Taking Chinese in high school

[Anonymous]

How challenging are Chinese 1 and 2 in high school?

My son wants to avoid Spanish 4 and AP because his high school has absolutely terrible Spanish teachers.

He has ADHD and finds languages challenging when his teachers are also struggling.

I’m assuming ending his language studies with Honors Spanish 3 is not a great idea for college applications so I thought taking French or maybe Chinese would be better than no language at all in jr and sr year.

[Anonymous]

How's his ear? Chinese is a tonal language, very different from English, French or Spanish.

[Anonymous]

It'll be hell. You have to learn a whole different alphabet.

[Anonymous]

Most kids taking Chinese at Whitman were native speakers who couldn't read or write it. My DD (not a native speaker, just someone who took it in MS and HS) found that the focus of the class was not so much on the speaking aspects but filling the gaps for the majority of the class. However the teacher was excellent and the only Chinese teacher for all 4 years of HS. The classes were grouped 2 & 3, or 3 & 4 etc because there weren't many students.

[Anonymous]

^^ I meant to add it is MUCH MUCH harder than Spanish. If your kid struggled with Spanish they do not want to take Chinese. Spanish is the easiest language to learn after ASL

[Anonymous]

Maybe talk to your college counselor and find out what the likely consequences are of only going through 3rd year of language. If your son takes other challenging classes instead, then it may not matter.

[Anonymous]

I am awful at languages and Spanish 4 was too hard for me, so I switched to Latin and it turned out ok. I would absolutely avoid Chinese for the switch if I were your son unless he is highly interested and motivated in learning that specific language—stick with a Romance language (or is ASL an option) because you can at least relate it somehow to English. And it would be easier because it would be level 1 and 2.

[Anonymous]

Chinese is hard and like PP, it’s a tonal language. By HS, it’s harder to learn and differentiate the tones. Chinese is also character based and the written language is challenging. Also, by HS, most students are native speakers. The teacher favors native speakers to the point where she basically makes it so challenging that most non-native speaker just drop out. She takes pride in teaching to native speakers. Honestly, what’s the point in teaching native speakers! The sign of a great teacher is someone who can teach the language to a non native speaker and have them excel. This is at a W school.

[Anonymous]

^ W school that is not Whitman.

[Anonymous]

Just have him take Spanish 1-3 at his school then there are plenty of online classes where he can take Spanish 4 and/or AP Spanish. My son is doing that. His school might not accept the class to put on his high school transcript but I don't care. He can report it on his college application if it comes from an accredited school like Laurel Springs, BYU, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just have him take Spanish 1-3 at his school then there are plenty of online classes where he can take Spanish 4 and/or AP Spanish. My son is doing that. His school might not accept the class to put on his high school transcript but I don't care. He can report it on his college application if it comes from an accredited school like Laurel Springs, BYU, etc.

BYU doesn't go beyond Spanish 3

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Most kids taking Chinese at Whitman were native speakers who couldn't read or write it. My DD (not a native speaker, just someone who took it in MS and HS) found that the focus of the class was not so much on the speaking aspects but filling the gaps for the majority of the class. However the teacher was excellent and the only Chinese teacher for all 4 years of HS. The classes were grouped 2 & 3, or 3 & 4 etc because there weren't many students.

My sense was that class was mainly for native speakers and anyone who wasn't already fluent would be at a huge disadvantage.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just have him take Spanish 1-3 at his school then there are plenty of online classes where he can take Spanish 4 and/or AP Spanish. My son is doing that. His school might not accept the class to put on his high school transcript but I don't care. He can report it on his college application if it comes from an accredited school like Laurel Springs, BYU, etc.

BYU doesn't go beyond Spanish 3

BYU offers online AP Spanish; search under University courses, rather than high school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most kids taking Chinese at Whitman were native speakers who couldn't read or write it. My DD (not a native speaker, just someone who took it in MS and HS) found that the focus of the class was not so much on the speaking aspects but filling the gaps for the majority of the class. However the teacher was excellent and the only Chinese teacher for all 4 years of HS. The classes were grouped 2 & 3, or 3 & 4 etc because there weren't many students.

My sense was that class was mainly for native speakers and anyone who wasn't already fluent would be at a huge disadvantage.

You say that but my DD was getting 100% in that class. She was literally the best student.

[Anonymous]

I don’t think Spanish or ASL 1 and 2 will be more impressive than taking additional APs. If Spanish 4 isn’t in the cards, go deep where he’s interested.