<p>Alright, so here's the problem. I'm Chinese, but I can barely speak Chinese, let alone write or read it. My parents speak to me all the time in Chinese though so I can understand it fairly well. I came to the US in my early childhood (like around 4 years old) so I never went to a Chinese school before. </p>
<p>So, I'm fluent in English, but have basically no clue about Chinese, which sucks because I am Chinese and I can't even speak my own damn native language. </p>
<p>I was thinking of picking up on Chinese recently, although I'm not sure whether it'll be useful or not. I heard that Chinese is becoming increasingly popular and therefore I should learn it because it'll benefit me in the future. I don't know how easily I'll be able to pick up on it though. </p>
<p>I'm 17 years old right now, high school junior. I was thinking of learning Chinese (taking a class) when I'm in college. </p>
<p>For me, I’m also not fluent in my native language and I’m planning to learn it at the community college, so that I can preserve my cultural heritage.</p>
<p>Argh, I used to be fluent in my native language, but then my kindergarten teacher told my parents I was having trouble “following directions,” so they started speaking to me only in English. Now I can only read (a little bit) and understand it.</p>
<p>I’m an adopted Korean, so I know absolutely no Korean… I’m learning Spanish and Japanese in high school, learned Hebrew in middle, but I will learn Korean (and maybe Chinese) in college =)</p>
<p>ntktop, don’t bother with classes until you can speak fluently. Until then, don’t let yourself use english to your parents (unless you’re asking how to say something).</p>
<p>I think people push a foreign language more than it they should. Sure, if you really want to learn Chinese it’s a good idea, otherwise it’s not more worthwhile than some other things. Literally hundreds of millions of people speak both English and Chinese.</p>
<p>lol I’m a native speaker who can SPEAK…although my writing and reading SUCKS. If the SAT CR/W sections were in Chinese, I’d get, like, a 400 lol.</p>
<p>It’s really sad…especially when I see all these CCers with amazing 800 SAT II scores…:(</p>
<p>I can’t speak my native languages - Chinese and Korean - either.</p>
<p>It’s kind of funny, because earlier today I was at a Chinese market and looking down my nose at all of the mainland Chinese people for being so rude, noisy, and dirty, despite the face that my grandfather was a mainland Chinese. I guess you could say that I’m kind of racist towards myself. (Although that’s obviously not the case.)</p>
<p>To the OP: you should go to China for a month over the summer - you’ll learn Chinese really quickly that way. Or find a pen pal. I’m sure a lot of people in China (perhaps a cousin or someone else our age?) would love to be able to practice writing English to someone who’s fluent in the language.</p>