So how was your first day of classes?

[edelweis]

@roddy: for a full 5' I felt like I had received a Nobel prize or something

@bunny87: in case you're wondering, I clicked on the green arrow because even (especially?) rants about Chinese universities are of interest to me. Please do learn your characters. We can wait until you're less busy/tired/annoyed for an update . Hope it all resolves soon.

@thrice12: I forgot to mention, if you don't already use flashcards and/or SRS software, a lot of Chinese learners use these tools to memorize characters, words etc.

[xuefang]

Here is more information about the 写作 and 泛读 courses at Sun Yat-Sen University.

写作

Aim is to learn to write better essays and start using written language (书面语) and chengys (成语). Our teacher said that simple language is not wanted anymore at 本二下 level. We follow our text book that is quite good and introduces new vocabulary, grammar and sentence structures. During this semester we will write ten essays, four at class and six at home. Essays should be about 500 characters long, but essays number 1 and 3 can be shorter, about 300 characters. Our first essay's topic is 我对这学期写作课的希望 and it has to be finished by Friday.

Our grades will be determined using this method:

- Final exam 60% (no dictionary is allowed)

- Class attendance 10%

- Every essay 4%, in total 10 essays

+ You can get a better grade if you take part in the university's essay competition and manage to be 1st, 2nd or 3rd.

泛读

The aim in this course is to read faster so we can manage HSK and other texts. At our first class yesterday we did some exercises on finding the main phrases in a text. She gave us a text (from our textbook) and two minutes to read it and find the main phrases. We went through several short passages of text like this and she gave us some tips.

Along the course we all also have to read a Chinese book and make some kind of review of it (what we think about the book, what did it teach us and so on). If I start soon I have about 15 or 16 weeks to finish it. I'm not sure which book to choose but will go to the bookstore soon to browse. At the forums lot of learners have suggested reading the 巴金's 家, but my teacher said that it would be easier to read something related to the modern life. Any suggestions for something easier than 家?

Our grade will be calculated like this:

- Final exam 60%

- Some exercises given by our teacher 20% (not really sure what they will be)

- Book review 10%

- Class attendance 10%

About the teachers

Until now I have been to the following classes: 综合， 听力， 粤语，写作 and 泛读. (口语 and 书法 are coming later this week.)Each class have a different teacher and all of them seem to be really good. Unlike what I experiences at Guangzhou University, here all the teachers seem to have experience and know what methods to use in order to have better classes and make us students improve. Their pronunciation is not the same with each other, but I can understand them quite well.

If anyone has any questions about doing the degree at Sun Yat-Sen University, I'm happy to help!

[Areckx]

I can shed some light on hanzi learning.

Don't despair! I've been learnin characters for the past ten years from studying Japanese. The usage and a lot of the time definiiin is a lot different but the characters are exactly the same, they are traditional.

After a certain amount of time the radicals just sort of jump out at you, and you start recognizng chsracters that are a lot alike vey easily because of the radicals. There is a certain manner in which certain characters are constructed that really helps with classifying it and remembering the reading and meaning.

It just sort of clicks after you have encountered a lot of them and have practiced writing them down hundreds of times.

I'm still struggling with vocabulary after ten years, so don't feel too bad. The characters themselvew aren't really an issue and it's more about their readings and definitions in addition to usage, for me at least.

This is a really good thread.

[edelweis]

@xuefang: thanks for the details. Could you please tell us which textbooks you are using?

I can't recommend a book for the reading class as I am not at that level yet but lots of people here should have some ideas...

[bunny87]

@ edelweis- thanks for the green arrow! i think i posted more so to let you all know i didn't fall off of the face of the planet. i just got stuck in the stupid system of a Chinese university.

@OneEye- "nobody ever takes Level 9, and that the last two who did were Zhuangzi and Laozi themselves. " LMAO. i totally loved that. i wish my university had actual funny jokes. Wuhan is all serious, the office/administration's efficiency is the only joke here.

