<p>I am considering taking this over the summer. Has anyone here taken it? I'm wondering about the difficulty of the course and material, and whether or not everyone in there is already fluent even though they say that you are "supposed" to NOT already know the material and such. Also, do they teach traditional, simplified, or both? I think I'd be genuinely interested in the material, however, I haven't had any real prior knowledge of chinese... well one year of VERY CRAPPY high school chinese but then that class was a joke. Cooool.</p>
<p>I'd like to know too........bump.</p>
<p>If I can speak Chinese but very limited in writing/reading, would I take this course over summer?</p>
<p>i dunno about the summer course, but the normal Chinese courses teach both traditional and simplified - the textbooks have a simplified and a traditional version, you choose which one.</p>
<p>don't expect it to be an easy class. it might not be difficult for you, but it'll still be very time-consuming to do well in.</p>
<p>I've taken this course. It's not too difficult (foreign language classes usually aren't), but having the equivalent of 4 lectures per day means you'll have to devote the equivalent of 4 classes worth of time to it. There is a ton of vocabulary words to study every single day, so you have to get used to the fast pace. When I took the course, it started with 30+ people and dropped to less than 20. If you have any background in Chinese, such as a high school course or speaking at home, you shouldn't have any problem. The biggest problem I observed in new students was mastering Pinyin and new vocab words at the same time.</p>
<p>Yomino: If you can speak Mandarin they'll probably make you take the native speaker series (the ones that have A after the number). </p>
<p>I'm taking Chinese 1-3 this year and it's still quite a lot at the normal pace...the class is pretty easy (but that's just my opinion...I'm a language person, and there are lots of people who aren't), but there's a lot of work even at the normal pace (quizzes every week, tests, an entire tenth week spent on Chinese tests and the skit). </p>
<p>As for prior background in Chinese...There are quite a handful of people who speak other Chinese dialects and say that they can "understand" or infer what the professor is saying (sometimes she'll talk for a while in Mandarin and then translate what she just said). However, these people who have some prior experience with other dialects/reading and writing Chinese don't have that much of an advantage, since they make you learn pinyin, for which knowing another dialect really doesn't help. (Also, if they really knew enough Mandarin, they'd be put in the native speaker series.) Not to mention that there's been at least one occasion in which a whole bunch of Cantonese speakers got a question wrong on a test because they put the Cantonese phrase instead of the Mandarin phrase...</p>
<p>I am still debating on whether or not I should take this over the summer. Hmm, I have actually learned pinyin in high school and could easily pick it up again. I have trouble with certain ones that sound similar though, mainly the U with the two dots mixed with the uo or ou, forgot. How hardcore is the memorization of vocab and stuff though? Who were your professors, and how was the format of the class, that is, how were the lectures structured and what was the homework/tests like? I totally don't know what to expect from this. I want to make sure I go through with it if I start because it would be the only thing I would be taking that summer and if I drop then it would be a ***** to deal with housing cancellations and all that. What kinds of stuff are you going through at levels 1,2, and 3? Thanks in advance for all the info.</p>
<p>I have Fu for Chinese 1, 2, and 3, and my TAs have been Matthew Cochran and Jee Won Lee, and I'm taking Cochran again (he's REALLY good...he knows his stuff) for Chinese 3. </p>
<p>At the normal pace, we go through five chapters a quarter with quizzes every week (they're pretty easy, but I guess it depends on how you study...this quarter I never got below 9.5/10 but I've heard people saying they got 4 or 5...but most people don't score below 8 on a regular basis as far as I know). We had 9 quizzes in Chinese 2 and 8 quizzes in Chinese 1, and the lowest grade is dropped. The quizzes include characters, pinyin, and English translation. </p>
<p>The three tests (as opposed to quizzes) include grammar (the tests include radical identification, dictation, unscrambling sentences, error correction, reading comprehension, and making up your own sentences). Professor Fu had one lecture on grammar for each chapter, one lecture each on vocabulary (each chapter has two sections of vocabulary, so two vocab lectures per chapter). In sections and in other lectures we worked on the workbook, including the speaking exercises in the workbook, as well as the pattern drills in the textbook. After a few weeks you're required to say one Chinese sentence per day, and whether or not your TA enforces that policy strictly really depends on your TA. </p>
<p>At the normal pace, homework is due about every other week. Homework is only graded for completeness, though they'll correct your mistakes anyway. Also, we go over a lot of the homework when we do the workbook in class. Tenth week is a little insane with a quiz on Monday, an oral test on Wednesday, a test on Thursday, and a skit on Friday...that's been the case for Chinese 1 and 2, and 3 should be the same. </p>
<p>The first few weeks of Chinese 1 were very slow because we spent a lot of time learning pinyin and then getting used to having characters, and then we sped it up a lot to go through lessons 3-5. Chinese 2 was a lot more evenly paced. The number of new words depends on the chapter (chapter 1 really doesn't have that many words) but you get to around 30-40 per chapter after a while. (Some overlap between chapters though since they might have the same character but a different meaning...not many though...)</p>