I need help picking a language!

[Guest NapWar]

Hey guys, so I have 3 options for my language other than English (I'll be doing A Lit).

1) I can either self teach myself my mother tongue, Dhivehi, at first language level (the school I will go to facilitates that it seems).

2) I could do French B

3) I could do Mandarin a.b.

I'm not sure what to go with, and I was hoping you guys could advise me. I feel like ruling out the self taught option because being the only one studying it in my school and by myself, it seems boring. But at the same time it'd let me obtain the bilingual diploma. Is it worth more than a regular diploma? Are self-taught courses viewed well? The main problem is it doesn't seem as useful to have a qualification for a language mainly spoken in just one country. =/

I've always found French an interesting language and it's been easy to learn. I enjoy the culture too. I have lots of resources to improve it as well. And understanding of the language is pretty wide spread. Mandarin is useful to have too, but this seems to apply mostly to the East Asian region for now. It's probably going to grow and become much more important in the future though, so maybe I shouldn't pass up on the opportunity to study it? Is having a language at B level superior to a.b.?

I'm having trouble deciding, so what do you guys think?

[Emily Dawn Sheehan]

I wouldn't pass up the opportunity to learn Mandarin if I were you !

[Emmi]

A bilingual diploma doesn't really offer any additional benefits. It might look slightly more impressive to some people, but it's not going to adversely affect you if you don't do it. If you feel like you don't have the motivation to do a self-taught subject, I wouldn't do it.

I'd base your choice on either French or Mandarin based on which one you felt more comfortable with and would enjoy better. Both languages are very useful commerce-wise and you aren't making a bad choice selecting either one of them. B level isn't necessarily superior to ab initio, especially if you're not doing a languages course in uni later on. With French you've already got some background and you'll be learning additional stuff on top of that. With Mandarin you'll be starting from the beginning and will learn some basic grammar and vocabulary as well as how to write in Mandarin. I wouldn't underestimate it though, Mandarin can be tough Whichever appeals to you more should be the language you do.

[Lynxarin]

It is a great plus to know Mandarin when applying for jobs ands universities so I would definitely choose it if I was you. You should be grateful that you have the option to study it, I don't have it and I would really like to study it. Although French is a lot easier, especially since a lot of words are almost the same in English as in French.

[Guest NapWar]

I guess it's really a choice between French and Mandarin then. I admit I'm still leaning towards French, but I think that's because Mandarin scares me! =X I have a lot of time to decide though, thankfully

[citizenoftheuniverse]

I personally think it is better to further a skill you already have instead of learning a new skill to a more shallow extent. Mandarin is cool, but you said you really enjoy French and have already learned some of it. I think it is more useful to deepen your knowledge of French, rather than develop a whole new language you don't even know if you enjoy. A second language is most useful when you have a deeper knowledge of it, and you don't really get that at ab initio level. Also, I think since you enjoy French so much French at B level would be very enjoyable for you. I have Spanish B, and I really love my class, and Spanish for me is something I just pick up a lot in class so I don't even need to study it so much. I love having class discussions in Spanish and being able to develop my language to a deeper level. Conversely, all my friends in ab initio are pretty bored with their class since it is so easy, and I would guess it focuses more on grammar and vocabulary than does language B, where you are already past learning basic language mechanics.

In short: Take French B!

[Guinievre]

If you have room in your schedule, do both! That's what I'm doing

But, if you have to decide between Mandarin or French, consider what you want to do as a job after college. If you want to do something that involves communicating internationally, like business or something like that, Mandarin would be much more beneficial (it's quite a bit of work though, compared to French). In fact, learning Mandarin would be a good choice when thinking about the future. if you think about why so many people know English, it's because of the UK and then the US. But now, China is becoming more powerful, and from what I've heard from my relatives and some of the exchange students from China, they've stopped requiring students to take English for their exit exam. Not only that, but sometimes my history teacher jokes and says that by the time we get a job, our boss will be Chinese So, that's something to consider.

However, if you think you would enjoy French more, or you just don't want to kill yourself (okay, Chinese isn't that hard, but my friends make fun of me when I say that because I'm half Chinese!), then take French. I personally enjoy French more than Chinese, but I just started this year, so...

[Chio1012]

When you are deciding which language to take, I think you should strongly consider these questions:

1. What is your university requirement?
2. What do you want your future career to be?

For #1, if they want 38-45 points (pretty high), then I'd suggest going for the easier choice - French, for your case. Plus if you want to work in an organisation that uses French as one of their working languages, eg. UN, then that'd be pretty useful. However for #2, if you want to go into hotel management, marketing or another service industry-related job then it'd be useful to know mandarin. Be warned though that you'll need to have a higher comprehension of mandarin than ab initio level if you want to use it in your future career, because communicating with potential customers/bosses won't simply be recognizing the characters for different colours and animals, etc. You could, perhaps, use ab initio as your base, then continue the foreign language at uni and see how it goes from there.

I considered taking spanish ab initio but my teacher told me that ab initio classes can be harder than language B ones because you've simply never studied the language before, and now you're going to cram 5 years' of learning into the 2-year IB programme. Some people find it hard, others can deal with it. So it depends on yourself. Especially if you've never been exposed to a language that is both tonal and uses characters instead of letters, it will be a difficult change for you. *Not trying to be discouraging; this is just what I have observed from seeing Western friends take mandarin ab initio*

If you find that learning mandarin is an opportunity you shouldn't pass up, then certainly go for it! Having an interest in it will definitely push you forward. I've studied both french and mandarin before, so if you have any questions on learning them, don't hesitate to PM me!

Good luck for your IB choices! (Bonne chance! 加油!)