@xuefang- you're so lucky to have all that written out and explained! i will, starting next week, bother the teachers for a syllabus or at least a grading scheme. i don't want to be a pushy to enter new and 2 weeks late student who ALSO demands to know the grading scheme. little do they know, i'll also be asking for letters of recommendation once i'm settled in.(maybe in a month or so... wish i had more time, but deadlines aren't something i can change)

So, I went to 综合 yesterday and today and i really like the teacher. whatever her name is. not gonna lie, don't think she wanted me in her class for some reason at first. now i know. there's not enough space in the assigned classroom for every one in 2 year. It's easily at a point that they should make a second group for 2nd year and split the class. there's at least 30 of us. 2nd year Chinese uses a book called "Boya Chinese". I don't know what edition or level, but that's the book. (it's blue, does that help?) Since 综合 is 4 times a week, i went to it twice now (yesterday and today). We've essentially been working our way down the vocabulary, defining, pronouncing, and practicing each of the 39 vocabulary words usage. lots of sentences being made. the students seem rather serious in this class. serious enough that the 15 students who walked in a little late realized there wasn't chairs or tables for them, so they left and came back with some (we all cracked up at this). A few more than those said screw it and decided to not attend class because it was just too uncomfortable. The class actually seems to be moving a little slow, as today we still didn't reach vocab #39. Not that it's easy, the teacher talks about everything and uses so much vocabulary, i understand maybe only 15% of what she says. Most of it is her giving synonyms I've never heard of and alternate explanations than the book that i understand only half the time. While it's all gibberish to me right now, in a month or so when i get back into the swing of china, it'll be really helpful.

i also went to a 口语 class today. WHICH WAS AWESOME. all the seriousness of 综合 more or less disappeared. i mean, we do quite a bit of speaking in 综合，but it is serious and on-topic pretty much the entire time. but when we went to 口语, everyone seemed so much happier and it was jokes the entire time. all of which was in Chinese. i love class clowns, they keep me awake. but it was contagious to be funny, it just kept getting passed on. even the silent girl in the front row couldn't help but join in. (we were doing some chengyu's and it was about listening to your parents in a house. one guy was like "who's house?" and the girl replied "yours". it's difficult to convey the joke here, but it was eventually a "your mom" joke). i loved it.

i understood at least 80% of what was going on in 口语, i could keep up, but i was actually learning a lot. and she talked as much and as fast as the other teacher, she just had a simpler vocabulary i think for us 留学生ers. 口语 also has the cutest textbook I've ever seen, i can't wait to buy one. it's called COMMUNICATION, with little hearts and stars drawn in the background above the title. below it are two cute little characters, a girl and a boy who clearly like each other and are blushing. only in china would this be an acceptable cover for both boy and girl students. I can't find a picture of the book anywhere online though to share. but it does make it awkward to have to share a book with the Korean guy who has been so helpful to me. especially as i sat there drawing hearts cause i was missing someone back home and day dreaming a little bit during the shouxi. or is it xiuxi? ...during the break. there.

edit: also, almost the entire hour and a half of 口语 was spent based on the homework they brought. which was to find 2 interesting chengyu's to discuss. the class started with one girl doing her presentation, and then students were selected to write their chengyu's on the board. the student was supposed to explain the chengyu and then we had examples of how to use them in actual conversation. the first one was a great pick "the sun rises on the west".太阳从西边出来. something like that.

btw. since it was the same bunch of students for 口语 as it was for 综合，you better believe everyone kinda ran out of the first class to actually get a chair in the second class. and the genius idea of bring-your-own-chair was quickly employed. however, the teacher saw our group and practically immediately called the office to say that the current classroom won't work. we are registered to be in classroom 13. we then swapped to classroom 15 (where 综合 had just been held). most of the class sat right where we were earlier, but a few stole seats. probably the students who wanted to have an actual table but didn't the last hour and a half. i felt bad for one girl who was told she could audit the class but was pretty much kicked out to give priority to students who paid.

annnd... i really should start studying those characters and doing my homework. which, ill post a new thread else where on this forum for help. i don't have a book, only the questions i need to answer so there's no possible way for me to reference

[OneEye]

I thought about applying to Wuhan once. Glad I didn't. I have to say, the class size here is awesome, but I didn't realize how much so until I read that you have 30 people in your class.

I believe that at ICLP the maximum class size is 6 people. I'm sure the program is better too, but I couldn't justify going into debt to pay for it when MTC was recommended in the same sentence by several leading academics when I was asking around last year. Here's a direct quote: "In Taiwan you should look at ICLP at NTU and MTC at NTNU. MTC is cheaper by far but is still an excellent program, so you may want to go there unless money is no object." The tuition at MTC is just under US$1100 per term (NT$32,400), while ICLP is $3700 per term (about NT$110,000). Now, if I get some sort of summer study grant during grad school, I'll be happy to go to ICLP, but my measly NT$25,000 per month stipend from the Taiwanese Ministry of Education just won't cover it.

