Professor
Yu-wen Yao
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Fall 2020 - There's really not much to say about the professor, except that she's really good at teaching and that the grade distribution really is that good. Of course, Chinese is a memorization-heavy language, and there's no getting out of that. That said, the workload isn't too bad: about 4 hours a week of outside study should be more than enough. It's really intimidating at first, but just push through during the first 2 weeks and study for the class. In terms of course logistics, you will need THREE textbooks: the Textbook, the Workbook, and the CHARACTER Workbook. Homework is graded on effort, and in-class assignments are basically graded on effort, although if you repeat the same mistakes you will be docked points. You will have to pick either Simplified or Traditional and stick with it. Lecture and Discussion attendance are MANDATORY, but if you show up to them, they're free points. If you don't, you'll hurt your grade pretty badly. Also, as a heads up, lectures routinely go overtime, so keep that in mind when planning coursework Quizzes form the bulk of your grade, and generally involve you transcribing what Yao Laoshi says into Chinese-both into characters and pinyin. They're graded very generously. Exams are actually decently difficult as they're purely written and you have to memorize many radicals, but they're not worth that much of your grade (like 30% total). By the way, the cutoff for an A appears to range from 93 to 95%. 93% is reasonable, but 95% is actually much harder to get than it seems. Basically, show up, care about the class, do your work (it's really clear what you're assigned to do), and you should do fine
Fall 2020 - There's really not much to say about the professor, except that she's really good at teaching and that the grade distribution really is that good. Of course, Chinese is a memorization-heavy language, and there's no getting out of that. That said, the workload isn't too bad: about 4 hours a week of outside study should be more than enough. It's really intimidating at first, but just push through during the first 2 weeks and study for the class. In terms of course logistics, you will need THREE textbooks: the Textbook, the Workbook, and the CHARACTER Workbook. Homework is graded on effort, and in-class assignments are basically graded on effort, although if you repeat the same mistakes you will be docked points. You will have to pick either Simplified or Traditional and stick with it. Lecture and Discussion attendance are MANDATORY, but if you show up to them, they're free points. If you don't, you'll hurt your grade pretty badly. Also, as a heads up, lectures routinely go overtime, so keep that in mind when planning coursework Quizzes form the bulk of your grade, and generally involve you transcribing what Yao Laoshi says into Chinese-both into characters and pinyin. They're graded very generously. Exams are actually decently difficult as they're purely written and you have to memorize many radicals, but they're not worth that much of your grade (like 30% total). By the way, the cutoff for an A appears to range from 93 to 95%. 93% is reasonable, but 95% is actually much harder to get than it seems. Basically, show up, care about the class, do your work (it's really clear what you're assigned to do), and you should do fine
Most Helpful Review
Professor Yao is a really nice teacher. She keeps lectures intersting with her sense of humor and energetic presence. She is more than willing to help you through her office hours and is very helpful. The only thing i have to say is a word of caution about the A series. I believe that the description of the 1A class does not fit the students that take the class and the grueling rate at which it is taught. I personally struggled a great great deal and felt that i was nowhere near the level. Many students i was in the clas with had even lived in China for years or had been in Chinese school for 8 years...be careful when selecting the advanced versus regular course.
Professor Yao is a really nice teacher. She keeps lectures intersting with her sense of humor and energetic presence. She is more than willing to help you through her office hours and is very helpful. The only thing i have to say is a word of caution about the A series. I believe that the description of the 1A class does not fit the students that take the class and the grueling rate at which it is taught. I personally struggled a great great deal and felt that i was nowhere near the level. Many students i was in the clas with had even lived in China for years or had been in Chinese school for 8 years...be careful when selecting the advanced versus regular course.
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Winter 2021 - There's really not much to say about the professor, except that she's really good at teaching and that the grade distribution really is that good. Of course, Chinese is a memorization-heavy language, and there's no getting out of that. That said, the workload isn't too bad: about 6 hours a week of outside study should be more than enough in a typical week. That said, if you took Chin 1 with Yao, note that Chin 2 WILL be significantly harder than Chin 1. While I've never taken Chief's class, apparently Yao's exams are on a whole other level compared to Chief. Also, exams are 100% closed note. By the way, the last 2 weeks are intense; 3 lessons are covered, instead of the usual 1 lesson per week. In terms of course logistics, you will need THREE textbooks: the Textbook, the Workbook, and the CHARACTER Workbook. Homework is graded on effort, and in-class assignments are basically graded on effort, although if you repeat the same mistakes you will be docked points. Again, you must pick Simplified or Traditional and stick with it. Lecture and Discussion attendance are MANDATORY, but if you show up to them, they're free points. There are mandatory in-class assignments and quizzes. If you don't show up to them, you'll hurt your grade pretty badly. Also, as a heads up, lectures routinely go overtime, so keep that in mind when planning coursework Quizzes form the bulk of your grade, and generally involve you transcribing what Yao Laoshi says into Chinese-both into characters and pinyin. They're graded very generously. Exams are actually quite difficult as they're purely written and you have to memorize many radicals. Yes, this is Chinese 2, but you still have to memorize radicals. Fortunately, exams are not worth that much of your grade (like 30% total). By the way, the cutoff for a solid A appears to range from 93 to 95%. 93% is reasonable, but 95% is actually much harder to get than it seems. 90% is the cutoff for an A minus. Basically, show up, care about the class, do your work (it's really clear what you're assigned to do), and you should do fine.
