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Kevin Rudd – Australia’s Mandarin-speaking Prime Minister

Kevin Rudd was Australia’s 26th Prime Minister and, notably, he’s fluent in Mandarin Chinese.

Here’s an interview done with him in Mandarin:

Kevin Rudd Interviewed on Mandarin News Australia

I was always curious about how he ended up with this skill, so I had a read through his biography and a number of other sources. His life and career makes for quite an amazing story! He started out as a farm boy in regional Australia, so it’s quite unexpected that he’d develop a keen interest in China, let alone become the leader of the country.

There’s a lot to fit into one post so I’ve split it up into several sections:

  1. Introduction (this page)
  2. Brief life summary
  3. Interest in China
  4. Mandarin in professional life (coming soon)
  5. Present day (coming soon)

I hope you find these posts as interesting to read as I found them to research!

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