Laguage Ab and language A

[Ludwig S]

A friend of mine is going into DP next year. Her first language is mandarin but she had been in Canada for five years, and she is going to take English Lang Lit A. She is planning to take mandarin for her second language but our IB coordinator said she cannot because that is her first language. Does is matter what your first language is when choosing a course? And I had also heard some of the students from China is taking mandarin as their second language in other IB schools. Is it possible for my friend to take mandarin as her second language?

[dreamyslife]

I think it should be possible yes. I mean at my school it doesn't matter what you take as your first or second languages. At my school for instance there are students who can speak fluent Norwegian and who also speak it as their mother tongue (however they have lived abroad)- but still they take English Lang Lit A and Norwegian B as their respective languages. The reason for them taking Norwegian B is because they feel that it is an easy pick.  Initially I don't think there should be any problem at all, after all it is Language and literature that your friend is taking and not Literature, but maybe the IB coordinator is wondering about her competence in English? I think that some situations like this also may vary from each of the individual IB schools.

Edited December 17, 2016 by dreamyslife

[Nomenclature]

If the coordinator says no, then the answer is essentially no. While I do not think that IB explicitly prohibits native speakers of a language from taking it as a Language B, IB schools are not monolithic and different schools have different rules. In my school, we do enforce a rule where native speakers must take another language.

[Rey]

I don't know if this is of any help or anything, but at least what we've been told at my school is that you are only allowed to take a language as language B if you haven't been schooled in it or are not a native speaker. For instance, there's a Swedish girl in my class, but since she went to English schools all her life, she is allowed to take Swedish B and English A. And yes, she went to an English language school while living in Sweden. Similarly, the British girl that lived all her life here and went to Swedish school was allowed the option to take both languages A or take Swedish A and English B. I think I am pretty much the only exception to this rule, as I am allowed to take Swedish B, even though I've been in Swedish school for a year prior to the IB - But I don't speak Swedish and I did fail the class, so I assume that is why they're letting me do it.

But yeah, at the end of the day, it is down to your coordinator and what he or she is willing to register your friend for...