Winter 2021 - There's really not much to say about the professor, except that she's really good at teaching and that the grade distribution really is that good. Of course, Chinese is a memorization-heavy language, and there's no getting out of that. That said, the workload isn't too bad: about 6 hours a week of outside study should be more than enough in a typical week. That said, if you took Chin 1 with Yao, note that Chin 2 WILL be significantly harder than Chin 1. While I've never taken Chief's class, apparently Yao's exams are on a whole other level compared to Chief. Also, exams are 100% closed note. By the way, the last 2 weeks are intense; 3 lessons are covered, instead of the usual 1 lesson per week. In terms of course logistics, you will need THREE textbooks: the Textbook, the Workbook, and the CHARACTER Workbook. Homework is graded on effort, and in-class assignments are basically graded on effort, although if you repeat the same mistakes you will be docked points. Again, you must pick Simplified or Traditional and stick with it. Lecture and Discussion attendance are MANDATORY, but if you show up to them, they're free points. There are mandatory in-class assignments and quizzes. If you don't show up to them, you'll hurt your grade pretty badly. Also, as a heads up, lectures routinely go overtime, so keep that in mind when planning coursework Quizzes form the bulk of your grade, and generally involve you transcribing what Yao Laoshi says into Chinese-both into characters and pinyin. They're graded very generously. Exams are actually quite difficult as they're purely written and you have to memorize many radicals. Yes, this is Chinese 2, but you still have to memorize radicals. Fortunately, exams are not worth that much of your grade (like 30% total). By the way, the cutoff for a solid A appears to range from 93 to 95%. 93% is reasonable, but 95% is actually much harder to get than it seems. 90% is the cutoff for an A minus. Basically, show up, care about the class, do your work (it's really clear what you're assigned to do), and you should do fine.
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Spring 2021 - If you've taken Chinese 2 with Yao Laoshi, you probably already know how she rolls. If you haven't, you'll be in for a treat: She's a very, very good professor. Funny, has engaging lectures, and is great at teaching. Of course, Chinese is a memorization-heavy language, and there's no getting out of that. For Chinese 3 will definitely need to work for your grade; 8 hours of outside study per week should be expected if you haven't studied Chinese before. If you thought Chinese 2 with Yao was hard, Chinese 3 will be even harder. Exams will still be closed note, except this time, you'll have 2 lessons per week, not just one lesson per week. We're on the quarter system, and during some weeks, you'll definitely feel the brunt of it. Don't fall behind. For lectures, I'd prioritize doing the following to avoid falling behind: 1. Read the textbook, especially the grammar. 2. Do the preview worksheet 3. Grind characters. In terms of course logistics, you will need THREE textbooks: the Textbook, the Workbook, and the CHARACTER Workbook. Homework is graded on effort, and in-class assignments are basically graded on effort, although if you repeat the same mistakes you will be docked points. Again, you must pick Simplified or Traditional and stick with it. Lecture and Discussion attendance are MANDATORY, but if you show up to them, they're free points. There are mandatory in-class assignments and quizzes. If you don't show up to them, you'll hurt your grade pretty badly. Also, as a heads up, lectures routinely go overtime and they're NOT recorded, so keep that in mind when planning coursework. Quizzes form the bulk of your grade, and generally involve you transcribing what Yao Laoshi says into Chinese-both into characters and pinyin. They're graded very generously. Exams are actually quite difficult as they're purely written and you have to memorize many radicals. Yes, this is Chinese 3, but you still have to memorize radicals. Fortunately, exams are not worth that much of your grade (like 30% total), but probably the hardest aspect of the course. By the way, the cutoff for a solid A was 93.5 percent when I took it. 90% is the cutoff for an A minus. So the little things, like blowing off quizzes and discussions can hurt your grade quite badly. Basically, show up, care about the class, do your work (it's really clear what you're assigned to do), and you should do fine. You'll definitely learn Chinese.
