OK. I came first in my year (a long time ago
) in chinese, in the top class at my school, but I still dropped it anyway. I still dunno exactly why i dropped it, but main reasons include the fact that it doesn't scale well, and that the higher you go with chinese the more time-consuming it will become. If in the background speakers class your coming 4th, and as you say your not even a background speaker,
then go to your teacher and suggest that maybe you be allowed to do the continuers course instead (which is much much much easier
)
Te background speakers course puts you against ppl who have only just come from China, and so it's actually pretty hard, and as the previous poster said, doesn't scale as well as other subjects. But if you get into continuers (which is what your supposed to be in if you haven't studied 1 year or more in China), then you should definately continue, cause you'll kick ass.