全球学习中文的热潮

讨论让世界运转不息。

Discussion keeps the world turning.

是圆桌会议。

Is Roundtable.

大家好。欢迎来到《圆桌会议》，在这里我们为您奉上关于中国及全球热点议题的激烈辩论。我是尼尔·侯林。如果你认为中文只是一个国家的单一语言，那你就错了。它正逐渐成为一种共享的文化货币。

Hello. Welcome to Roundtable, where we serve our piping hot debates on the issues that sizzle in China and beyond. I'm Niall Hou Lin. If you think Chinese is just one language of one nation, you are mistaken. It is now becoming a shared cultural currency.

从内罗毕的教室到柏林的宿舍，从东京的游戏社区到圣保罗的抖音推送，一场静默的革命正在发生。数百万人学习普通话不是为了考试，而是为了建立联系。这场语言热潮背后隐藏着更深层的故事——关于好奇心、身份认同以及文化连接世界的力量。本期节目，我们邀请了丁鸿和史蒂夫·哈瑟利加入讨论。现在请拿起你的虚拟指南针，跟随我们深入探讨核心议题。

From classrooms in Nairobi to dorm rooms in Berlin, from gaming communities in Tokyo to TikTok feeds in Sao Paulo, a quiet revolution is taking place. Millions are learning Mandarin, not for tests, but for connection. Behind this linguistic boom lies a deeper story, one about curiosity, identity, and the power of culture to bridge worlds. For this episode, I'm joined by Ding Hung and Steve Hatherley. Now grab your virtual compass and follow us to the heart of the discussion.

你尝试过学习中文吗？如果是，那你正身处全球浪潮之中。目前全世界有超过2亿人正在学习这门语言。但这股热潮不仅源于课堂教育或贸易协议，更由流行文化、热门游戏、爆款节目和社交媒体趋势所推动。

Have you ever tried learning Chinese? If so, you are part of a global wave. Over 200,000,000 people worldwide are now studying the language. But this surge isn't just coming from classrooms or trade deals. It's powered by pop culture, blockbuster games, viral shows, and social media trends.

从约翰内斯堡破译《哪吒》咒语的青少年，到编写《简森影响力汉语词典》的日本学生，这些新兴学习者正在重新定义'谁为何学习中文'。跨越大洲，文化驱动的民间教学体系正在形成。今天我们将探讨这一现象：这场语言浪潮究竟有多大规模？当中文学习从课堂任务转变为全球文化庆典时会发生什么？为了理清脉络、把握宏观背景，让我们先看看具体有多少人在学习中文——这真的是一场席卷全球的巨浪吗？

From a teen in Johannesburg decoding the spells in Neja to a Japanese student building a Jensen Impact Chinese Dictionary, these new learners learners are redefining who studies Chinese and why. Across continents, culture driven folk tutorial systems are taking shape. Today, we explore this phenomenon. Just how big is this linguistic wave and what happens when learning Chinese turns from a classroom task into a global cultural celebration. To make all that making sense or to make all that having a bigger picture and background, let's first look at exactly how many people are learning Chinese, and is it really a huge global wave?

没错。学习中文绝对是一场持续升温的全球热潮。中国教育部最新数据显示，截至2025年9月，已有86个国家将中文纳入国民教育体系，全球学习和使用中文的人数突破2亿。以美国为例，仅本土在线学习平台多邻国上的中文学习者数量就相当可观。

Yeah. This is definitely a heating up global craze for learning Chinese language. The latest figure from China's Ministry of Education suggests that 86 countries had included Chinese in their national education system as of September 2025 with a total of more than 200,000,000 people across the world today learning or using this language. In The United States, for example, the total number of Chinese learners on this US based online platform, Duolingo.

我用那个。

I use that.

那是个非常受欢迎的平台。每个人一生中某个阶段都用过它。

That's very popular platform. Everybody's used that at some point in their lives.

