Chinese as a foreign language.

[FriskyMare]

DS (currently in Y7) has been asked if he would like to study Chinese next year, he is currently studying German and Spanish and would have to drop one of these. Most likely Spanish as we have German rellies.
Do any of you have dc who have studied Chinese? Did they find it difficult/time consuming etc.
We think it may be an interesting and useful language to have but are worried it may be too much and once he has dropped Spanish may not be able to take it up again.

However hard you try you'll never be able to use Chinese to the level of a native speaker - would disagree with this. I know quite a few British, European and American children who speak as well as native speakers within about 5 years or so, or less. They have a Chinese governess/nanny and attend schools where Chinese is spoken at least 50% of the day. They are not in China.

The British often assume Chinese is just 'too difficult', I hear it all the time. Being in Asia obviously makes it easier, its much harder to master in the UK although not impossible (but it will take resources & commitment).

Plus as we know from Firefly, in the future everyone will speak a mixture of Chinese and English. Shiny.

British people always use that as an excuse, poppytin. We have a very unpleasant combination of arrogance and laziness when it comes to learning a language.

There were US and UK people on TV speaking Chinese when I was out there last summer who sounded fluent, but I detected a slight English twang in their accent. That having been said, everyone seemed to understand them.

BTW while I was out there I relied heavily on an interpreter - business is most certainly not always conducted in English!

.... and is increasingly unlikely to be so. Why would the Chinese, who are in the ascendency, want to have to conduct business with others in English? As they become ever more powerful in global business, and with Western businesses, there will be more pressure to deal in their own language, I believe.

Just something to bear in mind.

Both A level Mandarin and most university Mandarin course currently assume no prior knowledge of the subject.

My DD has done Mandarin since the start of this year (y8). It is not a popular choice - I'm assuming everyone thinks it's too hard. I hope she will go on to do GCSE Mandarin (or whatever abortion of GCSE's Gove has dreamed up by then) but once she has done this, it seems she will be on her own, as far as studying the language is concerned, unless the courses in the UK change dramatically between now and then.

Can you do the Institute of Linguists qualifications in Mandarin instead of A Level?