Semi-Fluent Mandarin speaker doing Mandarin B HL?

[dubyawhy]

I have an American citizenship. I was born there. My Mother is Singaporean, and my Dad Chinese. I was raised in Singapore, and have recently moved to China.

I am a fluent speaker and reader, but my writing is clearly Mandarin B level. I'm just worried if unis will look down on my application because it APPEARS I should be a fluent Chinese speaker, but I take Mandarin B.

How much harder is A2 than B? Do you think taking A2 would be an option? I can't even do IGCSE First Language Chinese that well, so I was put in IGCSE Foreign Language.

Thanks.

[I`m Potato]

Hey there, actually I was in the same situation as you except I have Hong Kong citizenship which makes the situation worse. O:

Anyway, I'd say that the writing component in the IB second language courses is significantly important so simply speaking - not good at writing, I highly recommend that you do NOT take Chinese A2 because it is all about writing a comparative commentary of texts of literary nature for the final exam. Plus, you'll have to write a written task for the internal assessment as well which will require good writing skills in Chinese. (By the way, Language A2 courses are no longer available from the May 2013 session onwards)

So, I'd recommend that you either take Mandarin B SL/HL. HL is fairly demanding as well in terms of essay writing but as long as you can write in a manner that is fluent (using some idiomatic expressions, good syntax, vocabulary and such) then there is no harm attempting the course. From May 2013 onwards the B HL course is going to get tougher with mandatory literature studies, in which you will need to compose a literary response.

Hence, if you feel that you are very weak in writing then it is better to take SL just to be on the safe side (but there is still going to be a creative writing task for the internal assessment at SL).

[sapphireblue]

^ I've heard that universities may look down on applicants who are chinese but study the language at B level. You might want to try taking up a language at ab initio level or something, but that's just what lots of other students/teachers have told me, so it's not official or anything :/

[Peanut Butter Jelly]

um.. Im sure nothing bad will come from taking Mandarin B SL or HL, but why not take a new language and learn something new.