| As someone who is white and has learned Spanish and Chinese, I can tell you vehemently and unequivocally that the only good reason to learn Chinese in your position (as one person said) might be because it helps on the margin with a college admission. That is the ONLY reason.
I think it is incredibly weak reason -- life is far more than about getting into what you perceive to be the right college.
You said yourself you are not so great at languages. I am above average, not stellar; I speak 5 languages. Chinese is incredibly time-consuming to learn. You won't master the language unless you spend several years in China. Are you willing to make this commitment? If not, why start?
Spanish is much easier to learn. This is true for children learning the languages the first time as well as for adults. There was a study comparing I think it was 4th graders in Spain to 4th graders in China. The Spanish 4th graders could speak a lot more of the words in their language.
The Chinese writing system is incredibly inefficient -- and it is time-consuming to learn.
Google the Foreign Language Institute and check out the difficulty of languages. Chinese is in the highest echelon. Spanish the lowest.
In terms of usefulness, that debate has been held here. But if you never get to the point where you can speak the language reasonably well, it's a moot point. And chances are about 99% you won't even if you think you will with Chinese. I have exactly one white friend among hundreds I know who speaks Chinese really well; he lived there for 10 years and he is legend even among those who lived there that long for being such a good speaker of the language. |