"Far too few mandarins speak Mandarin"
But will that ever change?
As someone who’s been learning Chinese for more than 20 years, and building this language learning platform since 2021, that “far too few mandarins speak Mandarin” quip from the British Foreign Secretary blew my mind.
He was announcing the long-awaited China Audit, a government review assessing Britain’s approach to China aimed at recalibrating how the UK engages with the world’s second largest economy.
In the 1,302-word statement and briefly in the debate that followed, the Foreign Secretary made only a passing mention of the importance of more British officials learning Mandarin.
If I was a so-called “Mandarin-speaking mandarin” who’s spent years mastering Chinese, I’d feel infuriated and patronised by this.
The speech writers were probably patting themselves on the back with the clever wordplay. But it trivialises the graft and expertise required to become truly proficient in this complex language.
I vented my disappointment at this lack of substance in this post.
It resonated with a lot of people.
The perverse thing is, there is no shortage of high-quality Mandarin speaking talent already here in the UK.
I know this because I regularly meet members of the RTM Plus community who’ve moved back from China, assuming their hard-earned Chinese language skills and knowledge will unlock career opportunities here.
As far as I know, not one of them has managed to make that transition and stay focussed on China here. And they certainly wouldn’t qualify to become a “mandarin speaking Mandarin” — the vetting process would deem them “too experienced”.
But this isn’t just about individual talent, or even fixing the broken system of building “China capabilities”.
There’s a much bigger problem:
Learning Chinese is irrelevant, and even worse, boring
The continuing fall in numbers of people learning Chinese at university in the UK speaks for itself.
But the UK is not alone. China-literate job seekers face a similarly grim employment outlook in New Zealand, Australia, France, Germany to name a few. And yet, at the same time, we are being warned of Europe’s dangerous gap in China expertise.
So it’s not just a UK problem, and it’s not even an English speaker problem.
It seems learning Chinese has become all but irrelevant as a career path, through lack of funding, no vision, and poor policy in many Western countries.
But the blame doesn’t solely lie there.
No, as they say in Chinese, “it takes two hands to clap” (一个巴掌拍不响), or in English, “it takes two to tango”.
The Chinese Government’s approach to promoting Mandarin learning internationally has also played a part in the embarrassingly low numbers of people learning Chinese in the West.
Achieving something even more incredible, the Chinese state made learning Chinese boring.
It’s somehow managed to “teach the fun” out of Chinese as this excellent and hilarious article in China Heritage explains:
“The soft power potential of the cultural riches of traditional and contemporary China has been wasted and crushed into a dull pulp as a result of being forced to conform to the taste and ideological predilections of a unimaginative 70 year-old who pulls his pants up too high.”
As a result, Confucius Institutes, part of China's soft power push in promoting the learning of Mandarin internationally, have now largely flopped in the West.
So, what’s the solution?
Make learning Chinese interesting (and cool) again!
If you've got this far, and are expecting insightful recommendations on how to address the “China capability deficit”, just to be clear:
I’m not going to do that.
No, I’m incapable of fixing it, or solving the problem of increasing the numbers of much needed "diplomats with a fine understanding of China."
But what I can do is carry on creating RealTime Mandarin.
I started it nearly five years ago during Covid. It began as my own a daily reading challenge to stop my language skills decaying any further.
It really helped me so I started sharing what I learned.
What began as a nerdy newsletter read by 54 people, has grown into a language learning platform enjoyed by 12,000+ China watchers every week. We’ve built a membership — RTM Plus — which has helped 1,480 dedicated Mandarin enthusiasts move towards their fluency goals over the last four years.
RTM Plus a resource which helps you get fluent, stay informed, and communicate with confidence in Chinese each week.
Want in?
And, guess what: it’s also a solution to one of the biggest challenges of learning Mandarin, and building China literacy.
It makes learning Chinese interesting, engaging, and relevant.
I was reminded of this when chatting to a new member of RTM Plus earlier this week during our 1:1 onboarding call (which I offer to all new members).
This call was with Madelyn Ross, President Emeritus of the US-China Education Trust.
She’s been engaging with China and learning Mandarin for nearly 50 years. Here’s what she says about her experience of RTM so far:
“This really is a wonderful platform for people like me, who want to keep their Mandarin current and refreshed, while staying informed about what’s happening in China”
Woohooo 🎉 — couldn’t have put it better myself. That’s exactly what it’s supposed to do!
So, while I can’t do anything about the sorry state of Mandarin learning here in the UK or anywhere else, I can at least try to make it more interesting, fun, and occasionally cool.
So, if you are a demoralised and bored “Mandarin speaking mandarin”—or a Mandarin speaking anybody for that matter—join us China Nerds at RealTime Mandarin and get your fluency back!
It’s not going to be easy.
But, I can promise you this: it will never, ever, be boring.
And who knows, when those career opportunities finally start rolling in, you’ll be ready to grab them, and “way ahead of the competition” (遥遥领先)!
See you on the other side 🤩.
Andrew
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PS—Learn more about how RTM membership works here.
PPS—not sure if RTM is for you? Hit reply to this email and let’s chat to see if it’s a good fit.