Does anyone take Mandarin Chinese?
It can be challenging, especially memorizing the characters. My advice is to learn the radicals. You’ll understand when you start taking it. Like any foreign language, you need to review frequently, but its fun once you get into it. One way I like to practice is watching House with Mandarin subtitles. Watching movies in Chinese, Hero, for example, is another good way to get a feel for the language. Since you’re only going to be a freshman, this probably won’t be as much of a concern, but Chinese will also look fascinating on your college application. The most important thing to remember about Chinese is that it’s a lot of writing.
