<p>Hey guys. Pretty new to this site, so I’ll try to make this as comprehensive as possible.</p>
<p>I’m currently taking Chinese as a foreign language in high school as someone who has a Chinese speaking background. However, I only decided to take the class because I had zero foundation in Chinese literacy (I couldn’t write/read characters until 9th grade) and had some very big gaps in my fluency. I sort of felt like there was an obligation to take the course as it was the best opportunity to capitalize on strengthening my grasp on my mother tongue.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, while I personally feel that my reasons to study Chinese are noble, I fear that colleges will probably not see it this way and may simply perceive it as grade grubbing. In reality, I find the class very difficult and dedicate just as much time to Chinese homework/studying as I do for my other AP/Honors courses. I also had to vouch for approval from my high school to take Chinese, and prove to them that the Chinese program at their school was still challenging.</p>
<p>I hope to pursue a career in international business, which I feel can only be enhanced by a better understanding of a foreign language like Mandarin (something that I’ve emphasized in my supplemental essays, interviews, and discussed with my counselor who will be writing my rec). Yet, I still feel like colleges are still going to look down upon my attempt to pursue studying my native language, even though the rest of my course load would be considered ‘Most Rigorous’ anyways.</p>
<p>Can I still avoid the grade-grubbing look from most colleges and prove to them that my foreign language study is genuine?</p>
<p>Edit: By the way, my top choices are NYU, Emory, Georgetown, and Brandeis if that is of any concern.</p>
<p>Do you plan on writing all of that in your supplemental essay? Because you should!
It might help your case if you struggled grade-wise ever - because that would mean grade-grubbing, as you say, was nonexistent. I think there’s hope - I have many native Spanish speakers in my Spanish class. I feel like in your case, you have probably had fewer opportunities to learn to write and read Chinese than native speakers of Spanish living in the U.S. You could try to appeal emotionally, too, by describing a scenario where you prior lack in fluenti/literacy was frustrating, or talking about your passion for the language.</p>
<p>Yes, I have written a lot about it in my supplements. Particularly the NYU one where it asks me to “elaborate on an academic area of interest and how I wish to explore that at one of NYU’s campuses” (for me it was study abroad semester in Shanghai). For several of my supplement essays I sort of elaborated on how I had a wavering interest in the language when I was younger mostly because I was growing up in a upper-middle class caucasian community and only spoke it occasionally with my parents, but I have since developed a much stronger passion for it and hope to make it an integral part of my life (in a professional and/or personal sense)</p>
<p>I actually had a B for my first mid term grade sophomore year, and was barely able to scrape out an A- for my end of year grade. I had to put in a lot more effort in my junior year (I was taking the AP Chinese class) and was able to end with an A average that year.</p>
<p>I think if you leverage it properly, you could actually use this to your advantage, especially if you express how this might be related to your future profession/study at the schools you’re applying to.</p>
<p>Also, knowing Mandarin in general is an invaluable tool, especially with the amount of media coverage they’ve been getting.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t worry about this. Colleges want students who have some facility in foreign languages, but even the elite ones don’t require more than a low-intermediate level of fluency for graduation (not for admission!) You are certainly going to be much better prepared than this when you apply. So as long as the rest of your curriculum looks reasonably rigorous, I think you’ll be just fine.</p>
<p>Use that B as evidence haha. Maybe…
I don’t know if its true, but many Chinese speakers I know say that white kids have no chance at learning to speak Chinese fluently. Idk if that’s the case, but native Mandarin speakers are valuable, as askjeeves said.</p>