是啊。在数字时代，它确实触手可及。但就在去年年底短短一个多月里，仅美国地区该平台的中文学习者数量就激增了216%，哇。自2020年起，中文一直位列该平台十大最受欢迎学习语言。

Yeah. In the digital age, it's really universally accessible. But on that platform, in the case of The United States, the the number of Chinese learners grew by whopping 216% in just a little over a month at the end of last year. Wow. And since 2020, Chinese has ranked among the top 10 most learned languages on this platform.

非洲情况也很类似，最近几年有十几个甚至近二十个国家的中文学习人数增长超过30%。

And similarly in Africa, like, more than a dozen or close to 20 countries have seen Chinese learning increased by over 30% in most recent years.

我看到美国那个216%增长的数据时，注意到时间是2024年。有报道将这种现象部分归因于红音符平台——还记得当时美国用户大量涌入的新闻吗？最妙的不只是事件本身，而是不同文化背景的人们突然开始频繁互动，这种前所未有的接触激起了对中文的巨大好奇心。试想平时有多少美国年轻人会主动了解中文呢？这算是那起事件最酷的连锁反应之一。

I was looking at, I saw that statistic from The United States, an increase of 216%, and then I looked at the timing 2024. And I read some stories that's attributed or at least in part attributed to Rednote and the accessibility when all remember that big story when all those American users came, and the wonderful thing about that was not just the cool part of the story, but all of a sudden, people from different cultures were interacting with each other that typically would not have done that. And then all of a sudden, it created this large curiosity about the Chinese language. I mean, how many young Americans would be curious about learning anything about the Chinese language at all in their daily lives? So that was one of the really cool side effects of that story.

我和史蒂夫还有个节目叫《随身中文》，已经持续运营了至少五到七年。我们的播客被上传到...应该说很多期内容都被盗传到各种平台，他们靠这个牟利。虽然有点无奈，但只要听众能学到中文我们就开心。2093年中文学习市场规模74亿美元，预计到2027年还会翻倍。

Steve and I have another show, Takeaway Chinese, and that show has gone on for, well, I think, at least more than five or seven years. And our podcast were put onto well, all of the I think many of the podcast episodes were put onto different platforms, and they basically stolen they have stolen it and then put it on their platform and use it as a way to monetize and everything. But I kinda get it. And as long as people are listening to the show and learning Chinese, we were happy about it. But in 2093, the market, the Chinese learning market, was valued at 7,400,000,000.0 US dollars, and it is projected to double by 2027.

这就是中文学习领域的发展前景——充满希望且生机勃勃。

And that is how promising and how vibrantly developing the Chinese learning world is.

是的。看到这个现象很酷，因为汉语已经是全球第二大语言了。我看了Statista今年的数据，全球有15.3亿人以英语为母语或第二语言，略高于调查时11.8亿的汉语使用者。也就是说，这门语言本就拥有超过十亿的使用者，再加上中国本土人口，但看到它持续增长仍然令人印象深刻。

Yeah. And it's cool to see because, I mean, Mandarin's already the second most spoken language in the world anyway. I was looking at Statista from stats from this year. 1,530,000,000 worldwide who spoke English either natively or as a second language, and that's just ahead of the Mandarin speakers at 1,180,000,000 at the time of the survey. So you've got a language that's already spoken by over a billion people all around the world anyway, plus, of course, the population here in China, but to see it growing is still impressive.

有趣的是人们正在开展各类相关研究，比如扬州大学团队有个项目叫《全球中文学习需求的大数据监测、预测与策略》——名字很酷。他们分析了来自100多个国家和地区的20多万个数据样本，采集自社交媒体、电商平台等现实场景，发现了一个很酷的现象：过去五年全球与学习中文相关的网络搜索量增长了约15%。研究人员指出，现实中这个扩张市场的巨大潜力使得全球提供中文教育的私立机构已超过2万家。这很了不起，因为全球已有许多相对官方的项目，背后是各类政府合作项目、文化交流计划和民间交流项目的支持。

And it's funny to see that people are doing different types of research and study about it, and there's one team from Yangzhou University, and they got a study called big data monitoring, forecasting, and strategies for global Chinese learning demand. Cool name. And they analyzed more than 200,000 data samples collected from, this is interesting, social media, ecommerce platforms, and other real life contests from over 100 countries and regions, and they found something pretty cool. Global online re global online searches related to learning Chinese have grown by about 15% in the past five years, and the vast potential of this expanding market in reality researchers noted that there are now over 20,000 private institutions worldwide offering Chinese language education. It's impressive because worldwide, there are already many relatively official and relatively the kind of project backed by different types of government cooperation projects and cultural cultural exchange programs and people to people exchange programs.