[jkhsu]

@OneEye, I was just about to ask you about MTC's comparison to ICLP but it looks like you beat me to it. Now that you've brought it up, I am wondering if you know anything abut the IUP program in China and how it compares to MTC? Also, are there other intensive programs at the ICLP, IUP and MTC level in either China or Taiwan? I am always amazed when I hear that they (i.e. IUP) can take an intermediate student to near native level in an academic year. It's not that I don't believe it, it's just that I want to know what books they are using and what they are doing so I can improve my own studies. Also, what books are you using at MTC? Are any of them ones we can buy from bookstores?

[OneEye]

As far as IUP compared with ICLP, I think it's six of one, half a dozen of the other. IUP was founded by and is still affiliated with Stanford; ICLP was founded by Berkeley but is now entirely run by National Taiwan University.

As far as others in the same league, I'm not sure. Keep in mind, when I was speaking with professors, I was asking specifically which schools to look at for training for grad school in Chinese history -- everyone's goals and motivations are different. These were the three that were recommended to me over and over. I think the intensity of the course isn't a result of the books they're using per se, but more of the expectations they have. Nearly every Mandarin school in Taiwan uses the PAVC series, for example. But I finish a chapter and have a test every 3 days, unlike most schools which do a chapter per week at most, so I have to bust my butt studying. In the regular class, it's no different than any other school, but those who signed up for the intensive course are here to work hard. I believe ICLP imposes a strict limit on how many hours per week students are allowed to work (not sure about IUP). Since I'm on a government scholarship, I'm not allowed to work at all, plus I have to keep certain grades or risk losing my scholarship (or even getting my visa renewal application denied). So, I spend the better part of each day studying out of necessity. The people who are already residents here, who married a Taiwanese person, or 華僑 whose parents made them come here, or people who otherwise have no real motivation to study, generally take the regular course (not to say that all students in that course are like this) and slack off.

Anyway, here are the books they use. This is copied from their website. I believe the Practical Audio-Visual Chinese books are available outside the school, and I think some others are too (Everyday Chinese), but I don't know about most of them. I guess you might find some of them by searching the Chinese title on books.com.tw, and some of the "readings" are widely available (such as 古文觀止). There's a possibility that you could even get in touch with the school to order the books, but I don't know.

The way they have them grouped here, I think the "Basic" group accounts for Levels 1-4, the "Intermediate" is 5-7, and the "Advanced" and "Selected Readings" are 7-9. Keep in mind, Level 7 includes courses like "Senior High School Chinese Reader" and "Financial News", which aren't exactly "Intermediate" fare, so I think these categories could probably be named differently.

