I am a freshmen in High School and I am currently taking Spanish 1 Honors. However, I want to switch to Mandarin 1 Regular for sophomore year. Should I do it I want to attend Penn, MIT, or NYU just to say a few.
Background Information
-I am part Spanish but my mom never had the time to teach me it
-Spanish is the only class I can’t get an A in lol I got a 87 and a 89. But I am good at it
-(I know this is stupid) but when I took the Spanish 2 honors placement test, I didn’t know there was a back because at the time I was in a rush to get home because my mom needed my help asap. So I didn’t get in
-I love Asian languages and always wanted to learn one
-the minimum requirement in my high school is 2 years of the same language
-I can only take 3 years of Mandarin which sucks
-I can self teach myself Spanish on the side for AP testing. Plus I am going to Puerto Rico every summer for awhile with my family who can help me.
-I want to major in business or computer science
So yea what do you think ? My school also offers Italian, Latin, and French . If you think those are more useful.
A foreign language isn’t very useful unless you can utilize it in some way. “Utilize” can mean something as modest as helping you recognize the entymological roots of another language. If you can’t “use” it in some way, and don’t realistically see yourself attaining low-level proficiency (I’m not even talking fluency), then it’s a waste of time.
FYI, NYT columnist Nicholas Kristoff who has a hands-on global perspective and is married to a Chinese American, thinks Mandarin is a waste of time for most people:
Mandarin can get very difficult at times. It was my first language and I’ve personally had to help my friends who decided to take the course in my school. They struggled with memorizing the characters and pronouncing them correctly.
Example, sell and buy. Opposite meanings, but in Chinese they’re 卖 and 买, respectively. They’re also pronounced very similarly: mài and mǎi.
I’ll say this now: 3 years of learning Mandarin is not going to be enough to become fluent. Perhaps basic conversation, but you’ll need to put in serious effort to reach the level that you can use for international business, and I don’t think high school is the place to get that serious about a language. But if you’ve always wanted to learn an Asian language, and have that sort of passion, I don’t see why not. (Although, I must say, with the ‘alphabet’, Korean may be easier.) Mandarin is considered the second most useful language for business (excluding English) and apparently a “marketable skill”.
@EmZoWe there’s also words like 睡觉 (to sleep) and 水饺 (steamed dumpling) and if you don’t get the tones correct it can mean something else. However the tones themselves are not too hard compared to Cantonese, or other aspects of Mandarin (IMO).
@MITer94 Yeah, there are other examples, but my example is my favorite since it’s so memorable.
I personally cannot speak Cantonese, so I cannot insert an opinion for it. But I think it’s generally accepted that Chinese languages can get very difficult. I haven’t attempted learning dialects other than “Shanghainese”.
I have to agree with this. Learning a language is not like riding a bike; if you don’t continue to use it, those skills will dissipate. Additionally, there is only so much that can be done in a 40-60 minute class; you really need to use the language outside of the classroom, ideally in an environment where the language is spoken 24/7.
Having said that, the best language to learn is the one that you will use in the future, ideally combined with a passion for the culture of the language as well.
Travel wishes: Would you rather visit China, Italy, or France/Quebec-Montreal?
Difficulty:
Mandarin is going to be very difficult to learn - in three years, you’ll know about the same as what you learned in Spanish 1.
Italian is the easiest.
French is harder than Italian but much easier than Mandarin (a bit easier than Spanish).
Both Italian and French overlap a bit with Spanish since they have the same roots.
Future major:
Italian = Lots of history, art history, good also for music/singing, migration research (Italian immigration, settlements, etc).
French = history, international relations, math, art history, engineering (Michelin, EADS, Marcellus Shale stuff, solar energy), economics of developing nations especially Africa, sociology of immigration and diversity. Canada’s our #1 business partner. Montreal colleges are quite cheap (McGill, Concordia).
Mandarin = business, history, Asian studies.
Best teacher: if in doubt, always choose the best teacher
Oh, and, obviously, keep working on your Spanish. When you go to Puerto Rico, buy Young Adult books in Spanish (NOT translations from books you’ve read in English), watch a lot of films or TV, and load up your Kindle or bring back paperbaks to read while at home. Exposure via films, TV shows, and books will do wonders for your Spanish and will help you pass that AP Spanish test. Having two languages (one at AP level one as far as you can take it*, will also be very helpful).
after you're don with high school level 1 and 2, you can take college level 3 and 4 and in 3 years have linguistic skills sufficient for that language's AP exam. That's only if you're aiming at truly selective universities where having two languages at high level will differentiate you from others, but it is NOT an obligation even for these top colleges, and if you're not aiming for these, AP Spanish + 3 years of another language will already be very good.
But I think it’s generally accepted that Chinese languages can get very difficult. I haven’t attempted learning dialects other than “Shanghainese”.