CHINESE-101
FIRST-YEAR CHINESE I
Offered Fall 2026
Term
Instructor
Overview
Feedback is mostly positive. The strongest signal is that students say they actually learn something useful. Best for students who want substance, not a disposable elective.
DepartmentAMES
Terms offeredFall, Spring
Typical enrollment5–15
Semesters of data5
4.2
Hrs / week
76
Responses
97
Enrollment
78%
Response Rate
Evaluation Scores
Overall quality
Teaching, content, and experience combined.
4.5
Intellectually stimulating
Challenges students to think deeply.
4.4
Instructor effectiveness
Explains concepts and facilitates learning.
4.6
Difficulty
Higher means harder.
3.1
Feedback Analysis
Feedback Analysishigh
Analysis based on student evaluations
Based on 210 comments across 9 sections
Feedback is mostly positive. The strongest signal is that students say they actually learn something useful. Best for students who want substance, not a disposable elective.
Student Reports
How hard is the A?
A is doable but not automatic
The signal here is more do-the-work-and-you-should-be-fine than easy-A chatter. Students do not describe the A as automatic, but the evidence also does not paint grading as punishing.
Homework Load
Heavy homework load
Homework load is one of the clearest friction points. Students repeatedly describe assignments, readings, or problem sets as time-consuming.
Lecture Load
Regular lecture load
Lectures matter here, but the evidence points to a fairly standard lecture burden rather than a course dominated by long or exceptionally dense lectures.
Strengths
• Students repeatedly say the course teaches something concrete, whether that is content mastery, research skill, or a strong foundation.
Tradeoffs
• There is no single dominant complaint theme, but the feedback is not uniformly glowing either.
Best fit for
Best for students who want substance, not a disposable elective.
Student Responses
I increased my ability in pattern recognition in language acquisition. Also, due to the sheer amount of characters needed to learn, I increased my skill at rote memorization.
Fall 2023 · Hsu, Shu-Ting
Pinyin pronunciation recognizing characters grammar structures
Fall 2023 · Hsu, Shu-Ting
I learned how to speak and listen Chinese in this class as well as present various things. In the discussion, Shu Laoshi does a great job of making sure everyone is participating and engaged.
Fall 2023 · Hsu, Shu-Ting
I learned how speaking, writing, and vocabulary. I paid more attention to the tones of the language in speaking, handwriting became easier as we learned components, and my vocabulary expanded.
Fall 2023 · Hsu, Shu-Ting
Listening and reading comprehension
Fall 2023 · Hsu, Shu-Ting
Rating History
Rating history
Error bars show \u00B11 std dev
| Term | Instructor | Overall | Difficulty | Hrs/wk | Enrolled |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fall 2025 | Yang, Shasha 5.0Rate My ProfessorsQuality5.0Difficulty3.0Would retake100%Based on 6 ratingsClick to view on RMP → | 4.6 | 3.0 | 4.7 | 19 |
| Spring 2025 | Guo, Jiali 3.0Rate My ProfessorsQuality3.0Difficulty3.0Would retake67%Based on 3 ratingsClick to view on RMP → | 4.8 | 2.9 | 5.0 | 15 |
| Fall 2024 | He, Tianshu 4.6Rate My ProfessorsQuality4.6Difficulty2.8Would retake100%Based on 34 ratingsClick to view on RMP → | 4.7 | 3.2 | 4.7 | 20 |
| Spring 2024 | Guo, Jiali 3.0Rate My ProfessorsQuality3.0Difficulty3.0Would retake67%Based on 3 ratingsClick to view on RMP → | 4.9 | 3.4 | — | 13 |
| Fall 2023 | He, Tianshu 4.6Rate My ProfessorsQuality4.6Difficulty2.8Would retake100%Based on 34 ratingsClick to view on RMP → | 4.0 | 3.0 | 3.2 | 30 |
Instructor
Yang, ShashaAMES
Also teaches
CHINESE-102 FIRST-YEAR CHINESE II4.8CHINESE-131 FRST YR CHN: BIL LEARNERS4.7CHINESE-203 INTERMEDIATE CHINESE4.6CHINESE-232 INTERM CHN: BIL LEARNERS4.5CHINESE-305 PRE-ADVANCED CHINESE4.4