The Man Who Woke From a Coma Speaking Chinese

June 28, 2019·29 min·2 clips

Ben McMahon woke from a week-long coma speaking fluent Chinese, shocking the nurse and his non-Chinese-speaking parents.

Ben McMahon woke from a coma speaking Chinese. Before the crash, he had only studied the language in high school, enough for basics but nowhere near fluency. The nurse noticed it first. His parents were relieved he was alive, then thrown by the thought that talking to their son might now mean learning Chinese. Ben calls it destiny. The host stays with that odd claim, asking how an accident turned into the thing that tied together language, survival, and a new life. Then the story moves to China, where Ben ends up drawn toward a huge dating show. One man stands on stage while 24 women question him. The scale is wild. He says around 80 million people watch an episode, while contestants get asked blunt questions about family, work, hobbies, housing, and whether they have a car. The grilling tells you a lot. Ben sees the willingness to stand there as courage, and courage becomes part of what he wants in a partner. He goes on anyway. He is single, running a small business, and aware that this chance to search for love on that stage may not come back. The coma, strangely, stays offstage. When the host asks whether the show used his accident and sudden Chinese fluency as backstory, Ben says he never told them. That is almost funny. The directors knew about his tourism company, but missed the public material that could have made the whole thing even stranger. What is left is uneasy: a crash, a changed language ability, and a televised search for love, all sitting together without turning into a tidy lesson.

As heard by us

A coma, a language switch, and one improbable accident that reroutes a life.

The episode follows Ben McMahon through a serious car accident that becomes a life-changing hinge: he wakes from a week in a coma speaking fluent Chinese.

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Why you'd press play

You want a true story that jumps from a serious car accident to waking up speaking fluent Chinese, with no attempt to make it feel normal.

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