What would make the richest man in the world who’s dropped billions to help the poorest parts of the world feel regret? In his third Reddit AMA, Bill Gates revealed what makes him “feel pretty stupid:”
“I feel pretty stupid that I don’t know any foreign languages.”
In between growing Microsoft and making the world a better place through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the billionaire never had the time to learn any foreign languages — a surprising fact about someone so accomplished and something he admits Mark Zuckerburg has one-upped on him.
“I took Latin and Greek in high school and got A’s and I guess it helps my vocabulary but I wish I knew French or Arabic or Chinese. I keep hoping to get time to study one of these – probably French because it is the easiest. I did Duolingo for a while but didn’t keep it up. Mark Zuckerberg amazingly learned Mandarin and did a Q&A with Chinese students – incredible.”
When he’s not busy saving sick children in Africa or drinking poo water out of machines, hopefully he gets the time to learn a language so he’s no longer that English-speaking dummy in a foreign country,
Good luck, Mr. Gates, or rather bonne chance, 祝好运 and حظ سعيد.
