New Zealand Police officers have begun learning Mandarin to help them communicate with the growing number of Chinese-speaking residents and visitors in the largest city of Auckland.

The cultural competency course involves teaching basic Mandarin language skills, but also includes a deeper cultural understanding of lucky numbers, symbols and colors to help police officers foster a closer engagement with the Chinese community.

The initiative is being led by Ethnic Responsiveness Manager Jessica Phuang who believes that officers speaking Mandarin will help break down cultural barriers that sometimes restrict what Chinese people are prepared to disclose to the authorities.

"I believe Chinese people will feel more warmed up and realize that 'I can talk to that police officer.'"

Senior Sergeant Marty Brown was among the initial batch of twenty officers who received free tuition from the Chinese New Settlers Trust and says that Mandarin is a complex and difficult language to learn, especially when you haven't grown up with a language that's tonal.

"It can be difficult to hear the tones, I make the oddest mistakes," he said.

Nevertheless, Marty says that the reaction from the Chinese community has been positive and he's eager to expand his Mandarin skills.

"I think people appreciate the effort in regards to just the simple phrases, and at the moment I'm at the level of simple phrases, but I hope to learn more."

Auckland's Chinese community has reacted positively to the initiative according to Iris Cheng, the president of the Music Association of Auckland. She says that language barriers can create misunderstanding, so even a little bit of Mandarin can go a long way to build relationships.

"To at least say, ‘hello – ni hao ma', and ‘what's your problem, what can I do for you?', those type of things - I think it's very useful."

In addition to teaching Mandarin, the cultural competency course also aims to give officers an understanding of broader cultural issues such as the importance of saving face.

Part of Jessica's role as the ethnic responsiveness manager for Auckland is to explain cultural differences to the Chinese community, like why it is against the law in New Zealand to beat up a thief to teach them a lesson. Likewise, she saw the need for the police to learn more about Chinese culture like "why we wear red, and why do we have white colors in funerals."

And it seems that the word is spreading. More than 90 officers have already registered for a second Mandarin course in April and the New Zealand Police now require all new recruits to undertake basic cultural competency training which covers the major cultures in the Asia-Pacific region.