<p>My OS is interested in finance and business at Alabama.
I have heard that foreign language study is important for internships - my feeling is that Mandarin Chinese would be a good thing to study.
My question is: do any UA students or parents out there have any info on how difficult Mandarin classes are at Alabama? I know that learning a tonal language with myriad characters would be a challenge anywhere, but how doable is studying Mandarin for a couple of years as a foreign language at UA?</p>
<p>Nerdyparent: Is he interested in international business? If so, then studying Chinese would be a good option.</p>
<p>But, if not, he may want to study Spanish. One of my fellow teachers talked with my son’s sports marketing class a few years ago, and he encouraged my son, who has four years of high school Spanish, to polish his skills if he had thoughts of working in finance/banking in this country. It could be the difference in landing a job. This teacher had some basic Spanish when he was working in the banking industry, and decided to go back and learn more. It moved him up the ladder quickly.</p>
<p>At UA, the minor in Chinese language consists of 20 hours including CHI 101, CHI 102, CHI 201, CHI 202,and either CHI 301 and CHI 302, or CHI 401 and CHI 402. A minimum of 6 hours at the 300 or 400 level must be earned on this campus.</p>
<p>I disagree that taking Chinese would yield little to show for your efforts. Yes, you might not be able to write well in characters or even read terribly proficiently (think about what a 4 year old reads), but you should be able to speak quite well, and that’s the main use of learning a foreign language. My S is taking Chinese as a Junior and wishes he had taken it is high school and/or started earlier at UA (couldn’t fit it into schedule). He plans to use it, as poor as he might be at it, in his business dealings with Chinese nationals. Taking any language is a window into the cultural soul of others, and shows you are making an effort to be a global citizen. </p>
<p>I showed my S this thread. He says that he does not have difficulty with Chinese so far, but he generally doesn’t have any major problems with any of his coursework. (He’s not an uber genius - just a good student in the true sense of the word.) He says it requires work every single day, with diligence - it’s not time-consuming, but just you have to have self discipline to complete homework and practice your character writing every single day. You cannot skip doing the practice, or you will be behind. You most definitely can’t skip going to class, or you will be behind. Like any language, it is sequential and builds on itself, so if you miss something one day, it is much more difficult to catch up the next.</p>
<p>I want to add that earning a minor in Chinese at UA requires at least 3 full years of university study (or equivalent incoming AP/CLEP credits for part of that). The first year (101 and 102) requires classes 5x a week; later years are 4 or 3 days a week, depending on the level. Tip: You have to be mindful of when you start the series of courses and ensure they are taught in sequential semesters for as long as you want to take the series and for as far as you want to go with it (because not all courses in the series are taught every semester). A lot of students might find it difficult to start a language at the 101 level because of the 5 day a week commitment: it is just difficult to fit it into your schedule at the time slots offered. Good luck with your decisions! </p>
<p>I think too that it matters what color u are. I’ve observed on business trips to china that my non-asian colleagues get effusive praise for stringing together 3 barely intelligible words, while my asian colleagues get contempt for their lack of proficiency. </p>