The TA is extremely helpful with this course; take Song if you can! She's the best!

Like most reviews said, THIS CLASS IS NOT AN EASY A. I got an A for all three quarters, but I worked my tail off for it. I honestly think Sun Laoshi is a good professor, she lectures mostly in Chinese but most of the grammar concepts should be fairly straightforward if you speak Chinese (which is assumed for this class). If you are rusty with vocab words & characters, I would recommend looking over them ahead of time so you are not cramming for a quiz the night before. There are two quizzes per week (1 per lecture), one on vocab words and the other on Chinese phrases. If you are keeping up with the vocabulary and reviewing words, you should be fine. There are other miscellaneous assignments as well, such as workbook and character HW, but those are pretty easy. Exams are pretty easy when you take it, but Sun Laoshi grades very harshly and does not curve the class, even when the highest score for a midterm was a low 90. You must be very careful when writing sentences because even the smallest mistakes will cost you points. Overall, I think I learned a decent amount of Chinese and my speaking has improved, and I don't think it would've happened with an "easier" class. If you don't want to be as stressed, take the class P/NP.

CHIN 1A was not bad but if you take Chinese with Sun Laoshi, you are stuck with her THE ENTIRE YEAR. Unless this is the only class you plan to take all year do not take it with Sun Laoshi.

There are two lectures and two discussion sections every week, EVERY CLASS IS MANDATORY. You MUST attend lecture because there is a quiz at the beginning of every single lecture. The amount of work and stress you go through for this class is not worth it unless you're a Chinese major (even so, I don't think it's worth it). I came in really wanting to learn how to read and write. Like most students who take this class, I speak Mandarin but can't read or write much and was excited to finally learn. At the end of the year, I got so disheartened and discouraged from this class that even if I could, I would never continue with Chinese here. The workload is ridiculous. On top of quizzes every lecture, you have 3 essays, two midterms and at least one 3-minute speech (per quarter) along with extraneous homework. In order to get an A in her class, you REALLY have to work for it, if you want an easy A, this is not the class. This class had more work than my major classes and I hated it so much.

It also became apparent as the year went on that Sun Laoshi didn't actually care about student well-being/ learning in her class. She acts like she cares but she gets the same complaints for every eval and instead of changing her mindset or her class, she would just get butthurt and not understand why students were struggling so much and why students didn't enjoy her class. She made it so rigorous and unnecessarily difficult that it became a challenge not only to get an A but to enjoy learning. I regret so much taking Chinese to fulfill my language requirement. Although I got an A- for the whole year, the amount of effort and stress I went through just to get an A- was not worth the amount that I learned. If anything, try getting into the regular Chinese series or just learn another language altogether. This class was the worst.

Sunlaoshi is extremely effective. She is by far the best teacher at UCLA!

In a class of 70+ students, Sunlaoshi knew all of us by name, Chinese and English. She knew about each of us individually and cared beyond our studies. Sure the class is demanding, there's a huge load and you'll find yourself doing Chinese every single day of the week but you get a lot out of it. The pace that Sun sets ensures we will suddenly be writing and reading Chinese naturally.

Her cheerful personality and sense of humor combined with her iron clad belief that we will all do well is infectious and those who put the work in do!!!! If you are having problems, Sun laoshi is always ready to help and together tries to solve the problem with you. When I was having trouble with my essay writing, she identified the problems I was having before I had a chance and asked me to come see her. You won't get a professor more dedicated to her students!

The people who give her a bad review really annoy me because they skew actually how hardworking and effective she is as a teacher. They are clearly those who didn't work hard. I was in her class for a year from 1A to 3A. Those who didn't try, show up or listen are the ones who got bad grades and it was obvious who they were. They think Sunlaoshi is tough and unfair but they don't realize that as long as you put the effort in, you will get a good grade. No wonder she gets exasperated with them. There's a whole lecture of students who deserve her help more. They're most likely angry and upset they did badly and are blaming it on Sunlaoshi.

What a shame because if you haven't taken Chinese before, you'd be extremely lucky to be in her class.

Sun Lao Shi is a wonderful teacher, despite her eyes beaming at you when you grammatically say something wrong at her. Overall my experience with her was wonderful. We had quizzes that were twice per week, every week and it correlates with the lesson every time. Each week is one lesson, so it's very structurally stable and efficient. She is always available for office hours and he lectures are quite entertaining for me. She teachers you a elementary understanding of Chinese culture and it is a efficient way to learn more into the Chinese language. However it is highly suggested that you have a strong background in Chinese languages. Either if you speak with your parents in Chinese almost every day or if you have Chinese classes in a younger age. The homework are easy and the essays are quite difficult, but are manageable. My advice is to constantly practice Chinese characters and prepare for the quizzes and tests. These are what makes up your overall grade in the class. I ended up with an A-. Furthermore, this class keeps you on track as long as you are willing to do the work. Let me tell you, I believed this was going to be an easy A for me, but I ended up doing work each day practicing Chinese about 30 minutes per day. Honestly, I did not worry too much in this class, but I worried enough to keep my A afloat. You just have to realize how to balance your major core classes with this foreign language requirement and remember, this course is offered on a time table. Fall is only Chinese 1...Winter is only Chinese 2....Winter is only Chinese 3. So plan ahead and make sure it doesn't interfere with your core classes...or hope hahaha