I'm on my way to college in the Fall and I am planning on taking a language course over the summer. I'm at a toss up of a few languages but Chinese stands out the most. It's growing popularity seems to be a sign of the importance of it.

I'm wondering whether I should take it because I'm not sure my career choice would really get any use out of it. I plan on majoring in Physics, Astronomy, or something of the sort. Would learning Chinese be of ANY benefit to if I did go into that field?

Considering the international situation, you will find China's influence on the world is more and more now.
There are a lot of the cultural heritage of humanity in China.
And there are also lots of beautiful and useful things in China.
I'm a native Chinese and I am proud for my country.
Do you want to know China more?
I think you can learn some Chinese culture first.
You will find the charm of China.
Of course ,you should at least know a little mandarin.
You can make some Chinese friends or take some free courses on line.
There is a good site which I know can help you.
Visit http://www.echineselearning.com
You will find a surprise!

Considering China's huge populace and rapid growth, choosing Mandarin will by no means be a bad choice no matter what your major is.
If you have no particular interest in other languages and plan to start to learn one, try Mandarin.

youd be able to communicate with my family! XD lol no

but there are lots of chinese people in america right now and the chinese speaking population has gone up immensely. for example, kevin rudd, the australian political figure, speaks better chinese than me. its a very useful language especially if you want to go into business like that.

Asian languages are great and asian countries cover a very large part of the world.

also, if you want to major in a scientific field, try german as well. it will help.

If you live on the west coast, you'll be able to carry on a conversation with your future supervisors, loan officers, landlords and city councillors.

Considering China is or is on its way to being one of the next super powers, it couldn't hurt. Also, being bilingual makes you more viable in the business world. Not only that, learning a new language is excellent for exercising your brain. Asian languages are challenging, but extremely fun and interesting to learn. Totally go for it.

Seriously I wouldn't want to dissuade anyone from trying to learn Mandarin, I'm doing it myself and I keep telling my friends its really a very easy language (grammatically, theres no conjugation for example) to learn to speak and even to read/write if you're talking pinyin. Characters are a whole other matter.

Also I'm an industrial designer, specifically a shoe designer and I go to China 6 or 8 times a year for 2 weeks each trip so I have very good reasons and ample chance to practice.

BUT- I think you should NOT learn Mandarin. My reason for advising this way is that it IS a VERY HARD language to learn to read and write in the manner that nearly all publications are done. Almost nothing is actually written in Pinyin(english style letters) It also is a big hurdle to get the tonal system down if its as foreign to you as it is to most Westerners. Again, I get to use mine quite often on native speakers who don't speak English so neither I not the recipients of my broken Chinese can slip into English for quick clarity, we are forced to muddle through in Chinese and it forces my brain to wrap itself around the language and make sense of it. I also practice on my own with flash cards and Pimsleur cds and rosetta stone ALL THE TIME. I do a 30 minute pimsleur lesson nearly every day in the car on my commute. Often just review but seriously I expend a lot of time on this.

With your chosen discipline, I fail to see the real concrete benefit of learning this particular language. Pick a language where a lot of scholarly research in your field is being or has been published.

Now if you have some other reason? You totally dig China or Chinese chicks or are just fascinated by that particular culture, whatever thats another story and will continue to motivate you even when it gets hard and you will find times when it gets hard and frustrating to progress.

I hope nobody thinks I'm bashing Mandarin, as I said AM learning and doing pretty well, but I have both professional and additional personal reasons to want to learn it and a lot of motivation and friends to help me when the going gets rough.

I applaud you for thinking of mandarin as a rising global language, it truly is and if you were some form of humanities major or international business or marketing, I'd back you more. But you could prolly choose several languages that are both "easier" (or more familiar because thats really what that means) and will be more useful to your career.

Contact some professors at any of the universities on your short list and ask them, If you wanted to pursue a PhD in your chosen area, which languages would they recommend. They will give you far better advise than we all can.

I hope Im not discouraging you. Just keep in mind that to really learn a language is a very large commitment of prescious time and if it bears on your application to grad school and it will, you should not chose it lightly. A mistake may have you going back and needing to learn a new one.

Good luck any way you decide.

Chinese IS fun! And the Chinese are SO nice and friendly that when ever I go it is totally worth all of my effort to be able to converse in their language and I score serious points for being able to do so even in limited amounts. I love China. I say do it if your heart tells you thats the language you must learn or else look elsewhere.

If you do decide to... Get Pimsleur Comprehensive Mandarin I, II and III (one at a time though theyre expensive LOL, Download Rosetta stone and make flash cards for the phenomes in pinyin and learn those so you can read phonetically from a dictionary then make your own flash cards . That combi works awesome for me.

Learning Mandarin is very beneficial nowadays which is why it's so popular and why many people are taking Mandarin courses.

The reason is, China is rising to the top fast and will be doing business with the US for a long time and also have ties with the US.

I am also learning Mandarin right now because of that very reason.

Knowing another language asides from English is very useful and will help you when you are looking for jobs. Many employers like it when employees are bilingual, trilingual, etc.

give a free 6 day course a go, (see below)..

if you don't want to continue, its up to u!

you'll never know till u try!