Does it look bad to change languages?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kid is likely going to a magnet where their middle school language (Mandarin) is not offered. They are really worried about this hurting their chances for getting into college (they'd start Spanish 1 in 9th).

Is this actually going to hurt? I said no but now I am second guessing.

Are there options I don't know about to allow them to continue Mandarin (like a virtual class held during a free period or something)?

They are good at Mandarin for not being Chinese, and they would not change languages of their own volition.

And finally, how does one get a class created? There are enough kids from the current Chinese 2 class at their middle school that there might be 7-8 kids in the same boat.

Nobody cares. You are overthinking this. The only college that requires 4 years of language is Harvard. Please do not make your kid go through a year of summer school to catch up.

OP here - no, I wasn't going to do that. I want my kids' breaks to be breaks. With that being sad, my kid is genuinely sad at losing Chinese (there are no other major cons though - her bffs are going to the magnet, the content actually interests her, and the school is better at her sport/EC than our home school) and i was trying to figure something out for her...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No answer for your question. But can the adults of students taking Mandarin please explain the interest in Mandarin. Why go to a HS to take it if the MS can't offer the language, is it worth taking Mandarin? For what reasons other than learning another language?

NP here in a similar situation, with a kid who enjoys Mandarin in MS, going to a HS magnet that doesn't offer it.

My kid asked to take Mandarin because he was bored in school, and thought Mandarin sounded challenging. He's enjoyed the class, and I do think it has been good for him to stretch himself.

Since my kid has the credits required for graduation on his transcript already, I actually looked into him taking Mandarin through CTY or another outside virtual provider, and then taking a study hall. I went so far as to email some colleges and ask what would be their reaction if a kid applied with CTY credits, and no language taken at school, and the answer was that it was fine. We probably aren't going to do that though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kid is likely going to a magnet where their middle school language (Mandarin) is not offered. They are really worried about this hurting their chances for getting into college (they'd start Spanish 1 in 9th).

Is this actually going to hurt? I said no but now I am second guessing.

Are there options I don't know about to allow them to continue Mandarin (like a virtual class held during a free period or something)?

They are good at Mandarin for not being Chinese, and they would not change languages of their own volition.

And finally, how does one get a class created? There are enough kids from the current Chinese 2 class at their middle school that there might be 7-8 kids in the same boat.

Nobody cares. You are overthinking this. The only college that requires 4 years of language is Harvard. Please do not make your kid go through a year of summer school to catch up.

+1. 4 years of Spanish (w/ good grades) is fine.

If you're really concerned about it you can work the growing up in Asia and learning Chinese into a main or supplemental essay or the diversity Q so it will be clear that Spanish is a 3rd language. That's actually quite impressive.

My concern as a parent of a kid who was interested in Asia as part of work in the future would be how to maintain or progress in Chinese without daily instruction for 4 years. Consider summer language programs - immersion or otherwise.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I noticed on the class registration form for Blair SMCS that Chinese was listed, which is new.

It seems to be offered at a lot of the DCC high schools. OP, I would email someone at the school she’s going to attend and ask if there’s a way to take Chinese at another high school, through virtual academy, or some other option, or to take it elsewhere (like CTY) and get MCPS credit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I noticed on the class registration form for Blair SMCS that Chinese was listed, which is new.

It is? I looked all over the Blair website while we were waiting to hear, and didn't think to look at the class registration form! That's great!

-- not OP

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kid is likely going to a magnet where their middle school language (Mandarin) is not offered. They are really worried about this hurting their chances for getting into college (they'd start Spanish 1 in 9th).

Is this actually going to hurt? I said no but now I am second guessing.

Are there options I don't know about to allow them to continue Mandarin (like a virtual class held during a free period or something)?

They are good at Mandarin for not being Chinese, and they would not change languages of their own volition.

And finally, how does one get a class created? There are enough kids from the current Chinese 2 class at their middle school that there might be 7-8 kids in the same boat.

Nobody cares. You are overthinking this. The only college that requires 4 years of language is Harvard. Please do not make your kid go through a year of summer school to catch up.

+1. 4 years of Spanish (w/ good grades) is fine.

If you're really concerned about it you can work the growing up in Asia and learning Chinese into a main or supplemental essay or the diversity Q so it will be clear that Spanish is a 3rd language. That's actually quite impressive.

My concern as a parent of a kid who was interested in Asia as part of work in the future would be how to maintain or progress in Chinese without daily instruction for 4 years. Consider summer language programs - immersion or otherwise.

This is OP. Actually this is her (our) concern. She currently has a native language teacher, 45 mins daily at her public middle school. There is no replacement for that. We've looked into Montgomery college classes but I don't think the schedule would work (2.5 hrs long, twice a week).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I noticed on the class registration form for Blair SMCS that Chinese was listed, which is new.

It is? I looked all over the Blair website while we were waiting to hear, and didn't think to look at the class registration form! That's great!

-- not OP

it listed Chinese 1-3 though so not sure how that would work for someone coming from an MS that offered it

I guess you could repeat Chinese 3 and hope they add 4 and AP later

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I noticed on the class registration form for Blair SMCS that Chinese was listed, which is new.

It is? I looked all over the Blair website while we were waiting to hear, and didn't think to look at the class registration form! That's great!

-- not OP

it listed Chinese 1-3 though so not sure how that would work for someone coming from an MS that offered it

I guess you could repeat Chinese 3 and hope they add 4 and AP later

or maybe they have 4 and AP but didn't think those were options for 9th graders?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I noticed on the class registration form for Blair SMCS that Chinese was listed, which is new.

It is? I looked all over the Blair website while we were waiting to hear, and didn't think to look at the class registration form! That's great!

-- not OP

it listed Chinese 1-3 though so not sure how that would work for someone coming from an MS that offered it

I guess you could repeat Chinese 3 and hope they add 4 and AP later

or maybe they have 4 and AP but didn't think those were options for 9th graders?

I wonder why it’s listed there and not on the 2024-25 course bulletin?

Well, this is good news for us. Maybe it doesn’t help OP if they are looking at another magnet.

[Anonymous]

Can a student take two languages concurrently? Let's say they started Spanish 1 in 7th and add Chinese in 9th. Can they take up to Spanish 6 and Chinese 4 if the HS offers to Level 4?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can a student take two languages concurrently? Let's say they started Spanish 1 in 7th and add Chinese in 9th. Can they take up to Spanish 6 and Chinese 4 if the HS offers to Level 4?

OP's kid is going to a magnet, and usually scheduling there is tight. But I know kids who do this in the regular program.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can a student take two languages concurrently? Let's say they started Spanish 1 in 7th and add Chinese in 9th. Can they take up to Spanish 6 and Chinese 4 if the HS offers to Level 4?

I don't see why not, as long as they have room in their schedule.