Hang Du

This course is definitely hard, but I would say that it is worth it if you want to learn the language. My skill in Chinese doubled over the course of the winter term and I know that if it had less of a workload I would not have learned as much.

I started learning Mandarin at Middlebury and it took some time to get accustomed to the work-load. Du, Hang can be a little intimidating but she has our best interest. I struggled because I did not know how to study but once I established a routine and took advantage of Du Hang's office hours I was able to improve. I would definitely take this course again although I would not recommend if you are just trying to fulfill your language requirement. I recommend following the weekly schedules to learn the pinyin with tone marks, then how to write the traditional, and finally simplified characters. I can see how useful it is to learn both since students can choose to study abroad in either Beijing or Taiwan. The tests can be rather long because they will give a dictation portion, grammar, short response (making your own dialogue), and translations.

I started learning Mandarin at Middlebury and it took some time to get accustomed to the work-load. Du, Hang can be a little intimidating but she has our best interest. I struggled because I did not know how to study but once I established a routine and took advantage of Du Hang's office hours I was able to improve. I would definitel …Read more

I have both lived in China and taken Chinese in high school (albeit at a much more relaxed pace), and this class is extremely challenging. 40-70 new vocab words a week. Quizzes once, and sometimes twice a week. Tests are around once every 3 weeks and last for two days. The class is taught 3 days by Du Laoshi and twice a week by He Laoshi (Harris). Harris is substantially easier and less intimidating. For all it's faults, the class will teach you mandarin, just with how much damage to GPA and personal misery.

I have both lived in China and taken Chinese in high school (albeit at a much more relaxed pace), and this class is extremely challenging. 40-70 new vocab words a week. Quizzes once, and sometimes twice a week. Tests are around once every 3 weeks and last for two days. The class is taught 3 days by Du Laoshi and twice a week by He La …Read more