> I speak Chinese okay, and write it kind of so-so, but I'm pretty sure I could ace any first-year Chinese class. However, I do want to learn something, rather than just ace a class, so that's why I'm taking French. Unfortunately, the high school I'm going into is kind of tough, so I might just take Chinese for a year as a slack class.

It's nice to have one relaxed class when everything else is challenging, as long as you aren't completely bored, or resentful of time spent on what may amount to busywork. But a few years of French to become reasonably fluent would be more worthwhile, I think, than one year of a language that you can already handle.

It might be worth it to take Chinese at some point, though, if you might ever consider continuing well beyond your current skills. Retaining and learning more can be difficult if you don't often use it (as in my case), but if you do, then why not improve it?

Sadly, I've lost most of the Chinese I knew as a child, and wish I'd studied it in college. Instead, I studied high school and college French, and am now working on Italian on my own. However, I know no French people, few Italians, and my trip to Italy was over a year ago. So really, I should be working harder on relearning Chinese, so as to earn fewer amused looks in Chinese restaurants when I order using English sprinkled awkwardly with Chinese phrases. But then, maybe I might as well amuse them.

-delissan