Nice

Generally a decent course that certainly led me to be able to start understanding Mandarin Chinese. It may seem like stating the obvious, but it needs to be conducted with a dictionary facility to hand (e.g. yabla online dictionary), because it quickly became clear that you won't get the meanings of the words and phrases just by following the course. An early example is the relatively simple phrase "yŏu shì" which, when it is presented, could easily have a number of possible meanings. I guessed the wrong one & was confused for some time after until I looked it up online.

One possible defect of the course arises in the presentation of the written words. First, you don't realise that all the quizzes are going to be written ones and secondly, you are presented with the TRADITIONAL written words but then questioned using their MODERN written counterparts, which don't always match and so the task of learning is made that much harder. Not insurmountable, though. A bigger problems arises with the end-of-section quizzes. Some of the things being asked need a degree of explanation. For example, each test contains a few questions in which you are asked to arrange words in the "correct" order, presumably to form a proper sentence. I never got this. It didn't seem to matter which order I chose, the answer always appeared to be wrong. This is not helped by the fact that some of the words don't seem to be there; they are just simply missing. For example, you'll be asked to put words A, B, C, D and E in the correct order, but word D will just be a blank space. This is just one of the course deficiencies that could do with some attention from the organisers. All in all, though, it is still a reasonable course and provides a good start.

This is not really a from-scratch course because there is a *lot* (300-500 words) of vocabulary and some complex grammar that is not explained. I went through the course very slowly and it was not my only source for learning. Additionally, I'd had some solid basic Chinese language study before taking this. The videos are of limited value because the sound quality is quite poor and everybody speaks enormously fast (you can slow the speed). I spent most of my time studying the video transcripts and getting all the vocabulary down with other supporting materials before I even tackled listening to the videos. I am glad I took the course because it is the only Chinese language course on Coursera with traditional Chinese script and it covers a huge range of vocabulary, BUT it requires a lot of supplementation and needs some improvement. A true beginning course would have much more limited vocabulary (200 words max) and a lot more repetition. That may be hard to do in the MOOC environment. Still a very worthwhile course but takes persistence to get through it.

Great as a supplement or for review: I liked the content and videos, however I don't think there are enough practice exercises. Without the practice exercises, the pace seems to go pretty quickly (too quickly). The only reason I could keep up is because I spent 6 months on Duolingo before this. They do not go over stroke patterns which was disappointing, but I did learn some new vocabulary that will be useful.

I think the teacher is really nice and I understand the methodology they're using... but in my personal case, I would have found extremely useful the translation of the characters so I wouldn't feel lost. I tried to translate using different apps, but they didn't get her voice or my pronuntiation so I'm not sure if this is the right course for me. Thank you anyway!

I think week 6 Exam No.16 has a problem with the choice J it should be 「你」不是「我」

Some part with the animation I think it is really good, but some are like just a photo. so I wonder why the standard of each week is so different.

Some part has so many conversations but all actor has no microphone, so it quite hard to listen.

Thanks

Es un poco difícil tener que memorizar todos los caracteres. Gracias a los Subtitulos es que pude concluir el curso. pero habían frases que no llegue a comprender del todo por el contexto y creo eso fue lo más difícil de captar

The structure to learn very interesting, but difficult. Because even though one see the same that persons are doing. A person can think in different words and therefore miss the proper translation for what is happening.

The course is well structured but it is missing to put the subtitles in English in the dialogues and in the example of each lesson

If you are actually brand new and plan to "start from scratch" you may find this course overwhelming with its a bit too immersive style of teaching. When I took the course each "week" section only gave me a deadline of a couple of days, which is not nearly enough to take any time to learn and practice the material before moving on. I have a Chinese vocabulary of over 300 words and still felt this course was rushed and troublesome. Be prepared to spend a lot of your own time to learn what is taught in the course and possibly reset your deadline dates as you work through it.

Although expect one I passed all assignment in first try I think the last was really hard. Not for beginner level. Videos with silence parts it is a big NO. Should I guess? Overall quite confusing.

This is no beginners' course. I am not a beginner and it's hard for me. I will tell you everything that is wrong with the first part of the first week. I didn't continue because, despite how much the instructor keeps on saying "we learned," there is no learning experience.

This is my opinion as a high beginner Chinese learner and as a foreign language teacher: There is too much vocabulary and too many characters. Learners of Chinese with no knowledge of Chinese characters need a phonetic system such as hanyu pinyin not tens of Chinese Characters.

The instructor introduces characters, but does not clarify the meaning. The students in the videos use words that translate to please, drink, tea, very, etc., which the true learner won't get from the videos on this course.

And the most ridiculous part is, besides the poor audio quality, the lip-reading quizzes! What language skill is lip-reading? NTU is the top university in Taiwan and in the top 100 worldwide, but now I understand why students humorously say that NTU stands for No Teaching University.

The lectures are given in chinese and some parts lack english translation making it impossible to understand without knowing chinese. Maybe this course teaches chinese, but you must already know chinese to learn it.

I disliked the questions, those were not really to test what you learned but to trick you, how can I know what the people in the video of the question are saying when the videos have no sound?

There is no english translation to make the process of understanding the meaning of the characters easier.

not in English hard to follow