<p>Hi,
I am new to this forum.My daughter will be going to high school this year.she is takiing chinese now.We are in a dilemma now wether to continue with chinese or wsitch to spanish ,as some say it would be easier.help me.
Thnak you .</p>
<p>If she enjoys Chinese, and she’s aiming for top schools, I’d stick with Chinese. Colleges know how much more challenging it is for an English speaker, and it suggests she’s an ambitious student.</p>
<p>The one that is better taught. </p>
<p>How is she doing in Chinese now? Does she have a good ear? Which level of Chinese would she place into in high school? Does she like learning characters? There’s no one right answer. While Spanish is easier for most Americans to learn to speak fluently that doesn’t mean it’s the best choice for everyone. And one language is not necessarily more work than another in terms of how much homework is expected.</p>
<p>Which one will she likely use now and in her future?</p>
<p>If one language is much more commonly used in your area over the other, being able to use it in daily life (e.g. talking to friends who are native or heritage speakers of the language, speaking and reading in ethnic shops and restaurants, etc.) may reinforce it within her mind so that she will retain it better over the rest of her life. Whereas if she learns a language in school but has little chance to use it, she may not retain it as well.</p>
<p>Chinese. 100%. It’s one of the most difficult languages to learn but very useful in medicine, business, technology…etc. That’s great that she’s learning at a young age.</p>
<p>^As an architect I wish I could speak Spanish at least once a week. I never have had any occasion to use Chinese (and I took a semester way back when.)</p>
<p>If you are reasonably sure that your family will be staying where you are and that your school system will not decrease the number of languages it teaches because of budget cuts, I think she can choose whichever language she likes.</p>
<p>If you might move or if the school system has budget problems, Spanish is the safer choice. It’s taught everywhere, and school systems don’t tend to stop teaching it when they are short on money.</p>
<p>I am a student, but thought I’d chime in - I studied Spanish in middle school, Chinese and Spanish in high school, and I am now studying just Chinese in college. I think both are extremely useful - Chinese speakers are certainly in demand, but on a day to day basis in most areas, Spanish is probably still more useful, unless one lives in an area with a high concentration of Chinese speakers OR plans to go into a field where knowing Chinese would be helpful (which does, admittedly, encompass a growing number of fields these days).</p>
<p>I also think it’s interesting that everyone perceives learning Chinese as being so much harder than learning Spanish. I do find that the tonal aspect of Chinese can make pronunciation much harder, and, of course, character writing can be quite difficult. However, Chinese grammar is generally fairly simple and much closer to English grammar than Spanish grammar is. Perhaps Chinese is a little more difficult overall, but I haven’t found the difference to be that extreme.</p>
<p>Hi all,</p>
<pre><code> Thank you all for your very constructive reply.We are leaning towards chinese too.we are asians too but not oriental.Most of her friends are asians so she can practice with them.Of course spanish is every where nowadays especially living in so cal.
But my thought was doing chinese would look good on her resume for college.Does it add any weightage?And she can do spanish in college if she wants.
On the other hand i don't want her to spend most of her time studying chinese to maintain her A's.
Marian,we are not planning to move any time in the future.Of course the district has budget problems.But i think they will not remove chinese as they have fair no. of students.
Thank you once again.
