4 Ways to Wish Your Dad “Happy Father’s Day” in Mandarin Chinese

1. 爸爸父亲节快乐 (Dad, happy Father’s Day)

On that special Sunday, you’ll want to say: 爸爸父亲节快乐! (bà bà fù qīn jié kuài lè – Happy Father’s Day)!

爸爸 (bà bà) means “dad” and 父亲 (fù qīn) is father. 节 (jié) refers to any kind of special holiday, and 快乐 (kuài lè) is happy.

2. 爸爸我爱你 (Dad, I love you)

You can say to your dad, 爸爸我爱你 (bà bà wǒ ài nǐ – I love you, dad). Though interestingly, it’s not common to verbalize feelings in Chinese culture. Moreover, it’s actually quite rare to directly say “I love you” to someone (but acceptable among young dating couples).

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Kids might say “I love you” to their parents, but older or adult children may not. In fact, “I love you” is so awkward for Chinese people to say, that whenever people do say “I love you,” they often say it in English!

3. 爸你辛苦啦 (Dad, you’ve worked hard)

This is like the Chinese equivalent of “I love you.”

Instead of talking about feelings, Chinese are more likely to recognize others’ hard work and sacrifice. They thank or show love to people by pointing out perseverance and effort.

So saying 爸你辛苦啦 (bà nǐ xīn kǔ la) is very thoughtful. It will make a Chinese dad feel that you appreciate and value his effort and sacrifice. It means that you honor and recognize him.

4. 爸谢谢 (Dad, thank you)

Although Chinese tend to honor each other indirectly instead of verbalizing sentiment, it’s perfectly acceptable to say “thank you” 爸谢谢 (bà xiè xiè).

An adult child may say, “Thank you for raising me” 谢谢你把我养大 (xiè xiè nǐ bǎ wǒ yǎng dà). This is sometimes said at wedding speeches by the new couple to their parents. It’s an example of pointing out another’s greatest sacrifice as a way of honoring them.

You can also say, “Thank you for all that you’ve done for me” 谢谢你为我付出的一切  (xiè xiè nǐ wèi wǒ fù chū de yī qiè). This is actually quite sentimental and tough for some Chinese to say, but on special occasions they might open up and say this.

4 Useful Chinese Phrases to Show Love on Father’s Day

So how do Chinese usually show love, if not with sentimental phrases? When it comes to Chinese parents, what they usually look for in children is respect and care, which is part of filial piety. So to care for your parents’ needs and to obey them is perhaps the most “Chinese” way to love your parents.

Outside of this, Chinese are best at showing love through two things: food and money! So here are four phrases Chinese might use to show love on Father’s Day:

1. 爸我请你吃饭 (Dad, let me take you out for a meal)

爸我请你吃饭 (bà wǒ qǐng nǐ chī fàn – Hey dad, let’s go out for a meal—it’s on me!)

This is probably the most popular Father’s Day gift in China: having a special meal.

In China, food represents gathering, unity, connection, care and love.

Chinese culture is definitely a food-centric culture. In fact, a common way of saying “How are you?” is to say “Have you eaten yet?”

As Chinese people commonly give gifts of food or money, other popular Chinese Father’s Day gifts would be expensive wines, expensive teas, expensive cigarettes or cigars, or brand name items.

2. 爸我敬你一杯 (Dad, here’s a toast to you)

What do you do when you’re eating with your dad on Father’s Day? You toast him! 爸我敬你一杯 (bà wǒ jìng nǐ yī bēi).

Toasting is another common way to honor or thank someone, especially someone older or of higher rank than you.

During the toast, that’s your opportunity to say nice things, usually well wishes such as “I wish you great health” 祝你生体健康 (zhù nǐ shēng tǐ jiàn kāng) and “I wish you a long life” 祝你长命百岁 (zhù nǐ cháng mìng bǎi suì), which literally means, “I wish you live to a hundred years.” These are both common Chinese words of blessings, and they reflect things that Chinese value—health and longevity.

3. 爸你好棒啊！(Dad, you’re awesome!)

