Mandarin B SL QUESTION!

[RobbieIB]

In Mandarin B SL, do you have to know fluent Chinese? Does the whole class learn in Chinese, like the teacher teaches in Chinese and everyone talks in Chinese in the class? I'm a bit worried because my speaking skills aren't so great.. Any advice on how the class is?

Also, to those taking the same class, how long have you guys been studying Mandarin? Is it hard or easy for you?

[cjy]

LOL. No, the B SL class in my school were far, far, far from fluent.

[ApotheoCarp]

Like cjy said, it really depends on your teacher and the skill level of the students. I think IB strongly suggests that all interactions should be done in the target language, and my teacher wasn't fluent in any other language, so by necessity most of my class was done in Mandarin. However, not all of us had the appropriate vocabulary level. Sometimes we would insert English/Indonesian words in the middle of sentences when we didn't know the correct Mandarin one. It was a bit difficult for me at first, but the more you expose yourself to everyday conversation in the language, the easier it becomes.

As for the other question, my previous school made it mandatory to learn Mandarin from 3rd grade, so I've had about 9 years of experience. However, what I studied was very non-conversational and not really practical, so I don't think it really gave me an advantage in the class. In general, I found the class quite tough, and very frequently ran into words and grammar structures I didn't know. However, if you work hard at it, I think you'll be ok. At the end of the first year I was predicted a 5, but I managed to get a 7 in the exams this year, so it's definitely possible if you're not at all that fluent. Just keep working hard and putting in effort, and you'll be fine!