Au Revoir French and Nǐ Hǎo Mandarin

Lorena Robelo

Chronicle Reporter

    Starting next school year, French will no longer be offered as a class. Instead, Mandarin Chinese will be offered again, taking the place of French. Not much was said about the change besides students saying they will miss French teacher Alonso Rolland-Estrada. But it is time to say au revoir to French and nǐ hǎo to Mandarin.

    The foreign language department decided well when they decided to replace French with Mandarin. Learning Mandarin will benefit one more in the future than learning French.

    Mandarin is number one of the three main languages in the world spoken next to English and Spanish. French is usually spoken in France, Canada, some African countries colonized by the French making it number 18 in the ranking of most spoken languages in the world. 

    China is also one of the world leaders in the market. For example, if their stocks drop like it did earlier this year, then the whole market goes through a tumble. Point is that one can make more business and strive if they make connections in China and learning the language will certainly help with avoiding that awkward language barrier. It is likely to infer that one will feel more comfortable making business with someone that they can speak to directly than having to depend on a translator to speak for you.

    Of course, one is likely to visit France, but that is about it. France is more of a tourist attraction than a place to build a future in and invest in.

    French is also another “white language,” meaning that mostly caucasian Europeans speak it. Mandarin is a language that comes from a completely different ethnicity with a rich culture behind it that can really open the eyes of some of the students. I am sure most students know the basic history of France and that there is not much culture behind it, but Mandarin will open one’s eyes to a new world outside of the United States and completely different culture.

    Mandarin will offer an all-around education with culture, food, and the language itself. French offers a couple of pastries and the language. It looks like the students taking Mandarin will have an advantage in the future than those who took French.

2 thoughts on “Au Revoir French and Nǐ Hǎo Mandarin

  1. This article degrades the meaning of the knowledge and experience of students who took French as their language class. It is true that China is a leader in the market, but not everyone is interested in pursuing business ventures. Most students are interested in traveling to Europe than to China and may have different preferences. To give appreciation to one thing does not require the putting down of another. Give credit to the wonderful job that the French class has done at educating students.

    1. I wrote my opinion as it is an opinion piece, although I am happy I got a reaction out of someone. That means my article has an impact on people. Foreign language classes are meant to teach one about another culture and language that one can apply in the future. I know many people that took French as a foreign language class and have never used it after high school, as opposed to those who took Spanish and Mandarin. And, yes, some students are not interested in business but almost everyone’s job is revolves around the economy, which China has a large influence on. But anyways thank you for reading my article and thank you for commenting.

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