Intermediate Chinese This course is a continuation of the first term's work, with the class conducted primarily in Chinese.

Classical Chinese II (in Chinese) A continuation of CHNS 0411. In this course students will read a wide selection of wenyan texts that sample the classics of ancient Chinese thought, including Confucius' Analects, the Daoist texts Laozi and Zhuangzi, Mohist arguments against war, Sunzi's The Art of War, and Legalist writings on law. Students will also learn to punctuate wenyan texts (which were originally unpunctuated) and compose sentences or short paragraphs in wenyan. All class discussion will be conducted in modern Chinese.

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.

Intermediate Chinese This course is designed to enable the student to converse in everyday Chinese and to read simple texts in Chinese (both traditional and simplified characters). Discussion of assigned readings will be conducted primarily in Chinese. Familiarity with the vocabulary and grammar introduced in CHNS 0101, CHNS 0102, and CHNS 0103 is assumed. Grammatical explanations, written exercises, dictation quizzes, sentence patterns, oral drill, and online video and audio will accompany assignments. By the completion of CHNS 0202, which follows CHNS 0201 directly, students should be able to read and write approximately 1,200 characters.

Classical Chinese I (in Chinese) This course is an introduction to wenyan, the written language of traditional China. In this course we will emphasize comprehension of the literal and metaphorical meanings of short wenyan texts. Our approach will include grammatical analysis and baihua translation (i.e., from the Classical Chinese into modern Chinese); discussion will be conducted entirely in baihua. This course begins the two-semester sequence of Classical Chinese, which not only introduces students to wenyan but also provides a vital learning experience for any student seeking to attain a high level of linguistic and cultural proficiency in Chinese, including modern written discourse.

Advanced Readings, Conversation, and Writing (Modern Chinese) (in Chinese) This course is designed to improve students' competency in highly pragmatic Chinese, spoken and written. Readings and discussion will cover a wide variety of contemporary materials with an emphasis on linguistic preparation for study in China.

Schools Abroad Internship A credit-bearing experiential learning remote course offered from Middlebury Schools Abroad.  Depending on location and placement, this would be in English or the host country language.  This course aims to help students gain in-depth knowledge and exposure to a foreign culture and its work environment, including culturally appropriate professional communication skills, and in the case of placements in a foreign language improve students’ foreign language skills. The experience will culminate in a formal academic paper under the supervision of the School Abroad Director. For spring 2021, a limited number of remote internships are available in Brazil, Cameroon, Chile, China, France, Germany, Japan, and Morocco.  Students must have completed the prerequisite language course for study abroad.  Students can only receive one credit for internships at the Schools Abroad.  Students who have already participated in a Schools Abroad internship in a previous semester or plan on pursuing an internship at a School Abroad in the future are not allowed to enroll in this course.

Kai Zhang

Reviews and ratings for Kai Zhang at Middlebury College.Kai Zhang teaches Intermediate Chinese II, Classical Chinese II, Continued Beginning Chinese and more.  Explore top rated instructors and find the best for you.Is Kai Zhang good ? Find out on MiddCourses.

He and Wu Laoshi were extremely passionate and willing to help out. However, the material is simply very difficult and requires a lot of time outside of class. Doing well on the quizzes and tests is requires lots of study and memorizing pinyin, English, traditional, and simplified. 

Zhang laoshi is the best. He cares about our learning not our grade. As long as you do your work, and study for test you will easlily get A. He cares about students. He always thinks about how he can improve his teaching. 

Overall Chinese 201 was fairly easy. But I will say with the additional new vocabs and the previous vocabulary from the year before. It can feel overwhelming. This class is definitely worth it if you are someone who already taken Chinese 101 and such. You already put in the work, so you might as well just finish the rest of the Chinese. 