Are there many opportunities to use Mandarin in the navy?

[CMG8122]

Hi all,

I am seriously considering the Naval Academy. However, I would be willing to attend any service academy; I just want to find the right branch for me. Perhaps you could please give me some advice.
I am in my senior year of high school, and currently in AP Chinese and would like to minor in that language. Would speaking Chinese be more useful to me in one branch in particular? I was considering a career in Naval Intelligence. Would the language be of any use in that career?

Also, which areas of study are more important in each of the branches? I've been told that West Point is more "humanities friendly" than the other academies. Is this true?

Thank you for your insight,
Christina

 

[GoNavyPro]

Chinese is going to be useful regardless of which branch you go into. No service academy is going to give you a service selection solely based off of your linguistics, so you should be thinking a little bit broader about what you want to do as a career in the military. Your major at the Naval Academy has zero influences to your service selection (ex. an Political Science Major has an equal chance to be a pilot as an aerospace engineer). Though keep in mind if you decide to be a Surface Warfare Officer in the Navy, there's a pretty high chance that you'll work with some foreign Navy's/visit foreign countries that speak mandarin.

I can't comment on what they do at Army West Point, but at USNA you can major in Chinese or major in something else and get a Chinese minor (double majoring is hard unless you validate/test out of a lot of classes).

 

[AF6872]

DD had Chinese in High School. Majored in Chinese at USNA. Did Summer and then Semester in China on US Dime. Went TBS. Graduated Adjutant Corps. Currently Captain USMC.
As Navy Pro said it has Zero influence during your time there but it might help admissions.

 

[nuensis]

Demonstrated proficiency (i.e. DLPT 2/2 or above) will help you a bit specifically for IDC selection. They do take language and regional expertise into account.

The issue is that not many Chinese majors can actually pass a DLPT. Even some returning from semester abroad still score between 0 and 1+. It's not an easy test, and is significantly longer and more difficult than the AP exam or the SAT II.