This phrase is non-traditional and more slangy. But in today’s culture, people often say 好棒! (hǎo bàng) which means “awesome!” So you can say 爸你好棒啊! (bà nǐ hǎo bàng a) or “Dad, you’re awesome!”

4. 爸我给你按摩 (Dad, I can give you a shoulder massage)

Another very “Chinese” thing to do for your elders is to gently thump their shoulders with your fists in a kind of massage or 按摩 (àn mó). Grandparents especially love this.

Generally, you don’t need to say “I’ll give you a massage” (remember, Chinese tend not to be verbally sentimental). When your dad or grandfather is sitting in a chair, you can come up and gently hammer their shoulders, back or knees.

You could simply say,”Here, let me help you” 来我帮你 (lái wǒ bāng nǐ), or say the favorite phrase mentioned above, 爸你辛苦啦! (bà nǐ xīn kǔ la) “My goodness, Dad, you’ve worked hard!”

Now you have a handful of awesome Chinese phrases to appreciate and honor fathers on Father’s Day! With all these meaningful words, plus your active display of love and care, any father would be deeply touched.

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Breaking The Code: Mandarin Chinese Alphanumeric Slang

Probably the most common form of Chinese internet slang, and indeed the most confusing on first glance, is “alphanumeric” slang. This form of slang replaces Chinese characters or words with with Roman capital letters or numbers.

How Does It Work?

The primary purpose behind this kind of slang, similar to in English, is to reduce the number of keystrokes needed to build a word. For the capital letter acronyms, each letter corresponds to the first letter of a pinyin syllable. In this way, NB would be the internet slang form of niú bī 牛逼, a Chinese colloquial word meaning “Cool!” or “Awesome.”

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Alternatively, for the numeric slang, numbers are used for words whose pinyin sounds somewhat similar to that of the character the number represents. For example, using this system, 7451 in internet slang means 气死我了 qì sǐ wǒ le (I am very angry), as the pronunciation of the numbers qī sì wǔ yī is very similar.

Obviously, both of these kinds of slang require a considerable amount of Chinese knowledge, as well as insider info into the “code” being used. This being said, there are only a limited number of words which are represented using this. Some of the more popular ones can be read below.

Internet Slang Acronyms

ZF –  政府 – zhèng fǔ (government)
Example: 那个ZF太腐败。 nà ge ZF tài fǔ bài (The government is too corrupt.)

TMD – 他妈的 – tā mā dē  (F’ing…) Literal: your mother
Example: 我的朋友TMD醉了。 wǒ de péng you TMD zuì le (My friend is f’ing drunk.)

GCD -共产党  – gòng chǎn dǎng (Communist Party)
Example: GCD不让我们抗议。 GCD bú ràng wǒ men kàng yì （The Communist Party doesn’t let us protest.）

GG -哥哥  – gē ge (brother/bro)
Example: 我的GG有一位非常漂亮的女朋友。 wǒ de GG yǒu yī wèi fēi cháng piào liang de nǚ péng you (My bro has a very beautiful girlfriend.)

Commonly Seen Numeric Slang Expressions

88 bā bā – 叭叭 bā bā (Bye bye!)
Example: 我必须睡觉！88！wǒ bì xū shuì jiào! 88! (I have to sleep! Bye bye!)

995 jiǔ jiǔ wǔ –  救救我  jiù jiù wǒ (Help me!)
Example: 995！我不知道怎么做！995! wǒ bù zhī dào zěn me zuò (Help me! I don’t know what to do!)

520 wǔ èr líng – 我爱你 wǒ ài nǐ (I love you)
Example: 我觉得你真可爱 – 520！ wǒ jué de nǐ zhēn kě ài – 520! (I think you are really cute – I love you!)

How to Insult Using Chinese Internet Slang

As with many languages, Chinese has a huge number of specific slang insults used in its internet slang. While it might not be ideal to be constantly throwing these around, they are worth knowing for the odd occasion when you are truly annoyed at somebody.

Additionally, and probably more importantly, it is very useful to know these kinds of words to be able to follow the comments of other people—especially when they are complaining online.

