American Born Chinese taking Chinese Foreign Language Class in College?
I am chinese, but was born in the states and English is my primary language. When I was little, my parents spoke cantonese a lot so now I can speak it very well. I can understand a little bit of mandarin, but I can't write chinese at all. Can I take chinese as a course in college? In other words, would it be okay for me to take chinese even though I understand it a little? Would it be weird?
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What you want to do is really normal. In fact, I remember in my Polish class, there were several students of Polish decent, who spoke some Polish but couldn’t write it; others who spoke related languages (Ukranian) fluently, but were new to Polish, and still others who had no Polish at all.
I think you’ll find the same in your Mandarin class. As CanProf said, your uni may even offer placement tests so you can see if you must start at Mandarin 1, or if you can skip to Mandarin 2 – but you can also just go ahead and sign up for Mandarin 1 if you’d like to. Not a problem, and not uncommon.
This is completely normal. What might happen is you might be given a test to see at what level you should start.
You need to take an Entry Mandarin level course. Start from scratch along with white peers.
Knowing some Cantonese is no help for you with Mandarin.
If you wish to learn Mandarin to the point where you can speak and understand with Chinese natives, expect to put 3 years, of time, 2 hours per night, and constant practice.
You might learn 500 characters by then.
Once you pass that stage, you will have alot of fun with Mandarin, you’ll feel smart!