Ms Chok, who is in her 40s and works for a venture capital firm, is making headway in picking up Mandarin at the Global Hanyu and Culture Centre in Kuala Lumpur.

A non-native speaker, Ms Chok is among a growing number of Malaysians flocking to learn Mandarin in order to return to their roots.

'For me, it is an opportunity to go back to my roots and know more about my Chinese heritage,' she said.

As well, she and many other students at the centre said doing business in booming China is another main reason that they are keen to learn the language.

There is no official data on how popular Mandarin has become, but the jump in interest can be gleaned from the success of centres offering lessons in the language.

For example, when the Global Hanyu centre started two years ago, it had only four trainers and about 50 students.

Today, there are 50 trainers and almost 200 students.

Ms Foong Wai Fong, who runs the centre, said most of the students are working adults.

'Over the past few years, we notice there has been an increased interest in Mandarin. Many are anticipating moving to China for their business or will expect to have more dealings with China,' she said.

Other language schools are also seeing a similar rise in interest. A tutor at a language school in Serdang, Selangor, said that his centre had to rent a nearby office lot on weekends to cope with the large number of students.

'We used to hold five classes over weekends two years ago. Now we are holding nine,' said the part-time tutor, who wished to be identified only as Mr Kua.

A spokesman for Linguaphone, a company which sells language self-study aids such as tutorials in compact disc format, said Mandarin is among its top-selling products, together with Arabic and German.

The firm's licensing manager K.S. Liew told The Straits Times that, over the years, there has been a steady rise in the number of people wanting to pick up Mandarin, especially businessmen.

Since opening in 2005, Global Hanyu, a private firm which hires tutors from China, has trained more than 2,000 students.

About one-third of these are non-Chinese, some of whom, like Ms Nik Hasmini Nik Muhamad, 34, come to study simply as a hobby. She is learning Mandarin because she loves languages.

'I think Mandarin is a fascinating language. When I complete the whole course in a year's time, hopefully I can converse well,' said the human resources manager.

Datuk David Chua, deputy secretary-general of the Associated Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry Malaysia, said learning Mandarin enabled Malaysian businessmen not only to converse with their Chinese counterparts but also to better understand the nuances of Chinese culture.

kumhor@sph.com.sg