General Insults

土豪 tǔ háo - Rich yet uncultured people, often those who are have grown up poor, and then become rich later in life, and live a life of pointless conspicuous consumption.
富二代 fù èr dài – Literally the “rich second generation,” fù èr dài are the sons and daughters of well-connected business and political figures. Their extravagant lifestyles are mocked by the general population.
火星人 huǒ xīng rén – Someone who is very strange, or weird. Literally, “somebody from Mars.”
P民 pī mín – “Rabble.” Used to describe the way the Chinese government views the people.
凸 tū - Due to pictographic similarity, this character functions as an emoji representing giving somebody the finger.
olitical Insults

五毛党 wǔ máo dǎng – There is a widely believed theory (with some supporting evidence) that the Chinese government pays online posters to write pro-government posts. They are known as the wǔ máo dǎng or “50-cent party” due to the fact that they are allegedly paid 50 cents per pro-government post.
FQ 愤青 fèn qīng – This is a disparaging term used to describe overly nationalistic young people who buy into government propaganda more than others.
Chinese Slang to Avoid the Censors

One final category of slang seen on the internet is that which is intended to fool the censors. China’s internet is notoriously controlled and restricted. Alongside the censorship of political topics, the Chinese government also actively censors words which it considers to be overly rude or insulting.

Posts using such banned words find themselves rapidly removed from social media, and should a user draw too much attention from the authorities, they could find their online accounts removed too.

The Mythical Creatures of Baidu

The good news is, the Chinese have developed a whole new vocabulary of homophone-based slang to get around this kind of censorship. This slang has developed into its own unique internet meme, called “The 10 Mythical Creatures of Baidu,” with Baidu being China’s search engine equivalent to Google. These mythical creatures are the names of strange animals which are pronounced in very similar ways to censored words.

“River Crabs” (和谐/河蟹 hé xié/hé xiè）

Among the most common of the “Mythical Creatures” is the river crab (河蟹). Pronounced in Mandarin as hé xiè, this word sounds very similar to the word Harmony/Harmonize (hé xié).

The word “harmonize” began to be censored due to the fact that it was used to describe something being actively censored (eg. “This popular Weibo account was harmonized”), and as such Chinese internet users began using the word “river crab” in its place.

“The Grass-mud Horse”（草泥马/肏你妈 cǎo ní mǎ/cào nǐ mā）

Another very well-known Chinese “Mythical Creature” is the so-called “Grass-mud horse” (草泥马). Pronounced in Mandarin as cǎo ní mǎ, this word sounds very similar to 肏你妈 (cào nǐ mā), a crude Chinese insult meaning “f&$k your mother.”

The Grass-mud horse has grown to become a popular meme of its own in China, used to ridicule government censorship of often mundane content.

A Whole New World of Internet Slang Awaits

Now you know at least the basics of Chinese internet slang, and it really wasn’t that hard, was it?

Regardless, equipped with knowledge of the basic rules of this slang vocabulary, if a word comes up online that you don’t know, you will be able to quickly identify if it’s slang or just a wholly new word.

So what are you waiting for?

Get online and start using Chinese internet slang as soon as possible. A whole new world awaits!

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Moving on up: 9 Must-know Mandarin Chinese Grammar Patterns for the Intermediate Learner

These nine patterns fall into three different categories, the first of which involves temporal order.

Temporal Order: Telling a Story

A typical sentence pattern is the narration of a story. One reason people say that Chinese grammar is easy is because you can sometimes get by without sentence connectives. When the context is clear, you can list the phrases in order of what happened without any sentence connectives.

But this can only get you so far.

To tell a good story, you want to be as clear as possible. These following two sentence patterns come in handy to clarify the temporal order and avoid any confusion for your listeners and readers.

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1. + 一 + V (+ yī + V)

You have no doubt learned the character 一 (one, a) when you began your Chinese lessons, but you may not realize the extent to which you can use it.

一 can indicate an action that occurred just once or something that lasts for a short time. It also can be paired with 就 jiù (then) or a more formal 便 biàn (then) to indicate something happened immediately after the first action. Think of it as a way to really emphasize what you are about to say in your story.