</code></pre>
<p>My kiddos & nieces all found Chinese (Mandarin) extremely difficult. Only my oldest niece took it all the way until she reached college. S dropped it after 3 years in HS & said that for him, it was harder than all his APs combined! Another niece switched from Mandarin to Spanish and found the latter MUCH easier. D never got much beyond 1st year Mandarin & found German SO much easier than Mandarin. She said she wished she had taken that 1st & then she may have found Mandarin slightly easier.</p>
<p>My SIL had to take Spanish for medical professionals when she moved to LA, since it is so frequently spoken there. What languages are common in your community & where your child plans to attend college? I took Spanish for 7 years & have never found it very useful in HI. My niece who took Mandarin has not found it very useful to her in her practice of labor law in HI. D has enjoyed her German & still uses it to read blogs of her favorite singers in Europe.</p>
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<p>Many high schools do not offer Chinese, so it might be a little boost, but not huge (if my school doesn’t offer it, I can’t take it).</p>
<p>I agree with mathmom: take whichever one has the best teacher(s). To me, foreign language is one of the subjects that is most influenced by whether the teacher is any good.</p>
<p>“we are asians”
Ok, this might change things a bit. Do you have an Asian surname? The reason I ask is if your D’s last name is obviously asian, then colleges may not think it was very hard for her to learn Chinese, since it may be close to the language spoken at home… On the other hand, an Asian learning Spanish [ and getting great grades] would be different from the “typical” asian applicant, and might set your D apart. Bottom line, she probably should take the foreign language that she can earn the highest grades in.</p>
<p>You are much more likely to become fluent in Spanish, and do very well on an AP Spanish exam, than in Mandarin. I’d suggest Spanish. Save Chinese for college, where you’d likely have better instructors and more mature, more motivated fellow students who are more likely to stick with this difficult challenge.</p>
<p>My D is studying Chinese in college–she began in high school. No idea if this helped her with college admissions or not. If you have friends who are Mandarin speakers then you probably realize that spoken Chinese is exceedingly hard–many non-native speakers really struggle with the tones. </p>
<p>But one advantage that I haven’t seen mentioned here is that China is becoming an increasing important country on the world stage so if your D is a possible political science/international studies major, then Chinese might make even more sense.</p>
<p>Talk with others at the HS to find out how good the teachers & program is for each department. Our friend’s D (caucasian) took Mandarin all through HS & went to Va’s College of William & Mary (I believe) and was VERY disappointed that despite their claims to have a great Mandarin program, her HS program was far superior & she felt she had learned A LOT more there than in college. Her college major was psychology & she has since gone to China to teach English & is now heading to Taiwan to teach English as well.</p>
<p>Qualities of the teacher & department can make a HUGE difference, especially for foreign language.</p>
<p>HImom makes a good point about the quality of Chinese language programs at many colleges. Colleges are big ships and they are hard to turn quickly, so many don’t yet have extensive offerings in Chinese. On the other hand, even though the departments might be small, the number of students taking those classes is also likely to be relatively small (4 students in my D’s class this semester), which is ideal for learning.</p>
<p>Some otherwise really good colleges don’t offer Chinese at all–D sadly took Earlham off of her list because of that.</p>
<p>All your suggestions seems to be right in their own way.I think we willl talk to the chinese teacher in the Hs and find out the details.</p>
<pre><code> She wants to go to stanford and she might choose medicine.So doing spanish makes more sense,at the same time we have growing chinese population too.
By the way we are indians and my kids don't speak our language, so it will be a problem menloparkmom.
I will let you all know by next week.great inputs.
Is there a group for the Hs class of 2015,so i can join them?
</code></pre>
<p>My answer is in direct response to your initial question: which would look better on your Ds college applications.</p>
<p>The pragmatics are that selective colleges (and certainly Stanford) are looking for depth in a foreign language – more depth is better. My sense is that they don’t care which language – so long as it’s spoken by a reasonably large group of people, and that it isn’t the applicant’s native language. Ideally depth would translate to taking the language to the AP level, and perhaps beyond (as for example studying the literature of the language, etc.).</p>
<p>Having studied Chinese in Middle School, your D has a head start in Chinese. Depending on how well she’s done in Middle school, she may be able to place into Chinese 2, or perhaps Chinese 3. And if so, she’ll be positioned to acquire the depth that can make a difference in a college application. If however she’s unable to place out of Chinese 1 (at least) then in my opinion the choice of Chinese versus Spanish is strictly a personal one.</p>
<p>Also I think the notion that the “teacher” matters in the decision is misguided. Teachers come and go. Language learning requires a great deal of discipline and practice. Class time is a relatively small element in the learning process.</p>
<p>Fogcity, she will be taking chinese 2 in Hs.She is doing pretty good in school now getting A’s so far.Then she will do AP chinese in her senior year.she is very hard working and dedicated.</p>
<p>Spanish is easy to pick up at a later date if she needs it. I was amazed at how much Spanish I learned in a week of lessons, a few years ago. It would be a shame to waste her investment in Chinese, if she likes it and has aptitude for it.</p>
<p>If she likes languages, why not take both?</p>