Hi, I’m a male undergraduate student and I’m asking this question for my sister, who is going to start high school next year. We are Chinese.
I took three years of Spanish in high school. I did not attend weekend Chinese schools. I regret taking Spanish instead of Chinese in high school because my spoken Chinese is poor and I cannot read/write at all. I cannot communicate well with international Chinese students (there is a large percentage at my college), relatives, and Chinese adults, since they all prefer to speak Chinese.
My sister attend weekend Chinese school for about 5 years. She hated it. My parents have to sit down and force her to study. She received poor grades there. She speaks English whenever possible, even at home. My parents speak Shanghainese at home, which I often speak and can hold a conversation in. But my sister avoids it and tries to speak English.
I’ve wanted her to take Chinese in high school, because given her 5 years at weekend Chinese school, she could skip to Chinese 2 at least. She will actually use Chinese in her daily life, unlike Spanish or French. However, she says she hates Chinese and wants to take French (she will probably start at French 2). My mom used to agree with me, but she says her parent friends said college admission do not look favorably at Chinese people taking Chinese because it is their own language and they have an advantage.
What do you think? Is the admissions language bias true? What do you think she should take?
“Do you believe Harvard or Stanford accept students because they studied French in high school? Foreign language requirement is simply a requirement. It will not be a reason to admit a student.”
Well of course foreign-language will not be the sole reason for admittance, but every little thing counts. Granted, I don’t know too much about admissions nowadays since its been a few years since I applied to college.
If admissions don’t care, then we agree that Chinese is much more practical. But my sister is stubborn and rebellious, similar to me at that age. However unlike me, she took 5 years of weekend Chinese school, which I feel is being thrown down the drain if she doesn’t continue with Chinese. I believe her reluctance is coming from wanting to try something new and fear of being pigeonholed as “an Asian” at her public high school, which I estimate is 90% Caucasian. All her friends are Caucasian. There’s nothing wrong with that, but I think it’s influencing her choice in this matter.
Can you recommend how I should convince her to take Chinese?
You should let her choose. My half-Chinese son took Italian in high school. He would have taken Chinese if it were offered, but it wasn’t. If she hates Chinese, she won’t do well in it if she’s forced to take it. The 5 years of weekend school is not a waste.
Are you talking about Cantonese, Mandarin or Shanghainese? Completely different. If the local chinese school teaches Mandarin, then yes of course it may be of some use to her in the future. Having parents speaking Shanghainese at home, while learning Mandarin would be difficult.
Taking chinese simply to impress colleges is not the way to go. Colleges won’t be impressed when they see an 800 SAT II Chinese score from a family who is obviously of chinese background. They will assume she grew up speaking chinese at home. The curve on the chinese SAT II exam is so steep that most students get an 800. If she were a non-chinese person, learning on her own for several years then scoring 800 is indeed impressive.
Having said all of this, have her take a language which she enjoys. If she wants to learn chinese later in life, she will have ample opportunity to do so. Learning chinese won’t get her into college.
I don’t think it matters for college admissions. What she should avoid is taking the subject test in her home language, that is noticed by colleges. But let her take what she wants to take.
Note that some school would not consider the fulfillment of foreign language requirement if it is your native language. For Harvard, they would not count your native language subject test as part of the minimal SAT2 requirement. My D never attend Chinese school but she can understand, speak, and even read some Chinese. She took Spanish in middle and high school through AP despite the advantage she has in Chinese. If your sister has been learning Chinese for 5 years, she may even try the AP exam without taking it in high school. I know many ABC doing that while taking other world language at school. It may be a waste of time for your sister to take Chinese in high school particularly if she hates it. It would look better in the eyes of adcom if you took a second language that is not your mother tongue.
Should be OK to take the heritage language subject test as an *additional * test beyond the required ones. Although if her skills are not that good in it, it may not be worth it.
@sgopal2 - OP specified it was Shanghainese. I don’t know the extent of Chinese in the high school but it might be Mandarian (which is basically an impossible and confusing transition)
Don’t force your sister to take it just because you regretted it and because she was in a CLC-like environment for 5 years. If she wants to take French, let her take French! It’s her decision and her life. She won’t enjoy or do well in a class that she doesn’t even want to take in the first place.
It’s fine to take Chinese if your not originally from China or went to school there. Plenty of Hispanics take AP Spanish so why can’t we? I took Chinese in high school, tested out of Chinese 1 and my friends did the same (some now attending Harvard/MIT) It doesn’t really matter what she is taking if she likes it. She might not do good in a chinese class if she hates it. I took it because I liked Chinese but could’ve easily taken French/Spanish. I say let her take what she wants.
The level of colleges considered matters: for colleges with low selectivity, any foreign language will do. If your sister hopes to get into a top 25 university or LAC, then it’ll matter, and if she aims at universities such as HYPS, even more.
If the latter:
If the language is spoken at home, then it’s not considered a “foreign” language. It can be studied as an additional language - ie., having Level4 or AP level in a language PLUS self study/weekend Chinese with Subject test score or AP test to validate the learning is every good.
It’s the same for Hispanics and Spanish, or any other language.
However, there’s some leeway for students who attend low-performing schools and are first gen (regardless of language considered).
Another issue here is that your sister does not want to take Chinese. Why should she?
If you regret not taking Chinese in HS, take it in college, but don’t make your sister take it.
I understand it’s a “lesson” you learned, but there’s nothing that prevents your sister from taking French in HS, and taking Chinese in college if she wants to, starting at Chinese1.
Furthermore, is your sister learning Shanghainese in Chinese School, or Mandarin? Because virtually all HSchools teach Mandarin and it could be very confusing to her.
I think what @MYOS1634 meant to say was virtually all high schools that teach Chinese, teach Mandarin. Chinese itself is a less-commonly taught language in American high schools.
^yes that’s what I meant. Thanks Skieurope for the precision, I realize how that statement would be confusing!
There may be HS Chinese programs that teach Shanghainese Chinese but I don’t know of any.
Op,
Sure, it would be great if she took mandarin. However, it’s difficult to force someone to do things. When in HS, I took French and everyone said that I should take Spanish as I love in CA and many people speak Spanish. I didn’t listen to anyone, including my parents. Many years later, well, everyone was right and I was wrong. So only option is for your parents to force her to take mandarin by withholding privileges or to just let her learn on her own. She can always a learn mandarin in the future.
I would tell her your story about why you chose spanish to begin with, what you thought you could do with it, and now why you wished you had taken Chinese and what you planned to do with it.
Maybe you took Spanish because all your friends were…you wanted to fit in. But in college, you may have found that people assumed you spoke Chinese…but you didn’t.
Let it be clear. Mandarin is the official dialect of Chinese since early last century. It is the only Chinese that is being taught in grade schools in the US. There are CLC that teach different dialects of Chinese though. If you are learning Chinese in high school or college, it would be referring to Mandarin by default. The language is the same (except for some regional slang) although there are different sets of characters (simplified ones for Mainland China and SIngapore, traditional ones for Taiwan and Hongkong, etc). As the UN has accepted the simplified character sets as official Chinese, it is likely to be more widely adopted in schools now. If you do want to learn other Chinese dialects, you may need to contact a CLC in your region. Cantonese is common in New York, California, and Chicago area. It would be hard to find one that teaches Shanghainese but Taiwanese (Hokkien) in the US.