<p>my college has a mandatory foreign language requirement. I took latin in highschool and would likely be able to fulfill my requirment faster if i continued taking latin. Problem is, im awful at latin and i hate it. the reason i began taking latin in the first place is because i was awful at spanish and hated that. i feel im just not cut out to learn a second language and i have no interest in it.
I want to study abroad in china tho, and taking mandarin is a requirment for most of those programs. would mandarin be simply too hard for someone who cant even handle the romance languages, or could it be that my foreign language problems might be just with the romance languages and not with all languages?</p>
<p>i realize this wasnt very focused, but im more just looking for advice about what people would do in my situation and if mandarin is really that impossible. im more interested in getting a good grade in the class as opposed to becoming fluent in the language(sorry if that sounds bad)</p>
<p>i think the main problem is your lack of interest in learning another language. if you’re gonna try and learn mandarin chinese just to go to china then it probably wont be easy. learning the language should be the goal, not the trip. learning a new language has tons of advantages. saying you’re not “cut out” for it is just an excuse to be lazy.</p>
<p>Stick with Latin. I bet your teacher/textbook just sucked. It was a breeze for me to learn. I took three years in high school, and I hate having to learn foreign languages too.</p>
<p>If you don’t like learning foreign languages, definitely stick with Latin. You’ll finish it quickly, it’s completely useless, and you won’t have to look at it again when you’ve finished your requirement.</p>
<p>You guys should be ashamed for suggesting Russian! lol.</p>
<p>Why dont you search around online for beginning Mandarin stuff or go to the library and find a book about it, see if you like it. If not then stick with Latin. What you know is better than nothing.</p>
<p>If you are growing weary of foreign languages and need to fulfill your requirement, you would be much better off continuing Latin. There’s no sense in getting into a brand new language if you are adverse to learning a foreign language in the first place!</p>
<p>I had a blast learning Mandarin, granted I learned most of it while already in China, but it wasn’t that difficult to grasp (…though I’m illiterate in Chinese. I can speak Mandarin but I’m not the best reader or writer.) However, you do need to study everyday, especially if you want to go abroad, just learning in the classroom won’t be enough.</p>
<p>What you should consider doing is trying out a few free language learning websites in different languages and see if which you enjoy learning.</p>
<p>mandarin is very difficult. everything has different intonations and if youre not insterested in learning the language and you just want an A in the class, stick with something youve already tried. i would say latin sinc eyou already took it, or spanish since its so close to english. even if you hated the class it’ll at least be easier to get an A.</p>
<p>I found Latin/Russian to be the easiest, and Spanish the hardest to learn. My Spanish teacher was horrible though. I’ve had some bad Russian/Latin teachers, but both of my first teachers for those languages were excellent, which laid a great foundation.</p>
<p>Maybe you have a mental block towards Latin. What do you hate about Latin? If you hate Latin grammar, you will love Chinese grammar. The tricky thing about Chinese is the vocabulary. Pronouncing the tones is difficult for the Native English speaker. (You can pronounce ma four different ways and they all mean different things.) To top it off, Mandarin and Cantonese are pronounced completely differently. Chinese characters don’t show pronunciation like English letters (usually) do. In addition, for every Chinese character you would have to learn the traditional form, the simplified form, and how to write the character in pin yin so that you can type the character on the computer. </p>
<p>On the other hand, the absolutely safest option is to start with elementary Latin I. Languages in college are paced a lot faster than in high school. Basically, one year of a language in high school is equivalent to one semester in college. You will have an easier time with Latin, because you’ve been exposed to the grammar and vocabulary. It’s also good to start at the beginning because if you don’t have the fundamentals of a language, you will get in trouble later. Latin is also easier because instructors don’t expect you to be conversational in it. In addition, since Latin is “dead,” you won’t run into heritage speakers who start the semester ahead because they’ve grown up hearing their parents speak Chinese/ Russian/ Spanish/ etc.</p>
<p>Does your school let you take classes pass/fail? That’s another thing to consider.</p>