除此之外，还有许多私立机构正在加入这个领域。

And on top of that, a lot of private institutions are also entering the game.

这就是《哪吒》和《黑神话：悟空》这类成功软实力项目带来的效应——电子游戏《黑神话：悟空》激发了人们的兴趣。《红色笔记》也是很好的例子，因为这些作品突然唤醒了原本不存在的学习热情。你之前提到的数据——提供中文教育的私立机构数量每年增长10%——在加拿大也有很多这样的机构，不过大部分中文语言中心都集中在多伦多、温哥华这样的大城市。虽然在我家乡新斯科舍省首府哈利法克斯，也有一个中文学习中心和文华中心，这很酷。

And this is what happens when you have successful soft power projects like Neja and Wukong, Black Myth Wukong, the video game, is that it inspires interest. And Red Note as well, we can use that as an example there too, because all of a sudden, you have this interest that didn't exist before, and those those statistics that you you mentioned before, those are growing by 10% every single year, the the private institutions offering Chinese as a second language. And in in Canada, we have a lot of them too, but I will say that the majority of the language centers for Chinese are based in bigger cities like Toronto and and Vancouver. Although in Halifax, the capital of Nova Scotia where I'm from, there's a Chinese language learning center there and cultural center there too Cool. That I found.

说到多伦多，有个很酷的数据：它是全球最多元化的城市之一，甚至可能是统计意义上最多元的城市。加拿大广播公司2022年人口普查报告显示，普通话已成为多伦多仅次于英语的第二大母语。在约600万居民中，近28万（约4.5%）人将普通话视为母语。可见在多伦多，人们也在持续使用和学习中文。

Toronto, actually, this was kinda cool to know. Toronto is one of the most diverse cities on the planet, if not statistically the most diverse city on the planet. And the census release from 2022 from the CBC talked about the fact that Mandarin became the second most common first language in Toronto after English. Of the 6,000,000 rough roughly 6,000,000 people that live there, almost 280,000, it's about four and a half percent consider Mandarin their their mother tongue. So people are continuing to speak it and learn it in Toronto too.

那么对于尚未接触过中文的年轻新移民来说，他们为什么开始学习这门语言？我知道主要原因包括它本就是使用人数众多的热门语言...

Yeah. So for the newcomers, those who are young, who have not been, let's say, having access to the Chinese just yet. Why why are they starting? Why are they starting learning the language? I mean, I know the major reasons being it's already a very much spoken language, and it's very popular.

但具体是什么让它如此受欢迎呢？

But exactly what makes it popular?

我认为中国近年来创造的有影响力的文化符号和IP是一个重要驱动力，尤其是对年轻一代的中文学习者而言，他们往往出于某种动力试图理解这些文化背景，更宏大的文化语境，想要理解诸如‘仙术’之类的词汇。我猜这是来自《哪吒》的术语，对吧？

Well, I think powerful cultural symbols and IPs created by China in in in these years in most recent years, that's a big driver because especially young the younger generation of Chinese learners, they are often motivated somehow to to try to understand those cultural context, the bigger cultural context, seeking to understand some vocabularies like immortal spells. A term from Nezhao, I I guess. Right?

