| Information | Review |
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Mei Kong
CHIN101 Expecting an A- Anonymous 01/09/2023 |
All the other reviews are correct, Professor Kong is incredibly sweet! I had no prior experience with the Chinese language, so CHIN 101 was my first time speaking Mandarin, and I feel like I've learned so much in just one semester! The workload IS very very intense, especially for a 100 level class. That being said, the class is also six credits, and that is no joke! Sometimes I felt the workload was a little too much, which is the only reason I'm giving 4 stars instead of 5. Otherwise, Professor Kong is incredibly kind and understanding and does a very good job explaining the language as she teaches! I would recommend her and CHIN 101. |
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Mei Kong
CHIN402 Expecting an A- Anonymous 05/16/2021 |
She's a very nice woman and exceptionally patient with students. However, this course is brutal even for native/heritage speakers of Chinese. Expect to be hit with tricky SAT level reading comprehension questions on quizzes and exams all within a different language. If you're looking to obtain an A in this course, your work will need to be close to flawless. To be honest, I found the jump in expectations from the 300 level courses and even CHIN401 to be a little too severe, but I felt that my time in this course was valuable, improving my Chinese composition skills significantly. |
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Mei Kong
CHIN101 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/11/2018 |
Incredibly nice woman, and one of the nicest teachers I have ever had. She understands that Chinese is a tough language for native English speakers and grades accordingly. Very effective and teaching Chinese grammar and draws comparisons between Chinese and English for a more complete understanding. |
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Mei Kong
CHIN203 terpmail 02/12/2013 |
Kong is a solid teacher- I took two semesters of Chinese with her, and deliberately chose the sections she was teaching. Her best asset is the genuine desire for her students to learn the language. If you take the time to participate, and even visit her office hours (she works hard to make herself available for help), you will get a lot out of her classes. Unfortunately, I did not get to be as involved as I really wanted to be due to my major classes dividing my attention. Regardless, I learned a lot with her teaching. She wants to challenge students, but she is by no means unreasonable or unfair- there's typically consistent homework and weekly quizzes, along with a midterm and final. A very kind and understanding person as well, though she can seem shy or uncertain of herself at times. Patient too- we'd often make the same mistakes or errors, but she'd never hang it over our heads- she'd just correct us and continue onward. To my understanding, her one pet peeve is her students not trying- so if the class has been slacking, she can get frustrated/angry, but that's only understandable for an instructor. If you really want to learn Chinese, I highly recommend her! |
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Mei Kong
CHIN411 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/15/2012 |
As I am studying for her final right now, I can't help thinking how much I have learned from this class. it's probably the most important class I'll ever take in my college career. I am an Economics and Finance double major who signed up for this class by random luck (nothing else fit my schedule). I couldn't have gotten luckier with the professor. She is very understanding and in a 12 people class, it's hard not to participate and develop a strong relationship with her. A great teacher to ask for a recommendation letter from as well. There was one midterm and one final, together contributing to 40% of your grade. The other 60% come from homework, class contribution (so come to class), and vocab quizzes (give you several words in Chinese from the textbook chapter and you have to write the pinyin and translate), and a group project. An important part of the her class is outside required reading - a short news article about some business in China. Most of them were pretty interesting and since they are current news, they force you to stay in touch with what's happening in the business world. If you are a business major and you have the language ability to take this class, do it. Your resume will thank you later. |
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Mei Kong
CHIN205 Expecting an A pookie 12/20/2008 |
Professor Kong is the only Chinese professor i've had thus far. I took both 205 and 305 with her and she is amazing. The class is definitely a significant amount of work because there are two quizzes per week, one character quiz, one pin yin/chinese to english quiz. if you are 205 you will also be graded on character sheets (a grade booster imo). there are two exams: a midterm and a final. the exams are exactly what you covered in terms of sentence structures and vocabulary. the key is keeping up with the vocab. if you have time don't just memorize the vocab for that week, go back and rewrite old vocab. for anyone who's ever taken chinese, you should know that characters and hard to memorize and easy to forget. given that the exams are always cumulative, it is imperative you keep up with the vocab because its impossible to cram 1000+ characters the night before the final. there are also oral presentations which she grades very easily as long as you try. the only downside is that she does assign essays (2-3) and they are quite tedious. if your parents are chinese, have them look over it. otherwise, go to her before they are due and have her read them over. she usually grades the essays rather hard, so make sure you're grammar is correct. for essays she only awards A's for analysis on the topic and original ideas. think of it as an english essay. don't slack. you will be penalized. overall keep up with the work. i cannot stress this enough. chinese is something learned over time, not something that can be crammed overnight. Kong is an incredibly nice woman and will help you if you need it. |