rich and charismatic as Zuckerberg. And yes, you'll definitely want to be one of those things. ®

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