<p>I had studied Latin for four years and Greek for two.</p>
<p>Both have greatly improved my prose writing and structure, and account for my strong grasp of English grammar.</p>
<p>Okay, so I am a Chinese native speaker and I took the Chinese SAT II/AP but only in addition to the number of SATs they require. For example, if the colleges said they want 3 SATs I would put Chinese and then three other SATs. Would they hate me for that? I'm not really taking an easy way out--I mean, I was just trying to show my proficiency in this language and they can ignore this score and I'd still have enough SATs for the requirements. Would this hurt me?</p>
<p>Ebonics :)</p>
<p>Esperanto :)</p>
<p>actually they are al equal but spanish seems to have a slight edge.</p>
<p>No I don't see how colleges would have a superior language. Mostly to say, choose a language to study by your interest. Though the second most spoken language in the USA is Spanish.</p>
<p>So by this logic, math geniuses who have been solving differential equations since they were 5 at home should not take Calculus BC b/c its not fair to normal people? If you can get a 5 or 800 then why not get it? How can it be detrimental to do well? So getting a 800 sends your app to the trash while not taking the test keeps you in?</p>
<p>I thought not.</p>
<p>I am a native speaker of Mandarin and I find Mandarin to be much harder than Spanish, which I'm taking in school, so go figure.</p>
<p>People do not understand how hard this language is. If it feels nearly impossible to you, it's at least very hard for us :)</p>
<p>Just because you have spoken English for the past 15-16 years of your life, doesn't mean you'll score an 800 on Critical reading or writing or get an A in an AP English class or get a 5 on the AP English exam, now does it? :)</p>
<p>Phantompong,</p>
<p>I do not take AP Chinese (I've taken the exam though).
I'm talking about IB Chinese and it requires literary analysis and all those lovely stuff just like AP English Lit :P</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>CR/WR or AP English is very different from English as a 2nd language test (which is, say TOEFL). Try taking TOEFL if English is your 1st language, and if you can't get full mark or at least close to full mark then yeah i'd seriously do some self-reexamination if i were you. </p>
<p>English is my 2nd language. I think i'm pretty good at it.
Japanese is my 3rd language. I'm good at taking Japanese exams, but i truly think i suck at it. I can't, and don't have patience to, read Chinese characters which is a huge part of Japanese.
So logically, i thought my forte would be something SIMILAR to English, like German? My foreign language of choice in college is currently German. Any thoughts?</p>
<p>Confused v_nese: I did German as a third language, and don't plan to continue it in college... planning to move on to Spanish. (Aren't there quite a number of A Level German students in your school?) Coming from English, German will look familiar (though the grammar is a lot more structured), but in my experience the #1 thing that makes the study of one language "easier" than the other is an interest in the culture of the peoples that speak that language. I simply wasn't interested enough in Germany to make studying the language worth it.</p>
<p>
[quote]
I am a native speaker of Mandarin and I find Mandarin to be much harder than Spanish, which I'm taking in school, so go figure.</p>
<p>People do not understand how hard this language is. If it feels nearly impossible to you, it's at least very hard for us
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Then I'll hazard you've never been in a heavily Chinese-speaking environment, and all the disadvantages that apply to non-native Chinese speakers apply to you despite the fact that you're Chinese (which really doesn't make a difference language-wise... why, do people think that someone born in the US who has never spoken Chinese at home will somehow know how to speak Chinese just because he/she's Chinese...) BUT I do agree that unless you've been immersed in that environment from a young age, Chinese at any level beyond the absolute basics will still be a struggle. Chinese-American (or American-born Chinese?) students aren't getting good grades in Chinese in US schools because they have an "advantage", but because the standardized tests set the bar way too low.</p>
<p>Regading the following</p>
<p>AP Chinese certainly does not require students to have a level of Chinese proficiency anywhere near English for AP English Lit. Unless you're an international and have received considerable schooling in Chinese, I don't even begin to see a comparison between the level of Chinese and the level of English required for college-level coursework (given AP Chinese supposedly is 4th sem college standard).</p>
<p>BUT, I do agree that it depends on the level. If you're Chinese but have never been in a Chinese-speaking environment, taking Chinese to as high a level as you can take it is still going to be fairly impressive. It's only an "easy way out" if your parents speak Chinese at home. How the adcoms are going to know this is another thing altogether though</p>
<p>It isn't fair to say that Chinese-American children speak Chinese at home. that that might be true. But what is Chinese?</p>
<p>I have a daughter that took the SAT2 in Chinese and got 800. She is 3rd generation. We speak Cantonese at home. She had to go to Chinese school to learn Mandarin. This required many hours over 8+ years learning to read, write and to speak Mandarin.</p>
<p>She worried because when she took a practice test she didn't too well. Well she was surprised when she got 800.</p>
<p>Her intend was to show the admissions committees that she was dedicated to her heritage.</p>
<p>By the way, she also got 800 on the SAT2 in Spanish and 5 on the AP Spanish.</p>
<p>
[quote]
It isn't fair to say that Chinese-American children speak Chinese at home. that that might be true. But what is Chinese?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>:) I should have made a concession for that. It can only apply to students who speak Mandarin Chinese at home... anyone else is going to have a tougher time.</p>
<p>I speak Mandarin Chinese at home. </p>
<p>But I'm illiterate. I've been memorizing, memorizing, memorizing characters for as long as I can remember and they just never stick in my head. One of the greatest frustrations of my life. </p>
<p>And without reading, without literature, my vocabulary can't advance beyond everyday things like "Where are the keys? Mom, how much would it cost to buy a new set of keys and locks?" It's a dead end. >< Learning to read/write Mandarin is probably harder than learning to speak, read and write a European language.</p>
<p>I'll be in the same boat as kwu next year...four years of Latin. It's a challenging and nitpicky language, but it's definitely improved my language and critical thinking skills.</p>
<p>I think that the rigor of your language curriculum (i.e. honors vs. college prep, 3-4 yrs. vs. 2) will probably be taken into greater account than which language you take.</p>
<p>Wow, you have Latin at your school? I almost can't wait to be in college just so I can take classes I want to take, like Latin and Economics.</p>
<p>I'm honestly glad I took latin, since our school system decided to stop teaching English grammer. I have a much better understanding of the English language because I studied latin.
But I think I'll take a different language in college, i'm thinking Japanese or Arabic</p>
<p>idk if this has already been mentioned, but the Ivys used to only admit students who took Latin which enabled them to pretty much only accept students from prep schools. I read that in The Gatekeepers I think or it might have been in the Early Admission Game. Not sure if that has any significance.</p>
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<p>Yep there are German students, but when i came in i wasn't given the choice of taking G (my E was crap as it is lol), and i was under the impression that all the G students had taken it for some time before already.
Hmm i think you're right. I like American culture, history & politics so that probably helped with my English. Thanks for the advice! :)</p>
<p>Sanskrit?
I've always had an interest in learining it, but I'm curious to know about how the admission officials view knowing it. (I'm Indian)</p>