East Asian Languages And Cultures · Columbia University
I love her computer screen teaching! She is always willing to answer questions after class. She teaches a little slowly, but that's ok too.
I wouldn't recommend this professor if you have a choice. She's not terrible, but there are definitely better instructors in the department. She's not very good at explaining characters, the hardest part of mandarin, although she does an ok job with grammar. She does really care but sometimes her teaching ability just wasn't enough. You'll leave the class with a decent grade but a subpar understanding of the material unless you really study on your own.
very very very very very nice, timid person. very very very very very horrible teacher. she's new and really needs to learn to speak english first.
Pretty strict... makes you recite the presentation almost everyday! the dictation's not so bad, since after a while she just makes you dictate sentences without needing pinyin. She gives a lot of extra hw. if it weren't about time constraints, I wouldn't take her.
3 exams, memorizing dictations, normal for chinese, about 3 hours a day,
Zhao Laoshi is new from Beijing. She apparently taught for Columbia's summer program there. She's very sweet, BUT, and this is a big BUT, she is just a horrible, horrible teacher. Though her English seems like it's not that bad, she is incapable of explaining usage, etc. beyond the very short explanation she prepared for the class. Be fully prepared to teach this section of Chinese to yourself.
Zhao Laoshi is a new, really nice teacher from Beijing. Although her English isn't the best, she's willing to spend extra time to explain complicated grammar and clear up misunderstandings in class and office hours. She also tries really hard - for the final, she made a huge review packet that covered all the material for the semester for us. I recommend her to anyone who wants to take her class for Elementary Chinese - the grammar isn't ridiculously difficult, so her English impediment wouldn't be such an obstacle unlike what the reviewers in Intermediate Chinese said (not that I think it's THAT bad anyway).
A lot, like every Chinese language class. She has a few extra homeworks tho.
Daily dictation quizzes, biweekly character sheets, almost-daily homework sheets, biweekly exams, drill session, oral midterm/final, written midterm/final.