Horrocks earned his PhD in Chinese Economic History from Leeds University in the United Kingdom, and is fluent in Mandarin.

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It also highlights a next step for Apple's retail strategy: Jung, who is fluent in Mandarin, made Avon a force in China.

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Edward Theodore Chalmers Werner was a formidable figure in the Peking community, a genuine China hand who was fluent in Mandarin, courageous and very curious.

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She is fluent in Mandarin, French and Russian (her three years in Moscow for Newsweek are almost the only break she has taken from Asia in her 17-year journalistic career).

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Cheng, who had the suits for his wedding in the Maldives made here last year, looks totally at home, chatting to the tailors in Cantonese (though, unlike many Hong Kong Chinese, Cheng is also fluent in Mandarin).

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Ninth-grader Nicole Zido is already fluent in Cantonese, but her parents, both from Hong Kong, want her to learn Mandarin, China's official language, but Zido says she has her own motivation for wanting to learn the language.

NPR: Chinese Classes Grow in Popularity with U.S. Students