For example:

他喝一口水才开始讲话. – Tā hè yī kǒu shuǐ cái kāi shǐ jiǎng huà.
(He drank a sip of water before he began to talk.)

学生们一来, 老师就走了. – Xué shēng men yī lái, lǎo shī jiù zǒu liǎo.
(Once the students came, the teacher left.)

2. 便 (biàn)

As mentioned above, 便 biàn (then) is simply a more formal way to say 就 jiù (then). It is often used in written language, but can be a great trick to sound more advanced when you use it in spoken Chinese. 便 biàn (then) shows how one action leads to another, and indicates an outcome of a particular condition.

Start replacing 就 jiù (then) with 便 biàn (then) and see if any of your Chinese friends comment on your advanced vocabulary! Here are some examples of how to use it:

他昨天晚上没睡觉, 今天便看起来很累. – Tā zuó tiān wǎn shàng méi shuì jiào, jīn tiān biàn kàn qǐ lái hěn lèi.
(He did not sleep last night, so today he appears tired.)

她回家便忙着洗碗. – Tā huí jiā biàn máng zhe xǐ wǎn.
(Once she goes home, she starts washing the dishes.)

Contrast: A Direct Turn in the Story

Another common type of sentence pattern involves making a contrast. Sometimes you’ll want to make an abrupt turn in your story and say the exact opposite to further emphasize your point. There are many ways to do this in Chinese, as seen in the following three structures.

3.  …, 又 (yòu)

You may have learned this character in other contexts, but this is an excellent way to use it when placing a contradiction in your sentences. You will usually start off these sentences with one action, and follow it with a contrasting action. Hopefully, the last example sentence will not apply to you!

我相出去吃饭, 又怕花钱. – Wǒ xiāng chū qù chī fàn, yòu pà huā qián.
(I want to go out to eat, but do not want to spend the money.)

她出去了, 又回来了. - Tā chū qù le, yòu huí lái le.
(She went out, then came back.)

他们学了一年中文, 又放弃了. – Tā men xué le yī nián zhōng wén, yòu fàng qì le.
(They learned Chinese for one year, then gave up.)

4. 还是 (hái shì)

Much like 又 yòu (then), 还是 hái shì (nevertheless) is usually used when you are describing one particular thing, but then you change your mind to an alternative. What comes before will usually be different from what happens after. It can be seen in English as “but…still.”

我在中国住了两年, 最后还是回到了美国. – Wǒ zài zhōng guó zhù le liǎng nián, zuì hòu hái shì huí dào le měi guó.
(I lived in China for two years, but in the end I still moved back to the United States.)

她身体有些瘦弱, 但她还是很漂亮. – Tā shēn tǐ yǒu xiē shòu ruò, dàn tā hái shì hěn piào liang.
(Her body is small and weak, but she is still very beautiful.)

5. 却 (què)

却 què (but) is used in front of the verb and in situations that contrast what has been previously said. Instead of using the simpler 可是 kě shì (but) as part of your vocabulary, try substituting 却 què (but) in your sentences to add a formal touch.

大家都出去玩, 我却在家里一个人睡着. – Dà jiā dōu chū qù wán, wǒ què zài jiā lǐ yī gè rén shuì zhe.
(Everyone is outside playing, but I am at home alone sleeping.)

Emphasis: Adding Importance to the Conditions

The third common sentence pattern takes place when you are emphasizing the current conditions. These sentence patterns are meant to bring importance to certain parts of your conversation or story.

6. 随着 (suí zhe)

You will usually use this phrase as a way to imply the cause of the main verb and can be translated in English to “as.”

For example:

随着节日的到来, 商店又忙起来了. – Suí zhe jié rì de dào lái, shāng diàn yòu máng qǐ lái le.
(As the holidays are here, stores have become busy.)

很多树叶随着秋天的到来掉落到地上. – Hěn duō shù yè suí zhe qiū tiān de dào lái diào luò dào dì shàng.
(As autumn is here, many leaves are falling to the ground.)

