Are you too busy to learn?

Mark Zuckerberg, CEO and Founder of Facebook, recently wowed the crowd at Beijing's prestigious Tsinghua University by speaking in Mandarin Chinese. The amazed students expected that he would start with some pleasantries in Chinese and switch over to English. They gasped and applauded, while Zuckerberg continued speaking in Mandarin for the complete 30 minutes question and answer session. Many wondered how Zuckerberg could get time to learn this difficult language despite his extremely hectic schedule. The irony is that, while many celebrities and successful people can manage time for learning and personal development, the majority of the working people think that they are too busy for it. So we should not find excuses not to learn a new foreign language. Keep it up, folks!

Well, an interesting thing is that Mark Zuckerberg's wife is Chinese. She speaks English, Spanish and Cantonese. Having a wife and inlaws (recently immigrated) who speak Chinese is a big motivator. Yes, I know Cantonese is not the same language as Mandarin, but most people from China who speak a local dialect, such as Cantonese, also speak Mandarin. One funny thing about being busy is that you get really good and finding time to do things. I find that when I am not busy, I don't have as much time. It's a paradox of sorts.

I think it's also a matter of priorities. It's 7 in the evening. I could be watching TV or reading a book or spending time with friends right now, but I'm working on Mandarin instead. We all have the same amount of time each day; it's how we choose to use it. Other than choosing to use our time for study, it's persistence, I think, that will help us most.

interesting, being busy is not an excuse you can learn by only 15 min a day is good enough i guess - if u just keep it up. and also its all about motivation and know the right method to learn

My regular schedule these days rarely results with me getting the ideal amount of sleep, but I'm still finding a lot of time to study Chinese. Since I have the Rocket Chinese app it's super easy, I listen to the lessons in the car, while I'm shopping, while I'm on lunch break at work. Since I work an office job, instead of absent-mindedly doodling when my attention wanes, I practice writing a little Chinese. In a couple weeks I was able to recognize over 100 characters just because I was "doodling" characters, though I'm still working on being able to proficiently identify every single one. If I'm driving or getting groceries or cooking, I can't exactly actively study the material (I can't read/write while doing something else), but with a language like Chinese, hearing the correct pronunciations over and over really help, especially since the sounds get "recycled" a lot. It takes longer to feel completely comfortable with a lesson if I can't sit down and read through the dialogues and dissect what's going on, but I'm still getting over 30 minutes a day of language exposure without even setting aside any extra time. On a good day I can spend time at home working on the material instead of doing other things (as mentioned before: priorities). I think starting a language can be scary/frustrating/discouraging for people because it's like "wow, I know nothing, it's going to take forever to learn to say anything intelligibly," and only try enough to realize that learning a language does require some level of commitment ("use it or lose it"), but not long enough to realize that learning it is within their reach. I think first you have to want it enough and second not give up right away.

Great thread. I'm working full time and have two young kids and constantly feel like I'm not putting enough time in. But it's the idea of doing it every day that keeps me motivated - and hearing everyone elses stories!