CHIN 1010

Geng is a genuine and kind teacher, and uses most of class time to go over grammar and practice speaking. The course material is hard, and the language definitely has a learning curve, but after the first month or two you get used to the writing system and how the language sounds. It is a fast paced class. We took about 4 days per lesson which had around 30 vocab words (pronunciation and characters) and had daily dictations. The dictations and exams had test corrections, and she was a lenient grader on oral presentations. I have learned to love the language, and requires a lot of work, but is so worth it!

I had both Geng Laoshi and Huang Laoshi as my teachers. Geng Laoshi taught Mon and Tue and Huang Laoshi taught the rest. Geng Laoshi was very nice and spoke slowly enough to help you understand. Huang Laoshi was not bad, but he did speak fast and would sometimes laugh at us, but if you aren't a b!tch about it you'll be fine. This class is a ton of work! Writing and bookwork every night, and unless your family speaks chinese or you have some outside experience you will be very behind unless you spend extra time speaking and memorizing the words and characters. However, they grade very nicely and most people finish with good grades. Just try your best and give a lot of effort and you should learn, have fun, and get a decent grade.