“Is yapping faster in Chinese?”—Users react hilariously to 216% surge in Americans learning Mandarin on Duolingo

Americans are scrambling to learn Mandarin. Duolingo, the beloved owl that haunts your notifications, has seen a jaw-dropping 216% surge in Americans learning Mandarin.

This is not a coincidence. It’s all about the looming TikTok ban and the mass exodus to the Chinese social media app RedNote (or Xiaohongshu, if you’re fancy).

With RedNote defaulting to Mandarin, people have to choose either to adapt or get lost in translation. And Americans are choosing to adapt—by crashing Duolingo servers.

Twitter, or X, exploded with the funniest takes. One user cracked: “Is yapping faster in Chinese?”

“That’s actually hilarious, I respect the dedication lol,” another user stated.

"Lmao Americans are desperate for their TikTok dopamine 😂," one tweet read.

"Anything for the memes," chimed another.

"Bro what… just go to Instagram reels and tell me that 90% of them aren’t recycled TikTok’s," suggested a user.

One comment quipped: “Only TikTok users would rather learn a different language than move to Reels”.

Another user noted: “Everyone's suddenly trying to learn Chinese like it’s gonna save them from boredom without TikTok, good luck with that.”

Meanwhile, a user said: “This is like immigration but with social media.”

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Why are people migrating to RedNote?

With TikTok's days numbered, users are looking for the next big thing. RedNote offers a similar vibe, just with an extra layer of linguistic challenge.

This migration has sparked an unexpected cultural crossover, with Americans brushing up on their language skills to fully immerse themselves in the Chinese platform. Duolingo’s green owl has been on overdrive, pumping out Mandarin crash courses for these “TikTok refugees.”

Appfigures noted a 36% spike in Duolingo downloads earlier this month. This trend has also turned into a kind of litmus test to see how much U.S. users care about the initial reasons for the TikTok ban—namely, concerns over Chinese data collection.

Well, they seem unbothered.

Since RedNote is designed for a Chinese audience, Mandarin is the default language, leaving many new U.S. users rushing for language lessons.

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Update on TikTok ban

TikTok has faced increasing pressure from the White House to sell the social platform to US investors or risk being banned outright by January 19, 2025. This comes after the Supreme Court validated a law that requires the owners of Tiktok, ByteDance, to either divest or shut down the application totally in the U.S.

This action is a great shift for TikTok, an app with approximately 170 million active users in the U.S.

The federal government is also banning TikTok due to national security, said the Supreme Court on January 17. The app’s free speech argument was dismissed, paving the way for the law to be implemented.

This legislation, pushed by the US administration last April, is focused on mitigating risks associated with data security and potential meddling by the Chinese government.

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RedNote serving memes

Users are not just nonchalant about switching to a Chinese app despite all of these serious things, but memes are also constantly trending.

An X user posted: "Me selecting “ALLOW” when Rednote asks if I will allow them to track my data 🥰🥰."

Meanwhile, Chinese users are making fun of "data tracking" alleged by the U.S. government.

Meanwhile, a user joked: "Apparently i agreed to join the chinese military when hit accept of the RedNote Terms & Conditions."

A post read: "All the “TikTok refugees” are going over to RedNote, signing terms and conditions in Chinese. Baby, y’all are registering for Squid Games…"

Another post read: "Love is blind, especially when it comes to data tracking."

A user went on to say: "On TikTok, it's mostly Americans interacting with other Americans, but on REDnote, Americans are interacting with Chinese in China. People are realizing that the Chinese are just as unserious as us. 😂"