Spring 2021 - If you've taken Chinese 2 with Yao Laoshi, you probably already know how she rolls. If you haven't, you'll be in for a treat: She's a very, very good professor. Funny, has engaging lectures, and is great at teaching. Of course, Chinese is a memorization-heavy language, and there's no getting out of that. For Chinese 3 will definitely need to work for your grade; 8 hours of outside study per week should be expected if you haven't studied Chinese before. If you thought Chinese 2 with Yao was hard, Chinese 3 will be even harder. Exams will still be closed note, except this time, you'll have 2 lessons per week, not just one lesson per week. We're on the quarter system, and during some weeks, you'll definitely feel the brunt of it. Don't fall behind. For lectures, I'd prioritize doing the following to avoid falling behind: 1. Read the textbook, especially the grammar. 2. Do the preview worksheet 3. Grind characters. In terms of course logistics, you will need THREE textbooks: the Textbook, the Workbook, and the CHARACTER Workbook. Homework is graded on effort, and in-class assignments are basically graded on effort, although if you repeat the same mistakes you will be docked points. Again, you must pick Simplified or Traditional and stick with it. Lecture and Discussion attendance are MANDATORY, but if you show up to them, they're free points. There are mandatory in-class assignments and quizzes. If you don't show up to them, you'll hurt your grade pretty badly. Also, as a heads up, lectures routinely go overtime and they're NOT recorded, so keep that in mind when planning coursework. Quizzes form the bulk of your grade, and generally involve you transcribing what Yao Laoshi says into Chinese-both into characters and pinyin. They're graded very generously. Exams are actually quite difficult as they're purely written and you have to memorize many radicals. Yes, this is Chinese 3, but you still have to memorize radicals. Fortunately, exams are not worth that much of your grade (like 30% total), but probably the hardest aspect of the course. By the way, the cutoff for a solid A was 93.5 percent when I took it. 90% is the cutoff for an A minus. So the little things, like blowing off quizzes and discussions can hurt your grade quite badly. Basically, show up, care about the class, do your work (it's really clear what you're assigned to do), and you should do fine. You'll definitely learn Chinese.
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Fall 2019 - I will admit I had my regrets before the quarter, because I wasn't sure if this class was worth it (it really messed up my schedule for the quarter), but after taking this class, I can confidently say that it was 100% worth it. 姚老师 is an extremely effective, engaging, funny, and considerate professor, and is someone you can really relate to, especially since Chin 4A typically has a pretty small class size, so you have this nice classroom environment. Lectures usually involve slides, talking about new vocabulary, grammar forms, and talking about the textbook passages and also cultural facts, which is really cool. You're learning more than just the Chinese language here, but also history of some of the words, Chinese culture, and you might even hear some of 姚老师's own life stories and experiences. Each lecture begins with some sort of quiz (vocabulary quiz on the textbook passage on Tuesdays, sentences quiz on the textbook passage on Thursdays), or if you don't have a quiz, you have some sort of examination (whether it be written or oral). Make no mistake, this class is a lot of work (as learning any language should be), but it's really fulfilling and well worth it in my opinion. Don't be afraid to make mistakes during lecture, because it really helps you improve your speaking and thinking skills, and due to the small class size, you won't be worried about embarrassing yourself in front of hundreds of students. Lectures are often extremely funny, engaging, and we can talk about all sorts of stuff, to the point where it truly is like a "discussion" instead of a lecture. In fact, her class has been one of the few classes were I looked forward to going to lecture everyday, and learning something new about Chinese. The grading breakdown is 10% Participation, 20% HW/Essays, 15% Quizzes, 35% Written Exams, 20% Oral Exams. There are two written exams (one midterm, one final), and two oral exams (one with the midterm, one in week 10 before finals week), as well as four essays throughout the quarter. Don't be scared by making mistakes, as this is a class where you can learn, make mistakes, but still do pretty decently in terms of grades (if you're truly worried you can take this class P/NP if needed). Yao won't hesitate to mark or correct something that's wrong, but as long as you're showing effort and truly trying, you'll still get a good grade, as she takes off like 0.1 points for each mistake. For one of my essays, my entire paper was red from her remarks, but I still made out with the grade from that paper, so it shows that as long as you're trying, you shouldn't be worrying about your grade (she's very lenient in grading). Written tests are just like any language exams, and our oral exams consisted of giving speeches in front of our classmates, and we had a lot of creativity in choosing our topics. If you have time, I highly recommend visiting her office hours. Not only is it a requirement, but you also get 1-2 hours extra per week just conversing in Chinese about literally anything, and it's a good experience to sharpen up your speaking skills and learn more about the professor, yourself, and your fellow classmates. Overall, I cannot stress how much this has improved me as a Chinese speaker; I came in with only basic conversation skills (and frankly probably couldn't read a Chinese newspaper), and I come out having given an oral presentation in Chinese and writing academic essays. While I still can't read everything, it shows me how much I've got to learn but more importantly how far I've come to get to this level. This class has given me the inspiration to continue in the 456 series, and I truly believe if you're sincerely interested in learning Chinese, this is one of the best bets you can make, no regrets!