 7. 连 N 都 V (lián N doū V)

This structure is similar to the English “even,” and describes when something does or does not happen. It’s used where N is the actual subject or object of V.

Example:

他很爱锻炼, 连生病时都会跑步. - Tā hěn ài duàn liàn, lián shēng bìng shí doū huì pǎo bù.
(He loves to exercise; even when he is sick, he will run.)

她弹琴弹得不好, 连小孩都笑她. – Tā tán qín dàn dé bù hǎo, lián xiǎo hái dōu xiào tā.
(She does not play the piano very well; even little children laugh at her.)

8. 不知为什么 (bù zhī wèi shén me)

This is an easy phrase to incorporate into your conversations, and it simply emphasizes that you are unsure of why something did or did not happen. You should place it at the beginning of the sentence that you’re planning to describe. It can be loosely translated to “I don’t know why” or “for some reason.”

For example:

不知为什么, 她们很早就睡觉了. – Bù zhī wèi shén me, tā men hěn zǎo jiù shuì jiào le.
(For some reason, they decided to sleep early.)

不知为什么, 他今天心情不好. – Bù zhī wèi shén me, tā jīn tiān xīn qíng bù hǎo.
(I don’t know why, but he was in a bad mood today.)

9. 怎么 (zěn me)

怎么 (how, why) is slightly different from 不知为什么 – bù zhī wèi shén me (I don’t know why) but are more or less interchangeable. 不知为什么 – bù zhī wèi shén me expresses doubt through the statement, whereas 怎么 zěn me expresses the same idea but in a question form. Many times it will act as a rhetorical question.

For example, you could take the above sentence “不知为什么, 他今天心情不好,” bù zhī wèi shén me, tā jīn tiān xīn qíng bù hǎo. (I don’t know why, but he was in a bad mood today.) and express it in a similar way:

他今天怎么心情不好? – Tā jīn tiān zěn me xīn qíng bù hǎo?
(Why was he in a bad mood today?)

Here’s another example:

你中文怎么讲的这么好? Nǐ zhōng wén zěn me jiǎng de zhè me hǎo?
(How do you speak Chinese so well?)

As you can see, once you learn the framework it’s easy to add in existing vocabulary. Put in the initial time investment to learn these specific patterns, and start practicing by filling in the sentences. This way you aren’t completely overwhelmed with trying to learn new vocabulary and grammar.

Soon people will ask you “你中文怎么讲的这么好?” Nǐ zhōng wén zěn me jiǎng de zhè me hǎo? (How do you speak Chinese so well?) and you will move up to even more advanced phrases!

4 Smart Tips to Improve Your Advanced Mandarin Chinese Conversation

1. Spice Up Your Vocabulary Through Chengyu (Four-character Expressions)

The first tip to raising your Chinese conversation level is to keep improving your vocabulary. Make sure you are learning words in categories that you plan to speak about in conversation. Dropping a few four-character Chinese expressions, or 成语 – chengyu, into your conversations will show your knowledge of Chinese culture and history.

Do not overuse them though, as you don’t want to come off as having just memorized fifty chengyu to impress others. Not every chengyu will be appropriate for conversation either, as some are more frequent than others.

Instead, subtly weave them into appropriate circumstances. Since chengyu usually reference a well-known story, you want to make sure you are using them in the correct scenario.

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When learning chengyu, make sure you not only remember the chengyu itself, but that you also understand the story and context of how you can use it in a sentence. Knowing the background and sample sentences will make it far easier to memorize and incorporate into your daily conversation than simply repeating four characters together.

Below are just a few chengyu that you may find useful in your advanced Chinese conversation:

一丝不苟 yī sī bù gǒu:

The literal translation for this means “every thread is accounted for”, in other words, someone who is meticulous.

Example: 我做每件事都是一丝不苟. wǒ zuò měi jiàn shì dōu shì yī sī bù gǒu. (I am meticulous in every task I do.)

不可思议 bù kě sī yì:

The literal translation for this is “cannot be conceived,” and it means something that is unbelievable. You can use this to talk about anything from an action, event, or person.