初級

Basic

Practical Audio-Visual Chinese Vol.1(2nd edition) 新版實用視聽華語（一）

Practical Audio-Visual Chinese Vol.2(2nd edition) 新版實用視聽華語（二）

Practical Audio-Visual Chinese Vol.3(2nd edition) 新版實用視聽華語（三）

Practical Audio-Visual Chinese Vol.4(2nd edition) 新版實用視聽華語（四）

Everyday Chinese Vol.1 遠東生活華語（一）

Everyday Chinese Vol.2A 遠東生活華語（二）上

Everyday Chinese Vol.2B 遠東生活華語（二）下

Practical Chinese Reading & Writing I 實用中文讀寫（一）

Modern Chinese I 現代華語（一）

Modern Chinese II 現代華語（二）

中級

Intermediate

Practical Audio-Visual Chinese Vol.5(2nd edition) 新版實用視聽華語（五）

Everyday Chinese Vol.3 遠東生活華語（三）

Practical Chinese Reading & Writing II 實用中文讀寫（二）

Modern Chinese III 現代華語（三）

Mini Radio Plays 迷你廣播劇

Taiwan Today 今日台灣

Chinese Moral Tales 中國寓言

Practical Business Conversation I 實用商業會話（一）

Chinese Folk Tales I 中國民間故事（一）

Chinese Customs and Traditions I 中國的風俗習慣（一）

Stories from Chinese History Vol.1 中國歷史故事（一）

Learning Chinese with Newspaper I 讀報學華語（一）

Qi Baishi: An Intermediate Chinese Reader 中國水墨畫大師齊白石的一生

高級

Advanced

Advanced A Plus Chinese 1

Advanced A Plus Chinese 2

Practical Business Conversation II 實用商業會話（二）

Chinese Folk Tales II 中國民間故事（二）

Chinese Customs and Traditions II 中國的風俗習慣（二）

Stories from Chinese History Vol.2 中國歷史故事（二）

Learning Chinese with Newspaper II 讀報學華語（二）

Learning Chinese with Newspaper III 讀報學華語（三）

Thought and Society 思想與社會

A First Course in Literary Chinese 文言文入門

The Independent Reader 從精讀到泛讀

選讀

Selected Readings

Selected Taiwan Short Stories 台灣短篇小說選

Selected Contemporary Taiwan Prose 當代台灣散文選

Selected Fiction of Zhang Ai-ling 張愛玲短篇小說集

Selected Essay of Hushi 胡適文選

History of Chinese Literature 中國文學史

Best of Classical Prose 古文觀止

The Dream of The Red Chamber 紅樓夢

Romance of The Three Kingdoms 三國演義

Selected Tang Poems 唐詩選

Selected Song Ci 宋詞選

Shiji: A New Annotated Reader 史記讀本

Zhuangzi: A New Annotated Reader 莊子讀本

Laozi: A New Annotated Reader 老子讀本

The Four Books 四書讀本

Travel Notes of Laocan 老殘遊記

The Art of War by Sunzi 孫子兵法

[jkhsu]

IUP was founded by and is still affiliated with Stanford

Is IUP still affiliated with Stanford? I thought Berkeley is taking the lead there http://ieas.berkeley.edu/iup/ Stanford has some affiliation with Peking University I think.

http://news.stanford...ing-033111.html

https://www.stanford...fordPeking.html

Anyways, great post again and awesome list of books. Would really like compare notes after a year and see where you are. I'm just self studying by the way. In my dreams, I do think about doing one of these programs though.

[OneEye]

You're right, I got those backwards. Should have been asleep already I guess.

[Areckx]

It sounds like an adventure! I am looking forward to achieving what you all are doing!!!

I have a question: How did you all get to the point where you are now? What kind of education did you have prior to getting your student visa? What should a total beginner who has only 8 units of completed community college do in order to get to where you are at?

It is my dream to study in Japan, but I want to study in Taiwan in ordsr to really atrengthen my Chinese. Plus are there Japanese speakers in Taiwan?

[edelweis]

@bunny87: thanks for the update. It's good that the kouyu class at least is interesting. Perhaps you could make a photocopy of the first few pages of the book you are missing (ask the Korean guy ). I hope they will split the class.

@OneEye: thanks for all this great information. If I understand correctly, there is no equivalent course in Simplified Characters except for IUP which is much more costly

[Saxondale]

I STILL can't over how some people don't turn up...but today this Korean guy walked in, put his bag down and left for the whole day!

Have you guys had to nominate a person from your class to be your leader?

I nominated myself since nobody else did, so i now meet with the other leaders and discuss potential activities we can plan, any problems the students have etc

[xuefang]

Here is the book list for our 本二下 (second year degree students) at Sun Yat-Sen University.

体验汉语写作教程 高级1 （写作课）

汉语阅读教程 中级 2 （泛读课）

发展汉语 中级汉语听力 下 （听力课）

汉语精读教程 中级 2 （综合课)

We had our first spoken Chinese (口语) class today (no book for that course) and it seem to be great too! We have discussion topics and go over one topic in two or three weeks (we only have 3 hours a week). Our first topic will be cartoons, but later on we'll also talk about having lovers outside the marriage. Our teacher also welcomes our suggestions and wants to keep the topics useful. The aim for this course is to imrpove our spoken Chinese when we are giving a presentation or a speech etc. (not about dialogue). I was happy to notice that for my level my spoken Chinese seems to be okey. But I've been stuck in this level for a while so I'm really looking forward to improve this Autumn.

I have now met all the teachers, besides calligraphy teacher, and I'm very satisfied with their exprience and teaching level. Also all the courses have a certain aim or goal we want to reach. Lessons are well planned and well carried out. All in all based on my first week at Sun Yat-Sen University I can recommend it warmly. (Notice that I'm a degree student and for language students the experience might be different.)

@Areckx First I studied Chinese 1,5 years in Finland, but improved very slowly. In the end I could speak a tiny bit of Chinese and knew few hunder characters (could maybe write 200). Then my first 1,5 years in China (Guangzhou) I improved faster than ever in Finland. Most of my class mates right now (second year Chinese language undergraduate students) have studied Chinese year or more before starting the degree.

[OneEye]

@edelweis: I'm not really up to speed on the Mainland schools. I did apply to a few schools there but mainly focused on Taiwan since I got a scholarship for here. I believe that at both IUP and ICLP you can choose to focus on either simplified or traditional characters, though each school of course encourages students to focus on their respective local varieties.

