The second language I officially studied – meaning, I took lessons in a classroom setting – was Mandarin Chinese. My high school offered it as a new language course beginning my Junior year, and I was more than intrigued to take up the challenge and schedule the class. I continued taking classes until my Sophomore year in college, at which point I ran out of classes to take; my university only offered up to Intermediate II, unfortunately.
In any case, unlike French, I fell in love in the Chinese language – and in particular, the country of Taiwan and its beautiful accent. (To this day, listening to the standard Beijing accent still grates on my ears just a bit…) I’ve been doing self-study since taking my final class, which includes translating songs, TV shows (dramas), amongst various other activities. (When I began my studies, we were taught only simplified characters, so that’s still my default for reading and writing; however, I’m slowly building up my ability to recognize and recall traditional characters).
I would definitely call Chinese my “best” second language, though I’m still quite a few steps away from being thoroughly fluent.
粉絲字幕~Fensi Subs~ 