Example: 他对我那么没礼貌, 真是不可思议! tā duì wǒ nà me méi lǐ mào, zhēn shì bù kě sī yì. (It is unimaginable how rude he was to me!)

2. Learn How to Use Different Words for the Same Meaning

This is true for any language, but the more you advance, the more vocab options you’ll have for expressing a single idea. You could probably get the same meaning across while sounding like an elementary school student and while using a more vivid way to describe the same thing.

You will want to be careful, because other times there will be small nuances, and different expressions may slightly alter the effect of the sentence.

Here is an example of this:

我的朋友很漂亮. wǒ de péng yǒu hěn piào liàng. (My friend is very beautiful.)

我的朋友漂亮极了. wǒ de péng yǒu piào liàng jí le. (My friend is extremely beautiful.)

我的朋友真漂亮! wǒ de péng yǒu zhēn piào liàng! (My friend is really beautiful!)

我的朋友太漂亮了! wǒ de péng yǒu tài piào liàng le! (My friend is too beautiful!)

我的朋友多漂亮啊! wǒ de péng yǒu duō piào liàng a! (My friend is so beautiful!)

我的朋友怎么这么漂亮! wǒ de péng yǒu zěn me zhè me piào liàng! (How is my friend this beautiful!)

As you can see, all the above sentences will translate to the rough idea of “My friend is beautiful.”

However, variations of meaning will slightly alter the effect. It is similar to comparing in English the difference in “My friend is pretty,” “My friend is gorgeous” and “My friend is drop-dead gorgeous!”

An awesome resource to use is Chinese Tools, where you can find a variety of synonyms for any expression. Use words you already know as a basis to learn other synonyms.

You will want to combine learning the synonyms with extra research (whether this is posting your question online or asking your language partner) to ensure you understand the context and slight differences of each word.

3. Connect Sentences to Tell a Story

Sentence connectives in Chinese are important to know, as they will not only improve your overall cohesiveness, but will also help your storytelling skills. Connecting sentences the right way also helps provide an explanation of why things happened, making you better understood.

You probably already use 又 yòu or  然后 rán hòu in conversations, similar to the English “and then” to describe sequential events. Try mixing things up by using the following alternative sentence connectors instead:

以后 yǐ hòu (after), 后来 hòu lái (later)
终于 zhōng yú (finally)
然而 rán’ér, 却 què (however)
于是 yú shì, 如此 rú cǐ (so)
接着  jiē zhe, 便 biàn (then)

4. Shorten Sentences for Clarity

Short sentences in Chinese are characterized by their simple grammatical structure and few words. There are two main types of short sentences. The first are short independent sentences that end with a period, and the other are grammatically self-contained segments that are separated by commas.

Short sentences are sometimes seen in written Chinese language, but are a primary characteristic of the spoken language.

Take these sentences as an example. They have the same meaning, but by slightly changing the grammar and adding breaks in between, the second sentence is easier to understand.

周围静静的山林里连鸟的叫声都听不见, 从林间透过的早晨的阳光在草地上酒下了斑斓的色彩.

Zhōu wéi jìng jìng de shān lín lǐ lián niǎo de jiào shēng dōu tīng bù jiàn, cóng lín jiàn tòu guò de zǎo chén de yáng guāng zài cǎo dì shàng jiǔ xià le bān lán de sè cǎi.

Below is a much clearer way to organize the sentence to provide the same meaning:

周围的山林静静的, 连鸟的叫声都听不见; 早晨的阳光从林间透过的, 在草地上酒下了斑斓的色彩.

Zhōu wéi de shān lín jìng jìng de, lián niǎo de jiào shēng dōu tīng bù jiàn; zǎo chén de yáng guāng cóng lín jiàn tòu guò de, zài cǎo dì shàng jiǔ xià le bān lán de sè cǎi.

(The surrounding mountains are peaceful, you cannot even hear the birds chirping; the morning sun is shining through the forest, leaving behind gorgeous colors on the grass.)

A good practice is to say the sentence in your head and break it up into smaller phrases. Shortening your sentences for clarity is key because it offers the speaker a way to efficiently organize a sentence. It also allows your listener to easily understand the sentence.