@Areckx: I studied on my own for quite a while (way too long considering my current level) before coming here. My undergrad degree was in music but I'm planning on doing Chinese history in grad school. I have no academic credit in anything related to Chinese language or culture.

There are Japanese speakers here. Half of my class is Japanese. There's also a guy who studied Japanese in college, then studied in Japan for a year, and is now studying Chinese here. He's pretty fluent in Japanese and has an easy time with characters because of that. Taiwanese culture wouldn't seem too foreign after living in Japan, because there are a lot of aspects of the culture here that are influenced by Japan.

[bunny87]

@OneEye - MTC was recommended to me since I love classical literature and was/still am considering doing that for grad school. but i actually don't really like having such a small group. i like a class of about 15. i just don't think any one predicted so many 2年级's. i sort of expect it to be split up into two classes, but maybe they won't bother because no one showed up today but maybe... 10-12 out of the almost 40. all of the students who have been there for over a year say not to worry. it's always full in the beginning and then everyone disappears. and shows up again for a final. either way, i feel like in a class of less than 8, you're too close for comfort with your other classmates and probably forced to work together with each and every one of them at one point or another. i don't get along well with others >:] i like that there's enough other students that i get that moment of downtime while other people have the floor. anyways, the big class size is wonderful to me, so i can't complain. but i think this is completely irregular judging by the teachers and administration office's reactions.

@everyone- i don't know about you guys. but i'm totally exhausted. and maybe sick. i'm only used to hot weather (80 degrees+), but i was fine in a t-shirt today in 50-60 degree weather (farenheit!). which is a telltale sign that something is wrong. i am freezing and have goosebumps at 75 degrees when i'm normal, and in need of a jacket at 75. what kind of sickness do i have that causes adjustment to cold weather and exhaustion? was there a special "makes you a local wuhanese" ingredient in the food i ate??

(and yeah. i still have to get to work on those characters. ughhhhh. there's been absolutely no time. i had 4.5 hours of class today with little breaks inbetween, and then taught a 1.5 hour class which i took like 2 hours to prepare for since it's the first class which always makes me nervous.)

will come back to respond to everyone when i've caught up on sleep. sorry for the disappointing post. goodnight!

[edelweis]

@bunny87: don't apologise, this is quite interesting. Weeding out the less motivated students this way happens also in other countries hehe. Regarding the exhaustion and feeling hot, could be fever, could also be all the cycling around on that mountain. I suggest that you measure your body temperature.

@xuefang: thanks for the booklist and details about the kouyu lesson. Sound like a great university

@thrice12: so what activities are you planning for your fellow students?

@OneEye: thanks

[bunny87]

at this point, we should make a new topic of "how was your first couple weeks of class?" lol.

anyways, it's a good and a bad thing i'm here in Wuhan U. i actually really like the difficulty of my classes. I've also been informed that if i can survive this and pass this class, i'll be able to enter grad school in Chinese courses. not sure if i will, but the idea makes me smile

综合- hard as @#$(. but that's why i like it. i'll need a solid 3 hours each day just for this class (to study, hw, prepare, etc. in addition to the classtime.)

口语- so relaxing, so inviting. so much fun. you actually want to speak. and today, we were talking about who hasn't adjusted to Wuhan and why not, which essentially came to Korean students (most of the class) have little differences (or didn't want to speak immediately as they all opened up their dictionaries...). which turned into "hey french guy, american girl, and 2 guys from somewhere else. Israel, perhaps-- what's so different?". so i got plenty of speaking practice. regardless, i love this class. the book is, in fact, not the cute COMMUNICATION titled book. I'm so upset. It's some normal looking textbook. boo. great class though.

写作- i have no idea what the hell she said the ENTIRE class. the only useful thing i got out of sitting there for an hour and a half was a USB flash drive is a U-pan (u-盘), a CD is a guang-pan (光盘) and a hard disk is another something-pan. She also brought our textbooks. It looks like she's super prepared for our class. She handed it out to each of us and collected the 8.5 kuai right there on the spot. (first time I've literally been forced to buy anything, but it wasn't a bad price). she made the 'book' herself, so it was a bound and printed packet we bought. i actually like seeing this because normally that means a teacher has it down to a science of how to teach the subject. but, i spent the entire hour and a half struggling to stay awake. i looked at the first lesson, and the vocabulary was not what i wanted see, things like- comma, period, semi-colon, apostrophe, etc. we read about 4 sentences out of the packet we were just forced to buy, and then given a 400 character essay for homework, due via email by Sunday 3pm. it was a horrible class to try and stay awake through. but she sounded so happy up there running her mouth the entire time. i wonder about what? the Korean students piped in quite often and had an occasional smile. but my brain refused to translate the teacher whatsoever.

