In the same census, 980,555 Australians indicated that they mainly spoke either Mandarin or Cantonese at home, representing 4.0% of the national population, making it the second-most spoken language in Australia after English.

Chinese is widely considered a relatively difficult language for native English speakers to learn.

[5] Other foreign languages such as French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese and Spanish are much more commonly learnt and understood by non-Chinese students than Chinese is.

[10][11][12][13][14][15] A small but somewhat influential minority of Australians who openly hold racist and xenophobic views have also negatively affected the Chinese language and culture in Australia.

[19] During the COVID-19 pandemic, the daily English-language press conferences held by then-New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian and NSW Health, which were broadcast live on television to provide updates and statistics about the pandemic in the state, were translated into many languages, including both Mandarin and Cantonese.