我完全理解这一点。丁红，我不知道你怎么想，但我小时候读《哈利·波特》系列时，其实从未真正理解那些咒语。后来当我英语水平有所提高时，才发现咒语是有结构的，是有逻辑的——咒语的某些部分实际上与巫师施法后的效果存在关联。这成为我持续学习英语的巨大动力。

I I totally get that. Yeah. I don't know about you, Ding Hong, but when I was little, when I was reading Harry Potter series, I never really truly understood the spells. And later on, when my English got a bit better, I realized that the spells have there's a structure in it, there's a reason in it, and a part of the structure well, a part of the spell actually mean or have a relationship with the, well, the the result of the spell you're casting as a wizard. And that has been a huge drive for me to keep learning English.

确实。啊，这拓展了我在该领域的认知。所以我完全理解为什么人们会因为《哪吒》里的仙术而想学习更多中文。

Yeah. Oh, Expanding my knowledge in that area. So I totally get why people would want to learn more Chinese because of the spells in Neucha.

我认为我们现在讨论的内容——当然你也知道，有些机构会教授商务汉语这类与工作相关的内容——但当出现像《三体》这样的作品时，那就是另一个绝佳案例了。这部作品在国际上获得了现象级的流行度。这类作品的出现会让语言突然变得很酷，让国家变得...

I think the the things that we're talking about here, and and of course, you know, you've got your institutions that will teach like business Chinese or things related to people's work, but when you have these types of things like the three body problem, that's another good example. Right? That was an incredibly, incredibly popular piece of literature internationally speaking. But when you have those types of things, then all of a sudden the language becomes cool. The country becomes

有趣。

Fun.

酷。是的，变得时髦。我不是说这样更好，但可以作为类比。我在韩国亲眼目睹过这种现象。

Cool. Yeah. It becomes trendy. And I'm not saying it's better, but I can say it it as a comparison. I saw this firsthand happen in Korea.

这正是他们的做法。他们先让韩食走向世界（或者我不确定先后顺序），随后K-pop兴起，这也带动了人们对韩语的兴趣。现在我们看到中国输出的内容让年轻人觉得非常酷，这形成了一种潮流，在媒体上大量曝光，人们也渴望了解它。

It's exactly what they did. They put their food on the map, which was followed by, or I don't know which came first, but k pop then came, and it inspired this interesting in Korean language too. And now we're seeing that China is putting out stuff that young people think is really, really cool, and it's making it trendy. It's putting it in the media a lot, and people wanna learn about it.

但从实际角度来看，经济驱动力仍然非常巨大。

But from a practical point of view, economic drivers are still huge.

确实如此。不可否认的力量。之所以不可否认，因为我们谈论的是增长或加速。就这么说吧。

Exactly. Exactly. That's undeniable force. An undeniable force because we're talking about the increasing or the accelerated. Let's put it this way.

进博会就是个很好的例子。哦，是的。没错。

CIIE would be a good example. Oh, yes. Yes.

这是个绝佳的例子。就在当下。

It's perfect example. Right now.

是的。进博会更侧重于进口方面，但与此同时，中国产品、服务、技术和文化的加速出口。这些都源于中国作为世界第二大经济体的地位——这是毋庸置疑的，也是全球140多个国家和地区的首要贸易伙伴。因此从商业角度而言，与中国合作确实存在现实需求？因为对许多从事国际贸易的人来说，掌握中文被视为一项实用技能，能够克服语言障碍，让财务交易和合作更高效。

Yeah. CIIE is on is more focused on the import aspect, but in the meantime, the accelerated export of Chinese products, services, and technologies, and culture. These are all things because China represents the world's second largest economy, that's for sure, and a primary trading partner for more than 140 countries and regions across the world. So there is definitely a realistic need to to engage with China from a business and a commercial perspective? Because for many doing international trade, knowing how to speak Chinese is really viewed as a practical useful skill to to overcome these language barriers, make your financial transaction, your cooperation more more efficient.