阅读- haven't gone yet. I've been told it's too boring to attend.

听力- didn't i already say how much i love the new class? she teaches, we practice, we listen, she keeps us awake. i like the book. all around awesome.

so yeah, that's my schedule. i'm tempted to check out 写作 for a lower level if it has a different teacher. cause my god will i not learn anything if it's as bad as it sounds. or maybe i'll do what the Korean's do- not show up. but i'm jealous, they have a system. they make on person go to class and be the informant. that way everyone knows when to show up (for a quiz/test/etc.) and everyone knows what hw to do and when to turn it in. so jealous. wish i also attended 阅读 just to know if i should search for another teacher as well...

[edelweis]

@bunny87: thanks for the update Yes, the topic title is perhaps not accurate any more, but who cares...

It's always interesting to hear about life in a Chinese university

You mentioned earlier that you taught a class, what was it about? Do you teach the university or is it a private class?

I hope you will keep us informed about the yuedu class next week...

[prateeksha]

Ok, so I am here to let everyone know about my first few days at Beijing Language and Culture University.

I landed in China on 25th August, spent a day in CUMTB [that's like the conference centre of the Petroleum university dang next to BLCU]. 26th morning I checked into my dorm. Here's a summary of my experience to date:

• Accommodation: For me, it was as easy as checking into a hotel room. Although I went through a lot of headache to book my dorm room - researching on all possible websites related to BLCU, asking the alumni, shooting emails to BLCU authorities - I finally just wired them 2400 RMB deposit money and faxed them my details. IT WORKED. So I get a room in one of the best dorms on the campus, a nice double-occupancy room with 24x7 hot water and working air conditioner. Since I paid for one semester at a go, I got a discounted rate as well.
  
• Food: As I have discussed on the forum already, I had a lot of apprehensions in mind before coming to Beijing about food, because I am a vegetarian. I had heard a lot from other Indians who regularly go to various cities of China that it is extremely difficult to find vegetarian food in China which is affordable and appealing to the Indian palate at the same time. Turns out, they were not wrong. Although fresh fruits, vegetables, pulses and rice are in abundance here but that simply implies I have to cook myself - all the time. We have public kitchens on every floor in the dorm, so I make my own food every day, that apart from some instant noodles and pre-cooked food I brought from Delhi. It is sometimes appalling to see how even the potato chips are meat flavoured. I have been to a vegetarian restaurant here, and I know there are several more in the area, but 3 meals a day for one year is more a matter of budget than convenience.
  
• Internet: The first day I moved in I bought an unlimited internet plan from the campus CERNET shop. 140 yuan a month, 50 for the installation [one-time]. Works great. Just took 10 minutes to get the work done.
  

And now, about classes.

• Placement test: It was an unofficial HSK exam. The first 20 questions were listening comprehensions. Then there were questions on picking the correct sentence, fill in the blanks, reading comprehensions, jumbled phrases, picking up the incorrect phrase from the sentence and the like. Given my weak listening and strong grammar/vocab, I got into the Upper Elementary level.
  
• Subjects: I have 4 subjects in this level - Reading and Writing, Listening and Speaking, (simply) Chinese and the optional Spoken Chinese class. In all the classes I take, I hardly find much new words. From my 2 years of study in India I had learned approximately 2500 words, but since we never, ever spoke Chinese in our class, my listening and speaking is not comparable to my vocabulary and grammar. We get an option to change our level as determined by the placement test in the first 2 weeks of classes but I stuck to this one because I really won't want to get into a class where I can't even understand what the teacher is speaking.
  
• Classes: Classes begin at 8:30 sharp every morning. While our Reading-Writing teacher is more experienced and conventional in her teaching methods, the teacher who takes both the other compulsory classes is very fun and makes the study atmosphere very lively. When explaining grammar points she gives examples we all can relate to, by asking our experiences and point of view while explaining the chapter and its contents and making all of us speak. I really look forward to the days when she takes our class from 8:30 to 12:30! That said, both the teachers are very good and competent.
  
• Homework: From hardly any to a matter of 15 minutes kind of stuff. Basically just so that we would open the books after getting back home and take a look at what the teacher taught.
  

I don't know if I have covered everything that people might want to read here, but I'll be glad to talk more on things you might be interested in knowing!