If I take a Mandarin language course in college, will I be fluent in Mandarin by the time I get my bachelor’s?

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 11th, 2009 at 7:06 am and is filed under Chinese Mandarin. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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13 Responses to “If I take a Mandarin language course in college, will I be fluent in Mandarin by the time I get my bachelor’s?”

  1. 龙腾 Says:
    November 11th, 2009 at 7:06 am

    I don’t think so. Learning a language in school is learning a language which is not quite true–I know it! China is very large, different areas have different ways to speak Mandarin, and they have different words. And some expressions even in Beijing won’t be appeared in books. So, the foundation is, learning Mandarin in college, then if you want to speak Mandarin fluently, go to Beijing, even other parts of China.

  2. Master_1077 Says:
    November 11th, 2009 at 7:06 am

    You would have to know 3,000 – 5,000 characters to be considered a fluent speaker

  3. L.S Says:
    November 11th, 2009 at 7:06 am

    depends up to what level course you will take, how much you practice out of class and how much you really want to learn.

  4. Shi-chan Says:
    November 11th, 2009 at 7:06 am

    Probably not. Madarin has alot of characters and different meanings and usages for each one. It might be hard and it also depends on the effort you put into learning a new language.

  5. laska Says:
    November 11th, 2009 at 7:06 am

    It depends on how hard you work. Probably no, though, because most people who take languages in college are really dumb. And if you’re starting out in the language, then there’s not a whole lot of room for going above the crowd… and the people in the beginning levels of classes usually don’t care so much.

  6. Niclas Says:
    November 11th, 2009 at 7:06 am

    sure if you put effort into it
    semi-fluent => perhaps
    fluent => difficult
    i hv been learning english for 15 years and still consider myself not fluent

  7. spydermomma Says:
    November 11th, 2009 at 7:06 am

    It sort of depends on what you consider fluent, but I’d say it is pretty unlikely unless you study abroad in China or Taiwan. Studying a language in classes only takes you so far. To really be fluent you have to live the language. I majored in Russian in college, and I wasn’t anywhere near fluent when I graduated. I was an exchange student in Germany the year before college, but never studied it formally, and my German is ever so much better than my Russian. Plus Chinese is pretty hard, because the whole structure of the language is so different from English and because you can’t sound out words. The grammar is pretty easy, though.

    But study Chinese anyway, and then do a study abroad program in China. Learning new languages is always a good thing!

  8. travelight27 Says:
    November 11th, 2009 at 7:06 am

    it depends on your level and your ability.

  9. Louie the linguist Says:
    November 11th, 2009 at 7:06 am

    I agree with others who’ve answered you. If you want to see how the US government ranks levels of proficiency and difficulty, see the site below.

    Also see the searchable database I maintain about learning less commonly taught languages in North America (second link).

  10. ~*BeautifuL*~ Says:
    November 11th, 2009 at 7:06 am

    well it doesent matter how long u take it it matters how u spaek wat i mean is that it counts on u
    also the younger u are

  11. Mathios Says:
    November 11th, 2009 at 7:06 am

    Maybe depends on your level of the knowledge of the language… people say it takes 3-5 years to learn to speak… and to learn to write is another story, very difficult . It takes a long time to be able to write well in Chinese, but not a long time to learn to speak. Remember also that after studying it in school you have to immerse your self in the language(go to Beijing and only speak Mandarin and not a word of English.) It’s is also harder to learn a language after your 15 I think it is. But it is definitely possible you just have to work very hard in learning the language.. that means everyday devoting 2-3 hours on writing, reading Characters, and pinyin… good luck Mandarin is one of the hardest languages I’ve ever studied.

  12. Mr Economist Says:
    November 11th, 2009 at 7:06 am

    That depends on you. Studying Chinese myself, I have found that it is one thing to learn what they teach you, but the person who will really excel in the language is the one who does their own study and goes beyond what was taught at college. Good luck.

  13. tokyotogreg Says:
    November 11th, 2009 at 7:06 am

    Very simple NO!!!

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