还有。同时我们也不能忽视背后的技术和问题，就像之前提到的多邻国平台，我认为这是技术孵化的成果。5G、人工智能和虚拟现实这些技术也能提升我们的学习体验。归根结底，学习一门外语对任何人来说都可以是生动有趣的体验，而不是被术语和语法这些枯燥内容淹没。对吧？

And yeah. And in the meantime, let's also not forget about the technological and issues behind it because, yeah, like like this Duolingo platform we we mentioned earlier, it was the the the fruits of technological incubation, I think. Five g, AI, and virtual reality, these technologies, they can also enhance our learning experiences. And at the end of the day, I think learning a a new foreign language for any individual, it can be, you know, engaging and vivid and interesting rather than, you know, in being engulfed in all these jargons and grammar, boring things. Right?

昨天做进博会相关节目时没机会分享这个例子，但很可爱：一位阿富汗在华留学生学了几年中文后，非常熟悉中国市场。他意识到国内阿富汗特色产品不多，于是决定把家乡最著名的手工编织毯引进中国。他成功带来了约2000条毯子，相当于2000户家庭的年收入。

I didn't have a chance to share this yesterday when we were doing the CIIE related show, but I saw this example, and it's very cute. A Afghanistan exchange student in China. After learning Chinese for several years, he was very familiar with the Chinese market, and he realized that not a lot of Afghanistan special products or local product specialties are here in the country. So he decided to bring one of their most renowned products that is a blanket, handmade blanket or carpet from his country to the Chinese market. And he managed to brought to bring about 2,000 ones, and that is equal to 2,000 households revenue annual revenue.

这就是市场的规模，以及学习一门语言可能带来的丰厚回报。

And that's how big the market is and how, well, lucrative learning a language might be.

这绝对是有益的。我有个朋友，大约三个月前见过他。他当时在北京出差，短暂停留后去了上海。他谈到在中国做生意，这也是他来见一些公司的原因。他带了翻译，但告诉我他正在学中文，因为他希望未来能自己参加这些会议，这样比通过翻译交流更直接。

It's definitely beneficial. A friend of mine, I met up with him maybe three months ago. He was in Beijing as part of his business trip. He was off to Shanghai after a a brief stop in Beijing, and he was talking about doing business in in China, and that that's why he was here to meet with some companies. And he had translator with him, and he told me that he was learning Chinese because he wanted to be able to have those meetings himself in the future because it's just more of a more of a personal way of doing things rather than speaking through a translator.

但他也说，当初考虑是否请翻译时觉得很重要，即便现在他中文还很有限，仍会尽量用。他说在与其他CEO的商务会议中，对方对他尝试说中文的反应非常好，这种努力很受赞赏。

But he said as well that, you know, when he considered getting the translator or not, he thought it was important at the time, but even still now, he tries to use some of the Chinese that he knows, which is very limited, but he said it's it's received very well in the business meetings when he's speaking with these other CEOs. The attempt to speak the language is very much appreciated.

这正是我想问的，尤其是当丁虎提到随着科技发展，学语言更容易了。但另一方面，不学语言也变得更容易——有了翻译、戴上智能眼镜，确实不太需要学了。可现实情况是，学中文的人反而越来越多。

That's what I wanted to ask a little bit, especially when Ding Hu mentioned that with the development of technology, it's easier to learn a language. But at the same time, it's easier not to learn the language. You do not have to learn the language anymore. With a translator, with smart glasses on your face, you don't really, really need to. But judging by the actual situation, the status quo we're looking at right now, instead of having less Chinese learning students, we are looking at more.

你认为这是为什么？

Why do you think is that?

短期停留使用翻译当然很有帮助。但如果你的生活与中国相关，需要经常与中文使用者交流，那学中文就很有必要。首先翻译常会遗漏文化细微差别，其次人类本性就喜欢直接交流——这能体现意图、努力和诚意。翻译工具虽好，但并非万能。

Well, I think if you're if you're using those translators purposes, then sure. That's gonna be greatly beneficial for you if you're in the country for a short time. But if you are doing something with your life that is related to China and you're interacting with, Chinese speakers on a daily basis or a weekly or monthly basis, then it definitely is because, number one, oftentimes translators don't do it properly, and they miss the cultural nuances, right, in the speech. But second, we're still human beings, and people like it when people speak to other directly, and it shows intent, and it shows effort, and it shows sincerity. So I think as great as those translators are, they're not perfect for every situation.

