Beginning Chinese This course is a continuation of the fall and winter terms with accelerated introduction of vocabulary, grammar, and sentence patterns designed to facilitate speaking and reading. Toward the end of this semester students will read Huarshang de meiren (Lady in the Painting), a short book written entirely in Chinese.

Chinese Sociolinguistics (taught in English) Sociolinguistics is mainly concerned with the interaction of language and society. The language situation in China is unique both in the modern world and in human history. We will gain a good understanding of sociolinguistics as a scientific field of inquiry through exploring the Chinese situation in this course. Some of the questions we will ask are: What is Mandarin (Modern Standard) Chinese? Who are "native speakers" of Mandarin? Are most Chinese people monolingual (speaking only one language) or bilingual (speaking two languages) or even multilingual? How many "dialects" are there in China? What is the difference between a "language" and a "dialect"? Are Chinese characters "ideographs", i.e., "pictures" that directly represent meaning and have nothing to do with sound? Why has the pinyin romanization system officially adopted in the 1950s never supplanted the Chinese characters? Why are there traditional and simplified characters? We will also explore topics such as power, register, verbal courtesy, gender and language use. Students are encouraged to compare the Chinese situation with societies that they are familiar with.

Beginning Chinese An intensive continuation of CHNS 0101, this course is required of those wishing to take CHNS 0103 in the spring.  Students may anticipate learning a significant amount of new vocabulary, sentence patterns and idiomatic expressions.  Skits, oral presentations, writing assignments, and cultural activities are also part of this course.

Beginning Chinese This course is an introduction to Mandarin (guoyu or putonghua). The course begins with simple words and phrases, the pronunciation and cadences of Mandarin, romanization, Chinese characters, and simple vocabulary items, all taught in the context of practical communication. Sentence patterns and other fundamentals of speaking, reading, and writing will be taught, including both traditional characters (used everywhere before the 1950s and still used in Taiwan and Hong Kong) and simplified characters (used in China). Students should have achieved active command of more than 600 Chinese characters and more than 800 compounds by the end of the sequence CHNS 0101, CHNS 0102, and CHNS 0103.

Contemporary Social Issues in China: Advanced Readings (in Chinese) A survey of materials written in modern expository Chinese (academic, journalistic and polemical) that focus on the cultural, political, economic, and social issues of contemporary China. This advanced readings course is designed primarily for seniors who have already spent a semester or more studying and living in China or Taiwan. Emphasis will be given to further developing students' ability to read, analyze, and discuss complex issues in Mandarin while also advancing proficiency in writing and in oral comprehension. Oral reports and written compositions will be integral to the course's requirements.

Second Language Acquisition: Theories and Research Why do most people have an accent when speaking a language they learned after a certain age? What are the processes and mechanisms behind the acquisition of an additional language? Why are there larger individual differences in the acquisition of a second language than in the first? These are some key questions addressed in second language acquisition (SLA) research. In this course we will study various SLA theories, research methodologies, and findings. We will also learn how to conduct basic SLA research, including collecting and analyzing data, and writing a report, following accepted conventions in the field.

First Language Acquisition All human children have the potential to acquire any human language in the right environment, yet it is much more difficult for adults to achieve native proficiency in a second language. Why? In this course we will explore questions such as: How does first language acquisition happen? Is it effortless? Are humans “hardwired” with language? Is it true that after the “Critical Period,” i.e., the onset of puberty, humans have lost this capacity? We will also explore social and cultural constraints on language acquisition, and learn basic techniques for collecting and analyzing data in language acquisition research.

Hang Du

Reviews and ratings for Hang Du at Middlebury College.Hang Du teaches Beginning Chinese, Chinese Sociolinguistics, Continued Beginning Chinese and more.  Explore top rated instructors and find the best for you.Is Hang Du good ? Find out on MiddCourses.

This is a great continuation of the first two Chinese courses. After getting a baseline of what the course is like in the Fall and Winter terms, you learn a lot more grammar in this section, and character learning picks up a lot. Du Laoshi and He Laoshi are both extremely helpful and patient when teaching the material because they understand it is not easy.

Very hard class, but you will learn a lot. You essentially get what you put in. Be prepared to spend 1-2 hours daily going over new grammar structures or learning how to write new words, if you want to do well in this class. If you are looking for an easy class than CHNS 0103 is definitely not a class for you. Professor Du can be intimidating at first, but you can really see how much she cares for all her students. 

This class requires an absurd amount of work. You are supposed to learn 5-10 new characters a day, and never slack off. Don't be like me learning hundreds of new characters the night before the test. But you are learning Chinese out of all languages, it's supposed to be hard. You will gain such a high knowledge of this language compared to the amount of time you spent studying it that it won't feel real. J-term is required, keep that in mind if you intend to continue learning Chinese. What this class really teaches you is not Chinese however, it's discipline and performance under pressure. Skip on reviewing material for a few days? It will catch up to you. But even if you learn your lesson and stay on track, no exam will ever feel easy. You will genuinely not know how to answer 80% of the test. That's expected and supposed to happen. Use what you know, improvise, write what feels right, and you'll be fine. Definitly take this class. You WILL regret it for a while, but at some point you'll start to love it.