Fall 2019 - I will admit I had my regrets before the quarter, because I wasn't sure if this class was worth it (it really messed up my schedule for the quarter), but after taking this class, I can confidently say that it was 100% worth it. 姚老师 is an extremely effective, engaging, funny, and considerate professor, and is someone you can really relate to, especially since Chin 4A typically has a pretty small class size, so you have this nice classroom environment. Lectures usually involve slides, talking about new vocabulary, grammar forms, and talking about the textbook passages and also cultural facts, which is really cool. You're learning more than just the Chinese language here, but also history of some of the words, Chinese culture, and you might even hear some of 姚老师's own life stories and experiences. Each lecture begins with some sort of quiz (vocabulary quiz on the textbook passage on Tuesdays, sentences quiz on the textbook passage on Thursdays), or if you don't have a quiz, you have some sort of examination (whether it be written or oral). Make no mistake, this class is a lot of work (as learning any language should be), but it's really fulfilling and well worth it in my opinion. Don't be afraid to make mistakes during lecture, because it really helps you improve your speaking and thinking skills, and due to the small class size, you won't be worried about embarrassing yourself in front of hundreds of students. Lectures are often extremely funny, engaging, and we can talk about all sorts of stuff, to the point where it truly is like a "discussion" instead of a lecture. In fact, her class has been one of the few classes were I looked forward to going to lecture everyday, and learning something new about Chinese. The grading breakdown is 10% Participation, 20% HW/Essays, 15% Quizzes, 35% Written Exams, 20% Oral Exams. There are two written exams (one midterm, one final), and two oral exams (one with the midterm, one in week 10 before finals week), as well as four essays throughout the quarter. Don't be scared by making mistakes, as this is a class where you can learn, make mistakes, but still do pretty decently in terms of grades (if you're truly worried you can take this class P/NP if needed). Yao won't hesitate to mark or correct something that's wrong, but as long as you're showing effort and truly trying, you'll still get a good grade, as she takes off like 0.1 points for each mistake. For one of my essays, my entire paper was red from her remarks, but I still made out with the grade from that paper, so it shows that as long as you're trying, you shouldn't be worrying about your grade (she's very lenient in grading). Written tests are just like any language exams, and our oral exams consisted of giving speeches in front of our classmates, and we had a lot of creativity in choosing our topics. If you have time, I highly recommend visiting her office hours. Not only is it a requirement, but you also get 1-2 hours extra per week just conversing in Chinese about literally anything, and it's a good experience to sharpen up your speaking skills and learn more about the professor, yourself, and your fellow classmates. Overall, I cannot stress how much this has improved me as a Chinese speaker; I came in with only basic conversation skills (and frankly probably couldn't read a Chinese newspaper), and I come out having given an oral presentation in Chinese and writing academic essays. While I still can't read everything, it shows me how much I've got to learn but more importantly how far I've come to get to this level. This class has given me the inspiration to continue in the 456 series, and I truly believe if you're sincerely interested in learning Chinese, this is one of the best bets you can make, no regrets!
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Professor Yao's is one of the best professors here at UCLA. She demands excellence from her students but also at the same time motivate her students to master and learn the material well. She always engages the students in her discussions and lectures with her wonderful sense of humor. She is a very caring mentor, an energetic teacher, and a wonderful friend. I give her my highest recommendation.
Professor Yao's is one of the best professors here at UCLA. She demands excellence from her students but also at the same time motivate her students to master and learn the material well. She always engages the students in her discussions and lectures with her wonderful sense of humor. She is a very caring mentor, an energetic teacher, and a wonderful friend. I give her my highest recommendation.
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What can I say? I had a great time in Chinese 6! Yao Laoshi had so much energy and was constantly making the class laugh. Everything she did in class contributed to making the class more enjoyable. Her slides with pictures will entertain you for hours! And of course, she teaches Chinese as well :) Chinese 6 with Yao Laoshi was BY FAR the most enjoyable class I've ever taken. It really made it worth for me to go to campus everyday! I highly recommend her if you're up for lots of Chinese fun!
What can I say? I had a great time in Chinese 6! Yao Laoshi had so much energy and was constantly making the class laugh. Everything she did in class contributed to making the class more enjoyable. Her slides with pictures will entertain you for hours! And of course, she teaches Chinese as well :) Chinese 6 with Yao Laoshi was BY FAR the most enjoyable class I've ever taken. It really made it worth for me to go to campus everyday! I highly recommend her if you're up for lots of Chinese fun!
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