CHIN 1010

I took CHIN 1010 Fall 2022. Wang laoshi is a relatively new professor, but she tries to provide all the help she can. She will tell you this course covers a lot of material very quickly given that it's the base for the upper-level Chinese courses and it's true. Sometimes she can be a bit confusing with the instructions, but she is amazing. She really does her best to grade based on effort, but still try your best on content since that still counts. Many of the people who take it will usually have no experience with Chinese or are heritage speakers but lack proficiency in writing, grammar, etc. I honestly expected to be the only East Asian person in my class, but there were so many!

Personally, I found it to be my hardest class at the beginning of the semester. I had zero idea how to practice, study, and complete all the material since it seemed like a jumble of words. You will definitely have to dedicate time to class if you want to succeed. I had class four days a week and the fast pace didn't help my anxiety. I would try to aim for an hour max each day dedicated to Chinese so you still have time for your other classwork. If it takes longer at first, no worries, me too. If it doesn't, great, maintain quality>quantity! It seriously helps if you try to create a concrete practice/study routine. Once you finish radicals (which was possibly the most annoying part IMO), you'll move onto the textbook and practice book. The weekly schedule has a recommended order to do the homework. I tried my own order at first, but ended up using the one on the weekly schedule since I ended up understanding the content better in that order, but I encourage you to try out your own routine first. I would skim the dialogue to understand the context of the word's usage, then do the character practice, then go back to the dialogue to study in depth since that's where much of the quiz content is based off of, then finish off with the practice in the workbook. Lowkey took a long time for me because I would do the in-depth dialogue study, but it's what I needed to learn best. Also, get a notebook (or an iPad if you're feeling bougie) that you can dedicate to Chinese since it's all practice writing and not a lot of people take notes in class since class it short and everything reviewed/clarify in class is what you practiced for homework.

The quizzes are usually daily, but you drop your lowest six, and there are many opportunities in this class for easy grades, so don't sweat it if you get a 0 on one. I did for like 8 of them and still did well in the class. The exams are usually paper-pencil with content from two lessons/chapters. Wang laoshi will always tell you the format and types of questions on the exam. Sometimes they're oral presentations where you make a script (try to memorize it) using words and phrases from that chapter--not terrible, but there's a mutual nervousness from everyone in the class that makes it more comforting. At a point, you realize that everyone in that class is a beginner and there's actually so much silent support for each other that soon becomes external since Wang laoshi has us write supportive notes to everyone during their presentation--it's so cute. It became one of my top classes because of how well the environment was. You have so many laughs from the Integrated Chinese videos lol.

Maintain balance with your other courses. Don't put your entire night into this one class. Yes, you most likely will have class multiple days in a row. That's honestly what made it overwhelming to begin with because I felt like I had no time to work on my other courses, but if you invest time into a good study routine, it's ten times easier knowing what you need to do that night and getting it done. If you can't do it all, talk to Wang laoshi for tips and compact your routine cause there will undoubtedly be those nights when you realize you have Chinese to do at 1-2am after you just finished all your other homework. You don't have to do the most to get the most out of your work time. If you're struggling, reach out to a classmate and study together. Have fun!

#tCFfall22