<p>I'm definitely attempting to take French as a freshman, but I'm trying to choose between German and Chinese as a second option. What ideas do you folks have about this?</p>
<p>I took CHIN 1101 (Beginning Mandarin I) in the fall and continued this semester with CHIN 1102. It’s a lot of work and a lot of class time (2-3 lectures and 5 discussions/week), but I’m actually really enjoying it! The discussions meet every day and only have about 10-12 students each, and you spend the entire time speaking nothing but Mandarin. It sounds intense, but everybody ends up messing up and laughing and if you have a good TA, the atmosphere is pretty lax - and of course, you do learn a lot. The hardest part is memorizing characters, but that all depends on your own work ethic. An advantage of taking Mandarin is that CHIN 1101 and1102 are 6 credits each, so you’ll be done with the CAS language requirement in one year and can decide whether or not you want to continue.</p>
<p>Unfortunately for me, I’m still waiting to enroll in Mandarin. How long should I expect to wait to get another response from the course coordinator (not a professor)? I already sent my information in a previous e-mail yesterday; and I’m afraid spots compatible to my current schedule are going to run out.</p>
<p>1st semester language courses are very intense. If you are not ready or your schedule doesn’t support this, it would be very difficult to manage the time.</p>
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I believe you mentioned that you wouldn’t be able to enroll without his/her permission. Did the person give you a phone number? If so, call him/her. Say you already emailed him/her and want to be enrolled in the class ASAP :)</p>
<p>She’ll probably get back to you tomorrow (or Monday since its a weekend). She got back to me 2 days after I emailed her.</p>