确实。我认为对异国文化的好奇心才是关键。我认识有人同时用多邻国学意大利语、法语和西班牙语，驱动力正是对欧洲文化的强烈好奇。

Yeah. I think still curiosity about a another culture, that's that's the elephant in the room because I have known somebody near me or very close to me. They have, like, used the Duolingo to study Italians, to study French, to study Spanish. They they study all three languages all at the same time. And at the and ultimately, the ultimate driver was that this person was very much curious have a very much curiosity about European culture.

嗯。所以期待着有一天能去欧洲旅行

Mhmm. So and looking forward to European traveling to Europe one day and that's

这可能会让人困惑。你可能会说，哦，比如，我吃过什么？意大利菜。

It could be confusing. You might say like, oh, Like, What did I have? Italian.

但我理解，因为当我还在山西的省会太原时——那至少是十年前，至少七年前——我看到一家小面包店，店的中文名我不明白。我想或许和创始人有关。后来在Duolingo学法语时，有天突然看到法语中蛋糕叫'gateau'。

But I get it also because when I was in Taoyuan, that's the capital provincial capital of my hometown province, Shanxi province. I think it's ten years at least seven years ago. I saw this little bakery, and the Chinese name for the little bakery is I didn't understand. I thought maybe it has something to do with the founder or anything. And then when I was learning French on Duolingo, one day, I suddenly saw the French word for cake is gateau.

我恍然大悟——Gateau。Gateau就是蛋糕啊！原来Gateau先生其实就是蛋糕先生。那一刻至少给了我继续学习好几年的动力。如果你学中文时也能有这样的顿悟时刻，我完全理解。

I realized Gateau. Gateau and realized, Oh, Mr. Gateau is actually Mr. Cake or So that moment at least gave me the drive to keep learning it for several more years. And I get it if you can have the same kind of moment in learning Chinese.

这确实很酷。但我们现在对中文学习者一概而论，总说他们学语言是因为这样那样的原因。实际上不同背景、不同年龄的人学习动机各不相同。

It's definitely super cool. But we're generalizing the Chinese learners till now. We're talking about, oh, they learn the language because of this and that. But different people from different background and different age, they have different reasons.

是的。学生群体的人口结构差异、他们所处的世界地理区域，都会根据语言需求将人群划分开来。比如30岁左右的年轻人（通常是最大群体）往往是被我们之前提到的文化IP、游戏、电视剧吸引的。

Yeah. I mean, the demographic differ differences among the students and also the geographical regions where they live in the world, that would that would kind of separate the groups depending on their demands or their needs for for the language. Right? And if you separate them into groups, the the younger people, the 30, though that's often the biggest group by the way. They're frequently drawn by the things that we mentioned before, the cultural IPs, the games, the dramas.

可能我们还没具体提过，但这些文化产品如今在国际上也很成功。他们会主动寻找与兴趣领域（比如游戏或电视剧）相关的文化概念词汇或背景知识架构。在东南亚地区，82%的中文学习者是为了职业发展，且同样集中在35岁左右群体。他们需要'中文+直播'或'中文+电商'这类技能组合，这已成为年轻职场人士的必备能力。比如曼谷有位泰国年轻内容创作者，每晚都在电商平台直播，他在一家跨境公司工作，学习中文是为了能直接与中国客户沟通，在直播中自信地展示产品——这又回到了建立真诚信任与客户连接这个商业本质。

I maybe we didn't mention those yet, but those are internationally successful now as well. And they're looking for vocabulary or or background structures that are related to cultural concepts from the things that they're interested in, like the games or the dramas or something like that. Regionally, in Southeast Asia, 82% of those who are learning Chinese, are doing so for professional development, and those fall into that 35 group as well. So they have skill combinations like Chinese plus live streaming or Chinese plus ecommerce, and those are now must haves among young professionals. Also, in Thailand, there's an example of a a young Thai content creator who goes live on ecommerce platforms almost every evening, and he he works at a cross border company in Bangkok, he's learning Chinese so that he can communicate directly with his Chinese customers and confidently present, you know, during those during those live livestreams, which again goes back to the point of I mean, here we're talking business, but building a sincere trust and connection with your customers.

