Hubris

Ben is going to flip at this one. Now I know what he really means by "Chinese Cultural Chauvinists".

Was browsing through Prof Terence Tao's blog on career advice when I came across this comment on his blog. Here it is, in full:

Hi!陶教授，my English is limited,I think I shoud express myself in Chinese.If you have interest in my opinio,you may ask friends to translate it.
我是偶然看到有关你获菲尔茨奖的消息，中国国内民众反应很大，都为你骄傲。当然，我们也知道，你认为自己首先是一个澳大利亚人，但这并不妨碍中国人对你的映象，因为我们需要的是一个心目中的榜样与楷模。在网上，我看到不少有关你的正面评价，这是个好现象。
汉字是一种象形字，不同于世界上其它国家的语言。一种语言的诞生可以说是源自于这个民族的一种文化的承传需求。你对中国的文化知之甚少，难以理解它的内涵，但我相信，像你这样的头脑，一定可以在短期内学好中文，那时，你可能会发现，中文带给你的远远要超过你现在所想像的。据说，人在学习汉语和字母语言（for instance English)时，大脑的左右半球工作状态是有些区别的，你若感兴趣不妨查一下有关资料。
说这么多，无非是想建议你有机会学一下中文，我有一种感觉，你学了中文会获益菲浅的（抱歉，我是个喜欢凭直觉做事的人）。
打扰你了，谢谢你抽出时间看这段话。

The summary, in English, is that this person feels that Prof Tao would benefit greatly from learning Chinese because of its history and the (dubious?) use of both of the brain's hemispheres.

Maybe this "Kristy" character should learn English and concentrate more on her own career instead of lecturing a child prodigy/genius (Dr Tao won a Fields medal and MacArthur awards among many others) about the Chinese language.