I am currently a high school student who is taking Chinese. Both my parents are from China, and I have a very common Chinese last name. However, for college, my parents went to Hong Kong, where they assimilated into the English/Western culture. Fast forward many years, they have me, and we live in the US as a very westernized family. None of us speak Chinese at home, but I took Chinese in high school because I liked the challenge.
My only fear is that a lot of native speakers take Chinese, and I want to know if that’s looked down upon by college admissions officers (I am considering some Ivies). Furthermore, will those negative connations be associated with me even though I am not a native speaker?
You list on college applications what your native languages are/what you speak at home. So they’ll know Chinese is not your native language. You’ll be fine.
I think it is sad when kids have to worry about what language they speak and what race they are. You are who you are. I doubt a college wouldn’t accept you for being Chinese, but would you want to go to one that does?
Nothing to worry about! If you have any lingering doubts, you can say that you’re learning Chinese as a second language. There are many, many people like you applying for colleges. The admissions officers, I’m sure, are very familiar with ethnic Chinese Americans taking Chinese classes. Further, even if you spoke Chinese at home (kitchen Chinese) you wouldn’t necessarily be able to write and read the language, or understand rules of grammar, etc. It’s like never taking an English class for someone who speaks English. Students who speak Chinese, often colloquially at home, but who can’t read or write the language (or who speak a dialect that’s not Mandarin, the most commonly taught Chinese dialect in the US) often want to take Chinese as a second language. I’m sure that most admissions officers have seen these combinations before.
It seems like a waste of time, tbh my parents discouraged me from taking ap chinese cuz my last name is chinese and when colleges look over my ap courses they’ll just think I took it as an easy 5