How difficult is Chinese B SL?

[rams]

Hey everyone, 

So I’m doing Chinese B SL next year and I’ve been studying proper Chinese since year 7 (prep school chinese was a joke).

I was talking to a guy doing SL Chinese B this year and he said it’s harder than HL maths and physics. I know this is just one persons opinion but does anyone else find it this challenging? I’m just wondering. I always found Chinese relatively enjoyable and easy, although this year it got a bit boring as all we did was the Chinese made easy textbook every lesson.

so yeah, is it that hard? 

Thankss.

Edited January 10, 2018 by rams

[Gaby]

I have not taken Chinese B, however, the B languages are meant for non-native speakers, and for B SL languages I believe 2 years of prior study is required/recommended, however, it'll depend on your school most likely. You might want to try to ask your teacher for some past papers of the subjects and see how you feel about its difficulty. 

[yara560]

I take Mandarin B and honestly, as a non-native speaker, it's very challenging for me. I don't think our MYP course did a good job in preparing us for Chinese B SL, as our assessments were easy and the classes were such that as long as you paid attention in class, you would do fine. However, in DP it's much harder, so it really depends on how well you can navigate around the language. Reading comprehensions are a joke compared to Paper 1 and it's come to the point where I can vaguely understand the passage, but the questions are so ridiculous that I can't score. I used to find Chinese pretty okay prior to DP, but now I have a different opinion:/

Honestly, it really depends on your language ability so I can't really tell you how it's like, but based on my opinion it's a pretty challenging course. Like Gaby, I would suggest trying some past papers and see how you fare on them to really gauge your ability. Hope this helps!