Is it okay if I haven taken Chinese as a language class for three years despite being Chinese myself?Answered
So I am Chinese but I speak Cantonese. The Chinese taught in school is mandarin but I am not sure if colleges will down upon me for taking Chinese in school for being technically Chinese myself. Will they just assume that I know mandarin, the most popular dialect of Chinese I think, or that I could also know Cantonese but not mandarin. This question is mainly for my reassurance since I have thinking about it for the past few days.
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2 answers
I'd recommend, just to be safe, indicating which dialect you speak and which one you learned on your applications. Colleges very likely won't look down upon you, as, even if it wasn't formally learned, you're still bilingual, which is a very important skill.
Best of luck with your applications!
There's a whole "Additional Information" section on the application where you can elaborate on things like this. I think just a short explanation like you gave here will do; don't assume they're automatically viewing it negatively, but I agree it may be helpful to explain just in case.
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