Coming from a background of a little bit of Chinese from high school, this class was a breeze. The professor gives about one homework assignment a week, and it is very easy, the hardest part is remembering to do it. The midterm and final are not hard, if you review the vocabulary a day in advance then you should get an A. The professor is funny and he gives extra credit, too. You must go to discussion as there are quizzes and homework is turned in during discussion. The quizzes and tests are purely vocabulary-based so if you know the definitions of the 10-15 characters a week, you will be fine. Easy A, learn Chinese!

Good professor. He goes kinda fast in lecture to actually learn the words and characters but I think his emphasis is more on practicing speaking and listening to Chinese than writing. I ended up doing lots of flashcards and that got me through the class. The final is challenging and everyone has to participate in a skit at the end of the class.
He can get really pissed if he catches someone on their phone or laptop and really wants people to attend lecture. Sometimes he'll do a participation quiz just to take attendance and he'll do role by calling your name to participate in class. There are weekly quizzes in discussion so if you slack on your character memorization your grade will take a hit, but it's really easy most of the time if you've done that. Homework isn't too bad and I mostly did it the night before and it only took 2/3 hours for workbook and characters.

The pacing is definitely different from CHIN 1 and 2, as there are more sections in the textbook to cover. With that, there are more quizzes in sections. It can definitely add up quickly in terms of having to memorize words as well as doing the workbook. However, if you manage your time accordingly, this will be an easy A.

If you want to learn Chinese, definitely take this class. Chief Laoshi is a great professor and I learned so much in this class. The stuff you learn is a good foundation if you plan on taking more Chinese classes. Although the lectures were pretty dry and boring, he does care about you learning the language and practicing. Discussions were easy, but you do have to participate and there is also a quiz every week, but it's easy as long as you just practice your characters. The midterm and final were fair, basically just everything we had learned in the class and nothing more or less. You also learn about the culture, not only the language which I really enjoyed as well. If you're thinking about taking Chinese, definitely take it with Chief.

Probably one of the nicest teachers out there who really cares for his students. His lectures are clear and he genuinely wants his students to learn the content and pretty much structures his class that if you do well in his class you will learn. I really enjoyed having Chief as a professor and would recommend him to all students.

Professor Chief was pretty good. His lectures were mostly engaging and sometimes funny. This class was hard virtually because of the emphasis placed on participation, but I was still able to learn a decent amount and get an A. Definitely don't put off the HW assignments for this class though they take way longer than you would expect because there aren't that many.

Chief lao shi's classes come with a very lenient grading structure, so getting a good grade is very easy. As long as you keep up with the material and utilize the textbook, it is no problem getting at least an A in this class. Chief laoshi will also answer any questions and is usually pretty helpful in his answers.

I liked this class, I think the professor is nice and puts effort into making the materials and the slides relevant and funny. He uses lots of celebrities and anime images and references. The workload is kind of tough but you're supposed to pace yourself and not do it last minute like I did, whoops. I think the class is only hard due to the difficulties of the language but he is super helpful. The TAs were nice too.