[ghshephard]

The vast, vast majority of employees working for American companies, even in an international deployment, don't tend to learn more than a few dozen catch phrases (Hello, Good Bye, How are you doing, where is the toilet, take me to the airport, etc...) for the country they are deployed to - they just hope everyone will speak english to them.

I'm wondering if Mark is the first Fortune 500 CEO to ever learn a different language while working as a CEO? I'm almost certain he's the first American CEO of a fortune 500 to learn mandarin while working as a CEO.

[Argorak]

I'm sorry that I don't share a US-centric world view, being from somewhere else. "all US minds blown", I cannot judge. But I also wouldn't be surprised if there are others learning languages during being a CEO - it's a good mental training and can be practiced almost everywhere just with some notes and a smartphone. It's just nothing you often practice or speak about in public.

For the people I know moving to different countries, learning the local language is usual.

All my foreign employees are by the way contractually obliged to learn my local tongue (on our cost and time, obviously).

[peterfirefly]

I wonder how good Carlos Ghosn's Japanese is? He seems to have studied it.