<p>How hard is the Chinese 001 class at Davis? I’ve always wanted to learn Chinese and am considering taking it to fulfill my GE requirements. But would someone who doesn’t know any Chinese be able to do well in that class?</p>
<p>Easy as cake.</p>
<p>Haha, terrible I know, but someone had to do it.</p>
<p>Haha, so I can take it and still have a chance of passing even though I don't know a lick of Chinese?</p>
<p>I have been wondering this as well, would someone that has taken any Chinese class(es) please fill us in?</p>
<p>Though I've never taken the class, I do speak Chinese.</p>
<p>Keep in mind that Chinese is probably the hardest languange you can learn considering that the grammatical structure barely contains any parallels to English as Spanish, French, German do. </p>
<p>In addition, know that although there is a system of phonetically sounding out words for beginning Chinese, essentially each word is a symbol, and there is no easy way to read words because you can't sound them out like you do English by looking at the letters that make up a word.</p>
<p>So relatively, it's going to be much harder than learning another language that shares its roots with English.</p>
<p>If you are worried about it impacting your cum, consider attending a few classes with a professors permission and then deciding possibly for a future semester.</p>
<p>Some (perhaps most) westerners have difficulty with the structure and as well as pronunciation. You might find a fluent friend to give you some exposure to the language. I applaud your desire to learn something so new to you, but I caution you to avoid unnecessary consequences of grades.</p>
<p>Is this an option for you? My best friend has taken Chinese and it takes time....not impossible or anything but takes more time to learn characters.</p>
<p>do you know how many characters they have to memorize a week? What else is taught in the class?</p>
<p>It is about 40 per chapter and that probably averages to more than 1550 per semester...he just did summer in Beijing and learned 2500 additional in 8 weeks. Other classes deal with culture and art etc. Does that help you??? Don't give up on a dream of learning Chinese...take it and follow your dream. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.princeton.edu/%7Epib/%5B/url%5D">www.princeton.edu/~pib/</a></p>
<p>Thanks Hazmat, that was very helpful. I will probably take Chinese in fall quarter (if not full) or next quarter (if they still offer CHN 1). I really want to study abroad in Beijing for a year after 2 years in my junior year. BTW, do you know what grades your friend recieved in the Chinese classes?</p>