French or Mandarin?

R

RaiBlastoise

New member
I am preparing for MSSM this fall, and I was wondering if you all could give me any advice.

I have taken a year of highschool french, French II, since I had already taken French I in middle school. (I will be a sophomore this fall.)

Thus, one of my options for foreign language would be Intermediate French.

However, I saw that they also had Introductory Mandarin for a class, and I think that Mandarin will be more useful later in life than French. Also, I am wondering if Mandarin courses would help me with Japanese (which, unfortunately, they do not teach there).

I am more leaning towards Mandarin, but I have taken more French.

Any suggestions?
<P ID="signature"><hr></P><P ID="edit"><FONT class="small">Edited by RaiBlastoise on 07/25/06 02:56 PM.</FONT></P>
 
> I am more leaning towards Mandarin, but I have taken more
> French.
>
> Anu suggestions?

The Chinese are on the rise to power, France has long been on the decline as a world power. I'd learn Mandarin.
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> I think that Mandarin will be more useful later
> in life than French.

Unless you intend to live on an overpopulated country or train with paimei, I don't see how it would be more useful later in life than french.
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> The Chinese are on the rise to power, France has long been
> on the decline as a world power.

Good point.
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I'd say don't bother with French, though I wouldn't bother with the other either. If you want something you can use career-wise, Arabic seems to be the big thing these days. But if only those 2, Mandarin would seem the more interesting to me.

I studied German.
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> If you want something you can use
> career-wise, Arabic seems to be the big thing these days.

"I speak terrorist! Durka durka, Mohammad Jihad!"
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> "I speak terrorist! Durka durka, Mohammad Jihad!"
>

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Chinese will help with Japanese, but only as far as writing kanji is concerned. Linguistically, Chinese is closer to English than it is to Japanese. And since the readings for the kanji are totally different between the languages, it's not going to help all that much unless you really get good at Chinese kanji.

I'd still take Mandarin if I had the chance.
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A winner is China!

So, I've decided to take Mandarin next year, but I will also be reading some French literature (French Harry Potter 1 perhaps) to keep up on the French skills.

Xie xie!

Zai Jian!
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My native language is French, but I can write, read and speak English pretty easily. All I can say is that French's a hard language to learn. I was going to say Mandarin too, but that'S because I'd love to learn Chinese/Japanese. I'll have Italian on next semester though, since Japanese or Chinese are not available here.
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