When I read a pupil's application for a selective school, a prépa (the two-year classes that prepare for France's grandes écoles) or a university abroad, the languages line nearly always looks like all the others: English, Spanish, sometimes German. It says nothing about the pupil. Chinese stands out at once. It gives a profile a genuinely distinctive mark, one that admissions panels and elite schools know how to read, provided it has been built over several years.
That is why I recommend it to families aiming for the most demanding paths. Careers in China come much later.
In a pile of applications, languages no longer set anyone apart
Figures from the DEPP, the statistics department of the French Ministry of Education, show how alike profiles have become. At the start of the 2024 school year, almost every pupil studied English, 57.5% of collège pupils (lower secondary, ages 11 to 15) studied Spanish, and so did three quarters of pupils in general and technological lycées (upper secondary, ages 15 to 18). Chinese, in those same lycées, was studied by 10,900 pupils as a first or second language and 7,950 as a third language.
The usual profile
- English as a first language, like nearly everyone.
- Spanish as a second language, like three quarters of lycée pupils.
- A languages line that does not set the pupil apart.
The profile with Chinese
- A language studied by fewer than 19,000 lycée pupils in France.
- Several years of demanding work, visible on school reports.
- An HSK level, when the pupil has taken it, measured by an official exam.
Elite paths already look for it
You only need to look at where Chinese is taught in Paris to see that it belongs to elite paths. Louis-le-Grand and Janson-de-Sailly each have an oriental language section in Chinese, with their own selection. Janson-de-Sailly also hosts a Chinese international section, from collège to lycée, where mathematics is taught in Chinese. École Jeannine Manuel teaches Mandarin to all its pupils from CE2 (age 8). The details of these paths, and how to get in, are in the article on Chinese in Paris middle schools.
For a selective admission, in France or abroad, Chinese then counts in two ways. Through the regularity it demonstrates, on school reports that cover several years. And through an outside measure: the HSK, the official Chinese proficiency exam, which places the pupil's level on a recognised scale, independent of their mark in class. This is what I see in the applications I work on: a pupil who presents several years of Chinese and a certified HSK level has a line nobody else in the pile has.
What the difference signals
A panel does not single out Chinese because it is exotic. It reads in it qualities the language forces a pupil to build, and which then show in all of their work.
These are the qualities selective schools and prépas look for. I see them in pupils who have done several years of Chinese, and they show first outside Chinese: in how a maths paper is laid out, in patience with a long exercise, in the way a new topic is approached without panic.
The condition: start early and keep going
The difference only counts if it has been built. Chinese dropped halfway through sets nothing apart; it even tells the opposite story. The DEPP figures show where the risk lies. As a third language in lycée, Chinese has collapsed: 7,950 pupils in 2024 against 14,100 in 2020. Since the reform of the baccalauréat, the French school-leaving exam, a third language is only an optional extra on top of the specialist subjects, and many pupils give it up. As a first or second language, by contrast, Chinese is growing: 10,900 pupils against 9,500.
The Chinese that sets an application apart is therefore the Chinese started in collège at the latest, as a second language, and carried through to the bac. Started at fifteen as one more option, it is often the first thing sacrificed when the final year fills up.
One piece of a planned path
Chinese sets an application apart, but it does not carry it alone. It counts most when it is part of a path planned in advance: the right school, possibly a selective section, solid maths, consistent subject choices in lycée, then an application that tells a clear story. That is what we build with families at Carmine, from choosing a school and getting in through to university admissions. And because maths is still what separates ambitious applications, we also work on it in one-to-one tutoring.
Starting at home
Many families have no school offering Chinese within reach, or want their child to get a head start before secondary school, which also helps if they are aiming for a selective section. We built Xiaomo, our Chinese app, for them: one short session a day, a story that carries on from one session to the next, and every character traced with a finger, because that is where the care I described above is built. HSK levels 1 and 2 are complete, and it is free, with no sign-up. You will find it in our resources.
One piece of advice to finish: a quarter of an hour every day is worth more than an hour on Sunday. Chinese rewards regularity more than any other subject I know.