Even though Professor Tao is very esteemed and is head of the Chinese department, his class is unexpectedly very manageable and fun. His powerpoints are well-organized and easy to understand. Professor Tao also includes a lot of interesting videos that go along with his lectures. Midterm and final are also very easy. There is one presentation at the end of the quarter, but he and Daisy (Su Laoshi) are nice graders.

Pop quizzes are easy and open-note and open-book. I came out of the class feeling like I learned a lot about Chinese linguistics. His class proves that you don't have to give a lot of work to students for them to learn something.

Like others say that lectures are organized but very very boring. This class is easy but you have to watch out one thing that is get all your participation grade and presentation grade as soon as possible. Many people think that they can get good grade on participation and presentation, so they concentrate on homework and exams only but these two grades can really affect your total grade. Especially your presentation grade, if you don't ask him, you will never know. Discuss the presentation topic with him, ohterwise he may say your topic is too old or out of range, etc. and you will get a lots of points deduction because of this.