<p>
</p>
<p>But of course! Blacks are LIKELY to exhibit some proficiency! Everyone knows that! </p>
<p>I mean, who cares about the white kids who are skilled at basketball – they are so few and uncommon that they can be looked over. And of course, the black kids who aren’t skilled at basketball are a shame to their race anyway and should just suck it up.</p>
<p>Life isn’t fair.</p>
<p>There’s a disconnect here. You guys are failing to see eye to eye, because you have different beliefs about what getting credit for a course really means.</p>
<p>To PurdueEE, it’s a matter of engaging yourself in the class. Getting credit for a course means you learned the content, from the course. It means you as an individual learned something from the course.</p>
<p>To galoisien, it’s a matter of proving you’re proficient in the subject matter. Getting credit for a course means you know the content, regardless of where your knowledge comes from. It means you as an individual know the content for which you are to be tested.</p>
<p>This is why you guys can’t reach a consensus. You view the significance of course credit differently. To PurdueEE, it would be absurd to take a class where you wouldn’t learn anything new. To galoisien, it would be absurd to not be able to take a class just because you already know the material (“I may already know the material, but if I’ve yet to be academically tested on it, where’s the benefit in that?”).</p>
<p>Unless you know for sure that a class is curved (i.e. the professor limits the number of A’s he gives out), then it doesn’t even matter.</p>
<p>^^
Wrong: Purdue thinks its ok for AP Calculus students to take first-year Calculus. But native Chinese can’t take first-year Chinese. </p>
<p>My point is: I choose whether I take a course for marks or for learning. Plus, in our school only Chinese biased. Koreans can take the easiest Korean courses.</p>
<p>How about you just lie and say that you don’t speak any Chinese at all? How are they going to verify it?</p>
<p>^
Doesn’t work. They don’t care if you know how to speak Chinese. As long as your parents are Chinese and they speak Chinese then I have to take the heritage one.</p>
<p>Then quit whining and take a different language?</p>
<p>If you didn’t wanna take the heritage class, why take the placement exam? You could’ve simply just “enrolled” in a lower class (chinese 101) and call it a day. Or even better yet, you could’ve dumbed your chinese down during the placement exam. Simple solution to a simple problem?</p>
<p>But you should want to take the harder class so that you IMPROVE YOUR LANGUAGE SKILLS rather than trying to just get a good grade. The whole point of higher education is to ACQUIRE KNOWLEDGE and nothing else. That’s why you go to college. You should thrive for knowledge and want to take the most advance classes. Going to college should ultimately make you proficient in the basics, but if you want to have an easy time and expect everything to be spoon fed to you, by all means, take the easy track. You basically fail at life after that.</p>
<p>Me, for example, Im Haitian so i was automatically placed in an advanced french class–not that i knew ANY FRENCH what so ever. However, i found this class to help me so much. Since i already had SOME knowledge of French due to Kreyol, i easily acceled and the class wasnt as hard as i thought it would be. Beyond that, i learned so much more about my culture and more about my language. </p>
<p>Just strive to learn. And if your a good student, it shouldnt be a problem anyways. </p>
<p>P.S. They do have classes for natives of French, Spanish, and German.</p>
<p>here is the deal:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>if you are too advanced for certain classes (IN ANY SUBJECT) then you do not take those classes.</p></li>
<li><p>if you think that the school is classifying you as too advanced, when in fact this is not true, you should go talk to the department, and they will make an exception.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>I only read the first few pages, but I am just going to say this:</p>
<p>If you’re a native speaker, take a course that’s more up your alley. I always thought it was a bit annoying, as a white guy taking Chinese courses here at Penn, to be tested alongside a few native speakers who could already read/write/speak and just needed easy A’s or “refreshers.” They should have probably been taking a harder language course, and so the class averages were always a bit higher than they otherwise should have been. Luckily, I don’t think those courses were curved too hard. Native speakers may have “already done the work,” but it’s still a bit of a dick move to take something that isn’t teaching you much, and may do nothing but waste time and potentially screw with the class averages.</p>
<p>If you’re being forced to take a class that is too advanced for you simply because of your racial/ethnic background or upbringing, however, then I would say that is discrimination, obviously, and you should have some grounds for pushing back against that if the “easier” class is obviously more appropriate for you.</p>
<p>Wow, I can’t believe somebody is arguing for their right to easy A’s. What good is that A going to be for you after college anyway? Are you going to say “I’m fluent in Chinese (replace with French, Spanish, whatever language you want)” or “I got an A in Chinese 101!” in applications?</p>
<p>Nobody should be taking classes that are too easy for them, in any subject, it reflects poorly on you no matter how great your grade is. Don’t take the heritage class if you don’t want to. But don’t argue your way into making the class harder for people who actually want to learn something. Same goes for any native speaker. Anyway, I feel like the University would have this policy for native Spanish speakers also. If they don’t, I think it’s likely that it was the Chinese Department’s decision, in which case is there really anything you can do about it?</p>
<p>I just noticed this:
“Doesn’t work. They don’t care if you know how to speak Chinese. As long as your parents are Chinese and they speak Chinese then I have to take the heritage one.”</p>
<p>I doubt that the University would try to, let alone be able to, get away with such bold assumptions. And I chalk it up to lack of details on the OP’s part. Do they ask you if Chinese is all that your parents speak? If that’s the case, then it would make sense that you’re fluent in the language, as that’s what they would teach you. Even that assumption, though, would probably lead to more backlash than a bitter CC poster.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Premed GPA?</p>
<p>I don’t think they really take a hard look at your non-science courses.</p>
