Chirac is lucky. Actually, about a quarter of the Earth's population speak Mandarin - the most spoken language on the planet. The accent with French clashs wildly.
But even moreso, doing arithmetic functions in written Mandarin is hell.
Which is why all the educated Chinese speak English as well and play Cricket, the worlds most widely played game according to Forbes:
http://www.forbes.com/business/2005/09/30/china-india-cricket_cx_pm_1003chinacricket.html