french Literally being torn because I cannot decide

[votreami]

So I have been a French student since eighth grade and I am bilingual before taking French. I know Mandarin, I am literate in it as in I can read and write in it. But I have not taken the Mandarin course before. So a couple days ago I asked to be assessed by the IB Mandarin teacher and I got accepted into SL Mandarin.

My friends and my current French teacher isn't too thrilled about this. Most of my friends are doing French and only two of them are doing Mandarin SL. I have heard from the upper grade people that if I take French SL (as that is my only option), the highest mark I can get is a 5. I really love French but I don't want my diploma grades to suffer.

Currently, I'm thinking about doing Mandarin in IB and French 11 in the summer for the credit because I don't want to give up on learning it. I know I'll have a spare block in Grade 12 so if they have a French 12 class then, then I'll take it in school with my friends who are not in IB.

Please give an opinion of what I should do, course selection is coming up soon and I need to decide quick.

Thank you.

Oh and, the last time I checked my grade for French it was 79% which is a B in my province.

EDIT: I noticed that my bilingual statement wasn't too clear. To clarify, I am bilingual in both English and Chinese. French is my third language!

Edited February 2, 2013 by votreami

[flinquinnster]

Well, I don't know much about French and Mandarin SL considering I take neither, but I can try and give you some advice. Firstly, I think it is unrealistic to say that you cannot get above a 5 in French, because some people clearly get 6s and 7s - however, it might just be a general trend in your area. So don't let what you've heard about other people's marks disturb you too much.

You say that you are 'bilingual' - does that mean you are fluent in French? Are you near-native fluency? Because if you are in French, then French B should be easy. However, if you're not, this doesn't mean you still can't try taking IB French. However, don't simply succumb to peer pressure to do IB French. As you said, you can still take French outside of IB.

If you already know how to read and write in Mandarin, that's a good start. However, even if you did get accepted into the course, if you haven't studied mandarin before, maybe going into IB Mandarin SL might be tougher.

So, I guess it is up to how confident you feel in reading/writing/speaking/listening in these languages. I would recommend taking the one that you feel is easier, considering your skills, and thus which option will save you the most time. I know that the situation may seem more complex than that, but hopefully my advice has been somewhat useful.

[Andyboi]

IMHO mandarin would be more useful in the future than french but I definitely agree that you should consider which language you feel more comfortable with. I think you should take IB mandarin B SL and then you could take the AP french test at then end of your junior/senior year thus receiving college credit for french and showing colleges your multiple language capabilities. just a suggestion...

[CkyBlue]

If I were you, I wouldn't let my peers influence me into taking a subject just being most of them are taking it. It is entirely possible to score above 5 in French SL, and if you are bilingual (Your OP wasn't clear to me) you are likely to do much better than a 5. I was pretty awful in French (translated sentences into English in my head, memorized my lines beforehand in the oral) and I ended up with a 5; I'm sure you'd fare much better than I did.

You may also want to consider what you might doing in university or in the future when you make this decision; besides your personal interests, which do you think would be more practical to use in your professional development?

To be honest, diploma grades aren't very important if you are applying to university in Canada, so I wouldn't worry about it too much if I were you (unless your IB score in itself is of importance to you ). Most of the time it's just the average of your top 6 grade 12 courses, and the necessary prerequisites for the program you apply to. But I digress.

Just consider what is important to you, find out a little bit more about the course outlines, know your own capabilities and do what you want.