If Zuckerberg Found Time to Learn Mandarin, What's Your Excuse?

Hey, you: laowai. Yeah, I'm talking to you, Mr. Monolingual, struggling to get your Uber driver to understand that yes, you are exactly where the GPS signal says you are.

Let's face it, you need to improve your Mandarin.

After all, if the world's busiest tech mastermind can find time to study putonghua, then you really have no excuse.

We're referring of course to Mark Zuckerberg, famous enthusiast of all things Chinese (and maybe some of your might know him as the founder of Facebook). Now granted, he has plenty of incentive to learn. As he explained to a captive Tsinghua crowd in Mandarin in 2014, he wanted to tell his wife Priscilla's grandmother about their wedding plans, before adding: "Chinese is hard and I like a challenge!" Oh, and maybe he's trying to woo Chinese officials into lifting their ban on Facebook in the PRC. Just maybe.  

Regardless, good ol' Xiao Zha (小扎, as "little Zuck" is referred to by some round these parts) has above-average Mandarin without even living here. We Beijing dwellers can't take this lying down. And while it's easy to get by in this day and age with a mere few phrases, thanks to the superior language skills of our Chinese hosts, there's a strong argument that you will seem like a colonial ass-clown if you spend many of your adult years here without having picked up more of the local lingo.

So with that in mind, we introduce you to Mandarin Month: Our attempt to whip you, our dear readers, into a fervor to get out there and improve your Mandarin language skills.

Over the course of June, we'll be bringing you a flurry of Mandarin-related content: introducing top notch study centers in and around Beijing; outlining handy lists of phrases; detailing handy digital tools; and profiling prominent non-Chinese who are among the most fluent Mandarin speakers we know.

We'll cap it all off at the end of the month with our Mandarin Month Mixer, a booze-fueled afternoon at Home Plate BBQ (pre-registration required here) where you'll be able to meet the staff and teachers of some of Beijing's best Mandarin learning centers. You'll also be able to meet other foreigners with language levels similar to yours with whom you can form classes.

Read on to learn more about why the Mandarin Month Mixer is the can't-miss-event of the summer.

The top 5 reasons why you can't miss our Mandarin Month Mixer

1. Take advantage of on-site discounts from schools: Teachers and recruiters from 20 Mandarin language centers, university programs and app developers will be manning booths at this event. Attendees will be privy to special discounts on classes, study materials, APP subscriptions, and more.

2. Comparison shop without the hassle: Easily compare language centers by strolling from booth to booth, rather than wasting your time calling a bunch up or trying to compare their features online.

3. Meet the teachers face to face: See which center's laoshi are best suited for your personality and learning style, by chatting and having a drink with the teachers in attendance. Those educators and reps will also have sample textbooks, course ware, and other materials on hand, so that you have a strong impression of their curricular approaches.

4. Get yourself some study buddies: Network with other students to form study groups at your level.

5. Let it all hang out: Get tipsy, hang out and have fun at one of Beijing's most popular party spots, where booze and food will plentifully flow.

As if that weren't enough, attendees can get even more out of the event by pre-registering. The first 200 pre-registered attendees will get a free beer at the event as well as goodies like mugs, cell phone cases, study aids and codes to download Mandarin learning apps that would otherwise cost you a pretty penny.

We're also proud to announce that Project Pengyou is on board as a sponsor. For those of you who have had their head in the sand for a few years, Project Pengyou was conceived as the alumni network for US President Obama’s 100,000 Strong Initiative, which aims to get 100,000 Americans to learn Mandarin.

And even if you can't attend our event June 25, you'll find tons to motivate you on our Mandarin Month page where we'll post event updates, study tips and tricks, insider knowledge about Beijing's best language centers, inspiring interviews with foreigners who have mastered Chinese, and more.

This post is brought to you by Pleco, Project Pengyou, and Ninchanese.

Images: timesofmalta.com, the Beijinger