是的。很酷。很有趣。很实用。比以前容易了，但并不是说现在就没有挑战需要克服。

Yes. It's cool. It's fun. It's practical. It's easier than before, but not to say there are no challenges to overcome already.

我们仍然面临某些挑战。这里的'我们'，指的是那些学习中文的人，以及为海外学生提供中文教育或对学习这门语言充满热情的人。主要挑战有哪些？

We still face certain challenges. By saying we, I mean the Chinese learners out there as well as those who are providing Chinese education to overseas students or those who are just enthusiastic about learning the language. What are the major challenges?

嗯，首要问题可能是资源获取实际上在大城市和小地方之间非常不平衡。大都市区有丰富的中文学习资源，但中小城市或更偏远地区虽然需求增长非常快，却面临资源短缺的困境。根据扬州大学的这份报告，全球约有70%-80%的中文学习者仍处于初级水平，但海外市场往往缺乏针对初学者的教材。现有的教学资源和教材大多集中在中级或更高级别的学习者身上。这是个问题。

Well, number one is probably this access to resources is a little bit or very much, actually, unbalanced between major and smaller places because large metro metropolitan areas, they have plenty of resources and access to Chinese learning, resources, but those smaller and medium sized cities, or either more remotely located places, locations, they are experiencing very rapid growth in demand, but was but they're really struggling with, shortage in terms of the resources. And there I guess there is a mismatch between the supply of teaching material and the demands on the part of learners because, according to this Yangzhou University report, this report has highlighted a substantial portion of global Chinese learners somewhere between 7080%. They are still at a at a very, you know, initial beginners level, but those overseas markets often sees a lack of those beginner focused textbooks because I I guess the existing resources, teaching resources, the existing textbooks, for example, are generally concentrated on intermediates or more higher level learners. That's a problem.

所以对初学者来说教材不够。是的。

So there's not enough material for the for the beginning students. Yeah.

我认为这与中文学习在全球范围内刚刚兴起有关——它正在形成一股巨大浪潮，但还处于起点阶段。目前只有2亿人在学习这门语言。

I think it has something to do with the fact that it's only starting to take off in the sense that globally, it's becoming a huge wave, but it's the starting point of it. Only 200,000,000 people are learning the language.

确实。在这种情况下，需求往往会突然激增，这是之前没有预料到的。

Well, yeah. And in a in a case like this, oftentimes, the demand will spike out of nowhere that didn't exist before.

这意味着你们对此准备不足

Which means you didn't have enough preparation for it just

然而。确实如此。事情必须这样发展。是的，必须朝着这个方向前进。

yet. Exactly. And that's the way it has to go. Yes. It has to go in that direction.

否则，这不会被视作一个明智的商业决策。

Otherwise, it wouldn't be seen as a as a good business decision.

说实话，当我们最初开始做'外卖中文'时，我们调研了播客平台上有多少与中文学习相关的播客产品。当时发现并不多。但最近当我搜索中文学习、中文相关内容时，播客平台上已经有很多了。所以我们正见证着这个领域素材创作的蓬勃增长。

And to be honest, when we were starting Take Away Chinese at the very beginning, we did research on the podcast platforms and see how many podcast products are there related to Chinese learning. We didn't find much. But these days, when I search Chinese learning, Chinese related content on podcast platforms, there are many. So we are already looking at a growing growing in the making of the material.

是的。大约一年前我们刚搬到北京时，我做的第一件事就是上网搜索能找到哪些资源。我确实发现了大量播客内容，很多是在华外籍人士制作的，他们中文说得非常流利，教学是他们工作的一部分。但我有个不满：他们从第一课开始就说得太快了。

Yeah. I I did a when when we first moved to Beijing over a year ago now, one of the first things I did was an online search of what types of resources I I could find. And I did find a lot of podcast stuff, and I found a lot of stuff from expats who live in China, who speak Chinese very, very well, and then they this is part of what they do is is teach, but I have a complaint about that. They speak way too quickly from from lesson okay. No.

