RC Now says ni hao

                                                                                                              Frank Perez/Correspondent

Mastering a foreign language takes time. Some languages take longer than others.

The American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages classifies languages into four categories. Languages that belong in Category One (French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and others) take English speakers the least amount of time to master. Only four languages belong in Category Four, which takes the longest to master. Can you guess what those languages are?

Well, Chinese is one of them and Rancho resident Michelle Munguia, pictured, seems to have a hang of it. Michelle, 10, a student of Pomona Valley Chinese School, is featured in my Sunday article about the growing interest in studying Chinese. If you speak just English, the article will make you feel somewhat inferior because the young students interviewed are on their way to mastering their third or fourth language.

Answer: The Category Four languages are Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Arabic.