<p>I am an incoming freshman in Pratt, and I am really interested in participating in Duke’s study abroad summer course in China. However, I am also premed, so the best time for me to do this would be the summer between freshmen and sophomore year. </p>
<p>The program requirement is a full year of Chinese classes, so can I request to take Writing 20 in the spring? This way I can take a Chinese class fall semester and overload and take another one in the spring. Does anyone have any experience with how competitive the application process is for this program? Here is the link to the program: [Duke</a> Study Abroad : Duke in China](<a href=“http://studyabroad.duke.edu/home/Programs/Summer/Duke_in_China]Duke”>http://studyabroad.duke.edu/home/Programs/Summer/Duke_in_China)</p>
<p>I think most Pratt students take writing 20 in the spring. If not, you can probably talk to your dean and figure something out. If nothing works out, I think the writing 20 semester assignment is not really mandatory, it basically means you are the last in line to pick writing 20 classes if you decide to take it in the semester you are not assigned to. Usually, this is an unsavory prospect (do you really want to take the science of toothbrushing?).</p>
<p>I’m probably missing something here, but why does taking a full year of Chinese mean overloading or juggling writing 20 slots? I took Chinese for 2 semesters freshmen year and writing 20 in the spring and seemed to remember there were plenty of space in the recommended engineering schedule for shifting things around. Are there any intro science courses that I’m forgetting?</p>
<p>If it’s a matter of balancing things out, then any of those 4 courses can easily be pushed to the spring. Not taking math first semester can be a bit hard to swing though not impossible, but EGR53 is offered both semesters, both gen chem and orgo are too, as well as writing 20. Not to mention the majority of Pratt students do take writing 20 in the spring. So I don’t see too much trouble fitting in a Chinese course each semester.</p>
<p>Ok, thanks everyone! I didn’t know most Pratt students take Writing 20 in the spring anyways.</p>
<p>SBR: What are the Chinese courses at Duke like? I speak Chinese at home, but my writing and reading are definitely not up to par. What course would you recommend?</p>
<p>There’s a class for people in exactly your situation: can speak it but can’t write or read very well. I think it’s Chinese 76 or something like that.</p>
<p>^ I think it’s actually Chinese 35 (or at least it was 4 years ago). I was in the same situation of speaking well but not reading or writing well. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately?) I apparently ‘wrote’ a little too well on my mandatory placement exam (if you count being able to write only 1-2 sentences but in apparently “perfect grammar” as “well”) and was forced to go into Chinese 170. So the moral of the story is that if you really want to stay in Chinese 35, pretend you don’t know any written chinese and write everything in pinyin, but ace the listening part. </p>
<p>Anyways, I obviously can’t give any insight into Chinese language courses (which stop at 135, anything above is considered a “Chinese Culture” class). But I hear it’s pretty grueling, especially on the lower end. But I can say that 170 and 182 are pretty cool classes, Prof He and Wang are really nice and grading is pretty easy. Just participate in class and you are pretty much halfway to an A (the other half are mostly those weekly vocab/listening/short essay quizzes).</p>
<p>For what it’s worth, I took Chinese 1 a while ago. I speak Cantonese so I had a small advantage over the other people, I suppose. I got an A-, and I honestly can’t imagine doing any better. The class met every day, twice the class time of a normal course. There were quizzes twice a week, homework every other day, listening and workbook exercises, etc. It was a lot of work, but I learned a lot. I also had Prof He and she was very nice.</p>
<p>I’m not very interested in culture classes. I just want to develop my reading and writing skills. Is there a huge difference in difficulty and expected language proficiency in Chinese 35/36 and Chinese 135/136?</p>
<p>Wait, just kidding. You (SBR) took 170. Does that class expect you to read and write on the same level as your listening abilities?</p>