Links mentioned:

Mark Zuckerberg speaks fluent Mandarin during Q&A in Beijing

How to learn any language in six months by Chris Lonsdale

A video of Chris Lonsdale sharing his language learning tips to a Chinese audience in Mandarin

How I Learned Fluent Mandarin in One Year by Ari in Beijing

Benny Lewis’ book Fluency in Three Months

The U.S. Department of State Foreign Service Institute (FSI) School of Language Studies (SLS) have been teaching languages to U.S. diplomats for 70 years. In their experience, it takes 2,200 hours to learn Chinese to a “professional working proficiency,” which they call a “level 3”, and they have 5 levels on their scale!