"First of all, the Chinese are so nice, they're so sweet and so welcoming. They've over here teaching us Mandarin."

Duolingo has seen a surge in U.S. Mandarin learners as TikTok users explore Chinese social app RedNote amid a looming ban.

TikTok could be banned in the US, rendering the app unusable and removing it from app stores. Instead of making do with Instagram Reels, people looked for a closer alternative and found Chinese social media app "RedNote" or Xiaohongshu,