通常流程是第一课、第二课这样推进。等等——中间发生了什么？有些内容我没跟上。这就是我的不满所在，同时也是回答你这个问题的难点之一。

Usually it goes lesson number one, lesson number two. Wait. Wait. What happened between lesson number I got but something happened that I didn't catch. And so this is my complaint is that and this is part of the challenges to answer this question of yours too.

对以英语为母语或其他非中文母语者而言，普通话可能非常令人畏惧。首先，汉字看起来像图画对吧？我们从未见过类似的文字体系，在母语中找不到任何对应参照，这本身就让人望而生畏。

Mandarin can be a very, very intimidating thing for English speak native English speakers or any non Chinese speaker because number one, we have the the Chinese characters that look like pictures. Right? And and we've never seen anything like that before. There's nothing to relate. There's nothing to relate in our own language there, so that's very intimidating.

另外中文发音与法语、德语或西班牙语毫无相似之处。以英语母语者为例，很难找到学习切入点。因此对于我们合作的这些播客和'外卖中文'项目，我认为应该循序渐进地展开，让学习者能逐步掌握——就像'好的，我懂了'这种感觉。

And then also, you know, Chinese doesn't sound similar to French or German or Spanish or so again, for At all. To use native English speakers as an example, it's tough to find a starting point. So for these podcasts and for Takeaway Chinese that we do together, I think, you know, rolling things out slowly and and in a place where we can feel like, okay. I got that.

初级水平。

Beginner's level.

是啊。比如，比如，水平。幼儿水平。这会很有帮助。是的。

Yeah. Like, Like, level. Baby level. That would be very helpful. Yeah.

不过这只是我个人

That's But that's just my personal

的看法。而且这是针对线上内容的。是的。当线上内容有足够选择时，你可以选择初级水平或幼儿水平。也可以选择中等难度课程，当然还有高级课程。

opinion. And that's for online content. Yeah. And when there are enough choices among the online content, you can go for the beginner's level or the baby level. You can go for the medium ones, and also there are sophisticated lessons, of course.

但除此之外，我们还有许多不同类型的机构以及政府支持，就像我们对话早期提到的那样。他们正将中文学习纳入国民教育计划，提供中文课程，甚至做得更多。如今有更多机会直接与中国人和中国社会互动。

But besides that, we have a lot of different types of institutions and a lot of government, like we mentioned in the early earlier stage of our conversation. They are including Chinese learning in their national education plan. They are providing Chinese lessons, and they're doing even more than that. There are more opportunities to have interaction with Chinese people and Chinese society directly nowadays.

确实。这也是另一个巨大优势，当国际中文教育在各国发展起来后，能接触到人文层面的内容是一大益处。否则中文学习可能就只是通过电脑之类的方式，停留在一种虚无缥缈的状态。

Yeah. Which is another big benefit too, where you've got international Chinese education growing in countries, then having access to the humanistic side of of things is a big benefit. Otherwise, it just kind of remains this kind of intangible thing that you are just kind of learning through a computer or something.

是的。在这类机构里你能学习语言。如果学得好，可以参加各类标准化考试，这些考试能让你了解自己在中文学习阶梯上的位置。作为青少年，有时高中生还可以参加中国的夏令营，走访中国城市和大学，在玩乐中更深入地学习中文。如果你真的感兴趣，请在评论区留言。

Yes. In these kind of institutions, you get to learn the language. If you're really good, it can take different types of standard tests, would would give you an idea of where are you on the Chinese learning ladder. And then you might, as a teenager, sometimes high school students, you can join summer camp to China, go visit Chinese cities and universities, and just have a bit more fun and really learn a bit more about the Chinese language. So if you're really interested, please leave a comment in the comment section.

请告诉我们你学习中文的方式、你的学习动机，以及你目前可能达到的水平。

Let us know how you're learning Chinese and what's your reasons and maybe what levels you are.