<p>Hi, I’m going to be a freshman next year. I’m hoping that I can pass the Spanish placement exam at orientation, but I’m still interested in taking Chinese. I have a few questions:</p>
<li><p>Should I take another language if I pass the requirement? I’m a Biology/Psychobiology major and I want to graduate within 4 years, so I don’t want to spend time taking a lot of extra classes.</p></li>
<li><p>I am actually Chinese and can fluently speak/understand Mandarin; however, I have never learned to read or write. :[ What class/level should I start with? </p></li>
<li><p>How much time do you need to put into it each week?</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Also, a quick roommate question: I found a potential roommate recently and we’re both actually assigned to Hedrick Hall. Do we have to file a Change of Assignment Request or can we somehow switch in the fall?</p>
<p>just to answer your first two questions... you don't need to answer your first one now. in fact, the best way to answer it is to sign up for a language class, even if you've already fulfilled your requirement. if it jives with you and you like it, pursue it. college is only partially about your degree. it's also a time to do what you enjoy, and explore all the dimensions of yourself.</p>
<p>as far as placement, there's a built-in solution: if you aren't signing up for level one of a language, you have to take a placement test. for chinese it should be offered in september. if you WANT to start from the beginning, you could purposely do poorly, but i say you should just give it your best shot so you get the most benefit.</p>
<p>[ol]
[<em>]That depends on how much of that other language you take -- a full minor (~45 units) will probably set you back another year.
[</em>]Chinese 1A.
[li]Ten hours per week.[/li][/ol]
You can switch roommates in the fall during the open transfer period. :rolleyes:</p>
<p>there's a lot of work for chinese- class is everyday, attendance to all of them is mandatory, + two quizzes a week and a good amount of hw. Like flopsy said, you would most likely go into 1A, since you dont know how to read/write. I took chinese 3A and I really liked it. The prof. (Yao laoshi) is awesome. I kinda wanna minor in Chinese too, but it seriously is a lot of work, so you would want to take that into consideration.</p>
<p>it's actually really fun. Well, at least the lectures on tues and wed were fun because I love the professor, discussions on mon wed fri kinda sucks cuz I had a bad TA. Otherwise, it would've been enjoyable.</p>