<p>It’s not wrong to seek a little hedging for the risks that you do take (in your true passions). In order to expose yourself to a minimal amount of risk while still engaging in your TRUE passions, you should be allowed to take courses where you already have sufficient background to excel. </p>
<p>After all whatever your knowledge you have is useless if it isn’t certified and officially stamped with approval. Who cares if you’re a native speaker, it’s nothing and of no value without official credit. You have every right to seek credit to certify the knowledge you already know.</p>
<p>“Premed GPA?”</p>
<p>Stereotyping much?</p>
<p>Anyway, you’re right, they probably don’t look at your non-science courses. I know that Grad Schools want your major GPA. I would think Med School has a similar policy, in which case that A in Chinese isn’t going to do you any good. </p>
<p>“It’s not wrong to seek a little hedging for the risks that you do take (in your true passions).”</p>
<p>It is VERY wrong to do so, because for some people that Chinese class is a risk! The mindset that you’re going to cheat the system can’t be justified. If you really need that .05 point boost in your GPA from an A in an easy class to put you ahead of other candidates, maybe you don’t deserve what you’re applying for.</p>
<p>“After all whatever your knowledge you have is useless if it isn’t certified and officially stamped with approval. Who cares if you’re a native speaker, it’s nothing and of no value without official credit. You have every right to seek credit to certify the knowledge you already know.”</p>
<p>Oh yeah, because an A in Chinese 1 is a certified stamp of approval that you’re fluent.</p>
<p>
Med schools really do care about your total GPA, and a B in “Heritage Chinese” would hurt you. An A in “Chinese 1” would not. They aren’t going to care exactly which non-premed courses you took, and your GPA+MCAT are the big numbers for med school</p>
<p>Come on now, a B in a non-scientific class, which has the potential to bring your GPA down by less than .1, is going to hurt you? Maybe they care that your total GPA is good, but if one lousy B is going to make or break it for you you’ve got a lot more to worry about than that heritage class.</p>
<p>Besides, you can’t tell me that Med Schools look at your GPA without looking at what classes you’ve taken. And their reaction on seeing someone who is fluent in Chinese that took 4 Chinese classes in their career is probably going to cancel out any boost it gave their GPA.</p>
<p>can’t be that much harder. i mean, i took the beginning courses with heritage kids, and by the 4th level, they just stuck us all together b/c there weren’t enough ppl signing up. but if it’s too hard for you, take spanish or something.</p>
<p>Stop telling ME I shouldn’t take a class just for MARKS when you guys took APs and still took the first-year courses! </p>
<p>Marks should always be given for performance rather than how much work you put in. Just because I spend 100 hours on a paper doesn’t mean I get an automatic A. All people take courses they’re good in.</p>
<p>Um, do you think that it would be ok for you to take a class in Elementary school English and get credits for it at an American college?</p>
<p>The deal with calculus is that most really have lacking knowledge about it even after the AP courses so it can often be good for people to actually take it, also it is a college level course. Beginner courses in languages are however not really college level things, you take them just as fillers for the points. </p>
<p>Now, you might think that you should be awarded free fillers or something but why should you? It is not you who are being treated badly here imo, it is those who get free courses who are treated too nicely.</p>
<p>Think like this, why do colleges even have the filler courses?</p>
<p>Edit: Also it would be a huge waste for a native speaker to take the basic courses, the deal with native speakers is that you got the speech and such but you lack the formal education meaning that you will need a vastly different type of class to teach you compared to someone who starts from scratch. And everyone speaks maths, everyone have taken at least 9 years of maths classes, the equivalence of this in maths would be if you could take courses in college on how to add and subtract numbers, it would be quite ridiculous.</p>
<p>“Stop telling ME I shouldn’t take a class just for MARKS when you guys took APs and still took the first-year courses!”</p>
<p>What a straw man argument, has anybody even claimed they’ve done this? I haven’t, I wouldn’t waste my time taking a course I already got credit for, I would be bored out of my mind. When I hear people doing this, though, it’s usually because they got a 3 and credit, but didn’t understand the topic as much as they’d like or needed to. Much different than being fluent in a language and taking a course in it anyway.</p>
<p>“All people take courses they’re good in.”</p>
<p>People pick majors and subjects that they enjoy and are best at. Within these subjects there are courses that the students haven’t spent their life internalizing, more than likely even courses the student has never heard of. </p>
<p>I’d respect your argument more if you were claiming that you’d still have to put in hard work to get a good grade in that class, but instead your “performance” rant seems to suggest you not only want to take the class but you want to be given an A right away for being fluent. How can you expect anybody to sympathize with you?</p>
<p>I took an Arabic class at my school and i learned arabic as a kid and placed into one of the highest levels. (intermediate arabic 2) anyways in the class i was expected to do more work and if i finished early the teacher would give me extra work compared to when another student finished they could do whatever they wanted, and also when I spoke english i got in more trouble than if another student spoke english in class. That being said I think me being challenged more was justified in that scenerio as I was clearly better at arabic than most of the class. </p>
<p>I just dont understand why they’re splitting it up based on heritage and non-heritage students. There should just be one uniform placement test, and it should use the honor system. I think however that the instructor has the right to give a student extra work if he/she feels the student is not being challenged enough. People cheat on language placement tests all the time, but it happens. </p>
<p>I would talk to the department and ask to take a placement test and also ask what exactly is the difference between heritage and non-heritage classes so that you can take the class thats right for you, but I really dont like how the classes are differentiated by heritage vs. non-heritage rather than one placement test.</p>