When trying to form longer sentences in Chinese, the grammatical relations will often become too complicated. Short sentences bring a sense of rhythm and directness to the phrases and reduces a rambling feel.

It can be challenging to move from an intermediate level to advanced Chinese speaking. However, integrating these four tips into your Chinese conversation will help get you one step closer to your ultimate goal of speaking advanced Chinese like a pro!

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Nasihat orang terkaya China kepada putranya tentang pendidikan

Tidak keliru kiranya Jack Ma didapuk sebagai pengusaha paling ngetop di daratan China (Tiongkok) saat ini. Tahun lalu dia dinyatakan sebagai orang terkaya di negara Republik Rakyat China.

Kesuksesan pendiri sekaligus CEO Alibaba ini bahkan disejajarkan dengan sejumlah tokoh pengusaha teknologi dunia seperti mendiang Steve Jobs yang berhasil membangkitkan Apple dari jurang kebangkrutan.

Akhir bulan lalu, Red Flag Publishing merilis buku berjudul Jack Ma’s Internal Speeches: Trust in Tomorrow. Ada banyak hal yang dapat dipetik dalam buku itu dari pidato miliarder China ini yang tidak tersorot media sebelumnya.

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Dikutip Hidayatullah.com dari laman Tech In Asia, Sabtu (16/05/2015), ada kutipan pesan Jack Ma untuk putranya dalam buku tersebut terkait edukasi dan hal yang menarik diperhatikan untuk menjadi pengusaha sukses.

“Saya pernah berpesan kepada putra saya: kamu tidak harus berada di peringkat tiga besar di kelas, menjadi siswa berkemampuan menengah tidak masalah, selama nilai-nilaimu tidak terlalu buruk. Hanya orang-orang di kategori ini [di peringkat menengah] yang memiliki waktu untuk mempelajari bakat lainnya. Saya pikir jika ekonomi di China ingin berkembang, perlu banyak UKM dan wiraswasta, serta membutuhkan banyak entrepreneur dengan kemampuan mumpuni dan motivasi”.

Meskipun nasihat Jack Ma untuk putranya di atas tidak memiliki fokus yang jelas, pendapatnya tentang sistem pendidikan di China sangat menarik karena bertentangan dengan prinsip konvensional di negara tersebut: bahwa setiap siswa di China harus menjadi yang terbaik dan menyingkirkan semua yang dapat menyebabkan kegagalan di kelas.

Sikap seperti itu terbentuk karena sistem pendidikan di China yang dipertahankan sekeras itu. Siapapun yang ingin mengenyam pendidikan di kampus ternama harus belajar keras dan mendapat nilai tinggi pada ujian nasional (gaokao) di China.

Bakat apapun yang mungkin dikembangkan di luar sekolah tidak bisa dijadikan acuan untuk bisa diterima di universitas. Anggapan seperti itu membuat siswa berpikir bahwa kegiatan di luar sekolah hanya membuang waktu jika tujuan yang ingin dicapai adalah masuk kuliah ternama seperti Universitas Tsinghua.

Namun Jack Ma berpendapat bahwa jika ekonomi di China bertumbuh, yang menjadi kunci utama adalah kemampuan perorangan dan semangat wirausaha.

Seperti yang telah ia kemukakan, Alibaba berhasil menjadi salah satu perusahaan tersukses di dunia meskipun ia bukan menjadi salah satu murid terpandai di kelas – faktanya ia gagal memasuki universitas hingga tiga kali. Dan dengan pengecualian petinggi Baidu Robin Li, banyak pengusaha internet terkemuka mencapai sukses meski tidak menjadi siswa terpandai di kelas.

Pesan Jack Ma adalah: ikuti jadwal sekolah dengan baik namun jangan sampai hal ini merenggut seluruh waktu Anda. Asah kemampuan lainnya dan ikuti passion Anda di waktu luang.

Hal ini mungkin sangat jelas bagi beberapa orang, namun bagi kebanyakan murid di China, pesan ini merupakan gebrakan terhadap sistem yang selama ini ada.