Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg recently surprised Chinese students when he spoke to them in Chinese.In a talk at Tsinghua University in Beijing, Zuckerberg spoke Chinese for about 30 minutes.Although his Mandarin was far from perfect, students and faculty cheered his effort.Clayton Dube is the head of the U.S.-China Institute at the University of Southern California.He praises Zuckerberg's effort and thinks more American CEOs should learn foreign languages."To speak Chinese means you begin to think as Chinese people do.You begin to understand how Chinese speakers have the world organized, how they perceive things.And that is a vital step if you're going to be culturally competent."Zuckerberg's talk raises a larger question: is Chinese the language of the future?Could it replace English as the world's international language? Mandarin Chinese already has the most native speakers of any language.And, China may soon pass the United States as the world's largest economy.The study of the Chinese language is increasing in the United States and around the world.In 2009, about 60,000 American college students were studying Chinese. That is three times as many as in 1990.
