The Australian who woke up speaking Mandarin

Lives Less Ordinary - A podcast by BBC World Service - Mondays

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Ben McMahon from Melbourne, Australia, has had an unlikely career in Chinese reality TV after waking up from a coma speaking Mandarin. When he was 18 years old, Ben suffered a head injury during a car crash. During his early recovery he was unable to speak his native English, and could only communicate with confused doctors in Mandarin, a language he’d studied in high school. Ben regained his English but his Mandarin stayed strong and helped him secure a spot on a Chinese dating show he was obsessed with.