New | From Zuckerberg's Chinese to Lei Jun's English: tech leaders busy learning foreign languages

Tech industry leaders from Silicon Valley to Beijing have at least one shared hobby – learning a foreign language as soon as possible – whether it be Putonghua for Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg or English for Xiaomi’s Lei Jun.

In China, many tech industry leaders have strong academic backgrounds in computer science but their communication skills may not be as good as their coding, in particularly when they have to speak on the world stage. As Chinese companies increasingly look towards overseas expansion, engagement with global customers has become a must-do thing for many top executives.

Those Chinese tech bosses who do speak fluent English often attract more recognition and exposure in the West than some of their peers. For example, Jack Ma Yun, co-founder and and chairman of Alibaba, China’s top e-commerce firm, is widely recognised as a great public speaker on the world stage. Ma began his career as an English teacher and realised how important English is as a global language way ahead of many of his peers.

Other examples include Sohu’s Charles Zhang Chaoyang and Baidu’s Robin Li Yanhong. Both were educated in the United States before they returned to China to start their respective companies. Baidu’s Li frequently appears on mainstream US media, especially during the firm's earnings season. It might be an easy thing for Li to speak English fluently, given his US educational background, but a very difficult mission for other industry peers.

"India Mi fans, I am very happy to be in China, to be in India," Lei said, stumbling over his words slightly before announcing that all those in attendance would receive a free Mi Band fitness tracker.