7 Million Mandarin Lessons Taught At Yoyo Chinese As Interest In Learning Chinese Surges

Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg Among 100 Million Students Now Learning Chinese Worldwide

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Oct 30, 2014, 08:11 ET

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 30, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Yoyo Chinese (www.yoyochinese.com), a video-based online Mandarin instructional program featuring television personality and University Chinese teacher Yangyang Cheng, announced today their students have taken over seven million lessons from the company's Mandarin instructional videos. Recent high-profile events, including Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg addressing a Beijing audience entirely in Mandarin and Ellen DeGeneres playfully attempting to pronounce names of Chinese viewers on-air, have highlighted the growing interest to speak Mandarin among English-language speakers.

Yangyang Cheng, CEO of Yoyo Chinese, has taught 7 million Mandarin lessons to students from around the world, where 100 million students are now learning to speak Chinese. Yoyo Chinese is gearing up for a surge in Mandarin popularity as celebrities, including Mark Zuckerberg and Ellen DeGeneres, publicly embrace learning Chinese.

Mandarin Numbers

There are 1.2 billion Mandarin speakers worldwide, with 2.9 million in the U.S.
In September, 2014, the Chinese government estimated 100 million people around the world were learning Chinese.
60 thousand K-12 students in the U.S. are studying Chinese.
26,000 Americans are studying abroad in China.
Chinese has replaced English as the primary language on the Internet.
Business demand for Mandarin speakers increased 110% from 2009 – 2013.

"Chinese students learn English in high school, read English literature, watch American television programs, and immerse themselves in American culture," said Yangyang Cheng, Founder and CEO of Yoyo Chinese. Cheng explains this creates a deep knowledge and understanding of Western beliefs, business practices and social issues. "On the other hand, how much do Americans know about China? English speakers learning Chinese have recognized this knowledge gap prevents them from accessing a large percent of the world's population, as well as an entire reservoir of knowledge contained within 5,000 years of history."

Cheng brings her experience as a television host of "Hello! Hollywood," and the Discovery Channel's "Oh My Buddha," along with her background teaching Chinese to Pepperdine University MBA students, to deliver lively and engaging video lessons at Yoyo Chinese. The top reasons cited by Yoyo Chinese students for learning Mandarin include: business, love interest, travel, and maintaining mental acuity, especially among students over age fifty. Yoyo Chinese students can attain basic conversational fluency in just six months, and intermediate conversational fluency in just twelve months, when completing one forty-five minute lesson each day.

Video b-roll of Yangyang Cheng commenting on Mark Zuckerberg's command of Mandarin, growing global interest in learning Chinese, and why learning Chinese is easier than most English speakers realize: http://youtu.be/i-wcDCUtJQI

About Yoyo Chinese
Launched in 2012, Yoyo Chinese (www.yoyochinese.com) is a popular video-based Mandarin program, offering a comprehensive library of clearly-explained instructional videos featuring television personality and University Chinese teacher, Yangyang Cheng. Yoyo Chinese offers the only structured Mandarin video curriculum exclusively designed to meet the learning needs of native English speakers. The program is subscription based. The company offers free instructional Mandarin videos on their YouTube Channel, as well as informative content on the company's blog (www.yoyochinese.com/blog). Yoyo Chinese in headquartered in Arcadia, California.

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20141029/155389

SOURCE Yoyo Chinese