Mandarin B or German A self-taught?

[LiliF]

I am currently in year 11 studying Mandarin B at standard level and have to make my choices for diploma next year.

I have the choice to continue with Mandarin or to do self-taught German A. I can't decide whether I should stick to Mandarin since i've been learning it for already 4 years or if I should do German self-taught which is my mothertongue language.

I'd definitely get better marks at German A compared to Mandarin which i'm alright/not so good at but do you think it would be a shame to give up on Mandarin after so many years? or is it more important to get high marks?

[alexpalex28]

Mandarin, mandarin is the language of the future.

[bluedino]

I do think it would be a shame for you to give up on a language you've spent 4 years learning.. but if you chose German you could always still keep your mandarin on the side - maybe review it for a few minutes each week just so you don't forget everything completely.. then you could continue learning it once your IB diploma is done. As for whether it's "more important to get high marks" -- this depends on what your IB score means to you. Do you need to get a certain score to go into your desired uni/college course? If you do need a high score, then maybe taking German would be more beneficial so you have a greater possibility of getting your high score. Having said that though, it's entirely possible for you to do just as well with Mandarin - I'm sure that you'd continue to improve in it after another year of studying.

Also, consider maybe which language you enjoy learning/revising more and whether a self-taught system of learning would suit you more/less than a classroom/teacher style of learning. Hope this helps!

Edited February 6, 2014 by bluedino