<p>Hi. I'm a U0 registering for courses, and I've noticed that First Level Chinese is 4.5 credits per course, and I was wondering if that is because it is an incredibly difficult course or something. </p>
<p>I was also considering Latin, and I was just wondering how far you get in the Latin 1 courses. For these languages, you don't need to have a background in them beforehand, do you? </p>
<p>Thanks & your answers are much appreciated!</p>
<p>Credits are proportional to hours required. Chinese is 4.5 because it involves more hours than a 3 credit course, the latter of which requires three hours of lecture time per week. Chinese probably involves a greater amount of time because of labs; the same reason is why certain courses in the natural sciences will be more than 3 credits. </p>
<p>I don’t know “how far you get” in Latin 1, but you can try searching for a syllabus on the appropriate McGill website, which should include an outline for the course. It will also indicate whether you need prior experience for the course in the syllabus (although if it’s Latin 1, I highly doubt that previous knowledge of Latin will be required.)</p>
<p>Thanks so much! Just out of curiosity and sorry if this sounds dumb, but what does a lab in a language course entail?</p>
<p>No prob 
Language labs involve work done on a computer, which facilitates the speaking/listening components of learning a language. However, not every language course necessarily has a lab component; it could be that Chinese just involves more lectures. I would encourage you to contact the department if you’d like to know for sure. However, Chinese will for sure entail more hours than a 3 credit course.</p>
<p>If it helps, Chinese is ridiculously difficult to learn.</p>