Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg and Other Influential Parents Whose Kids Are Learning Mandarin

While many Singaporean kids grow up struggling with Chinese in school, some of the world's richest and most influential people are choosing to have their children learn Mandarin.

Tech billionaires Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg, as well as members of US President Donald Trump's family, are among the high-profile figures whose children are learning the language. For many, Mandarin is seen as a valuable skill as China's economic and technological influence continues to grow.

Elon Musk

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk previously shared in a post on X that his six-year-old son, X Æ A-Xii, is learning Mandarin. Musk even brought the boy along on his Beijing trip in May, where he attended a meeting between President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping. Given Tesla's sizeable business interests in China, it's perhaps unsurprising that Musk would want his son to pick up the language.

We wonder how his name is pronounced in Mandarin though.

Mark Zuckerberg

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg began learning Mandarin in 2010, partly to communicate better with his wife Priscilla Chan’s Chinese-speaking family. He famously showcased his language skills during a public Q&A conducted almost entirely in Mandarin at Beijing's Tsinghua University in 2014.

His three daughters, Maxima, 10, August, eight, and Aurelia, three, are reportedly learning Mandarin too, with Zuckerberg previously saying he wanted them to understand the language and culture.

Donald Trump

President Trump's granddaughter, Arabella Kushner, 14, has been in the spotlight for her Mandarin skills since she was a child.

In 2017, Arabella, the daughter of Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, charmed Chinese President Xi Jinping by singing a Chinese song and reciting poetry during his state visit to the US. She also greeted Chinese Xi and his wife, Peng Liyuan, in Mandarin. Ivanka later revealed that Arabella had been learning Mandarin since she was just 18 months old.

Jim Rogers

American investor Jim Rogers moved his family from New York to Singapore in 2007 so his daughters, Happy and Bee, now 23 and 18, could grow up in Asia and learn Mandarin. Rogers has long maintained that China will be "the most important country in the 21st century", and wanted his children to have the language skills to thrive in that future.

The sisters attended Nanyang Primary School where they became known for their fluent Mandarin. Videos of the sisters speaking the language have gone viral over the years, with many netizens remarking that they speak better Mandarin than some native speakers.

Jeff Bezos

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and his former wife, MacKenzie Scott, exposed their four children — including a daughter adopted from China — to a wide range of learning experiences such as Mandarin lessons and even the Singapore Math programme.

Prince William

Prince William and Kate Middleton's eldest son, Prince George, 12, was introduced to Mandarin while attending Thomas's Battersea, where the language forms part of the curriculum from Primary One.