<p>My school does not offer Chinese whatsoever and I would really like to learn the language and hopefully take the AP Chinese exam senior year (I will be a Junior next year). Any good recommendations as to go about learning Chinese by way of either self-study or any other method? Thanks</p>
<p>Please tell me you’re joking.</p>
<p>Unless you have ridiculous amounts of free time or you are a genius, and if you have no experience with Chinese characters, you will almost certainly NOT be able to learn Chinese through the AP level in two years, especially considering that you’re going through your most important and likely most stressful years of high school. If you really want to learn Chinese, that’s fine, but there is only an infinitesimally small chance that you will be able to learn that much in the time period you’re considering.</p>
<p>(I only know a little Cantonese since my family speaks it, but I’m learning Japanese, which is supposed to be of similar difficulty for those who haven’t learned an Asian language before, and there is no way you could learn everything you need to pass the AP exam while taking on your junior and senior years of high school.)</p>
<p>As for learning Chinese, I suggest you start with [this</a> page](<a href=“http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/e/languages/mandarin-chinese/index.html]this”>http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/e/languages/mandarin-chinese/index.html).</p>
<p>Okay, thanks! I had a feeling that it would be radically intensive considering my lack of any background in Chinese, but thank you for bringing me back to Earth about AP :)</p>
<p>Wow, really? You know, the test involves a speaking presentation and responding to emails, and reading and writing which is hard for me, even as a native speaker. You need about 2000-5000 characters to be considered good enough to take the test.</p>
<p>If you’re a native speaker or will use it every day for more than 6 hours, by conversation and internet interaction, you can do it. Otherwise, no.</p>