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I think this is all a huge overreaction. But I also watched the video and honestly it looked like he was saying it because he knew he could get away with it. That's the most likely explanation for why he picked Chinese as an example of another language's "um" word. Just IMO though, no way to know for sure. It was at least tactless. He knew how it would sound.

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Why the need to judge and condemn here? If it’s such a common word in Chinese speech, have you considered that it may be a common word for him?

He's a white communications professor from USA, so no not really

From his CV[1]:

- "Professor Patton primarily teaches in USC’s Full-Time MBA Program and its Executive MBA Programs in the U.S. and China"

- "He has served as a key advisor to the Center for Asian-Pacific Leadership, a faculty member at the US-China Institute and a leader of MBA learning programs in China and Korea."

[1]: https://www.marshall.usc.edu/sites/default/files/gpatton/pci...

Or maybe he picked Chinese because it's the most well-known pause word of any non-Eurocentric language

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