Originally Posted by jimimusic

Um... I managed to add chinese 1zz6 last night during course selection.. lol i kind of decided last minute as i didn't know that mcmaster offered chinese class.. i figured i'd take it just to get some easy marks, as i do speak chinese quite frequently with my parent. But now i'm hearing things like they do not allow ppl who understands chinese to takes this course? is that true? and is there some kind of entry test that i have to take..? i'm starting to regret taking this course as i know nothing about it and it seems very troublesome.. i'm am very confused right now.. can someone please help me out here

Yeah... I don't think they let native speakers take introductory classes. BUT, I think they let you take a placement test. Contact the Linguistics and Languages department and ask right away.

EDIT: Here's the contact information. http://www.humanities.mcmast er.ca/.../contacts.html

1ZZ6 is actually for dialect speakers.

Yeah, the lady told me that everyone's gonna have to write a placement test for Chinese 1ZZ6. Not sure about Chinese 1Z06.

Originally Posted by macgirl2009

Hi This is my first post on Macinsiders and I was just wondering... My nationality is Chinese, Cantonese Chinese to be more exact. I was thinking of taking the Mandarin Chinese: Beginners course since I would like to well, read and write chinese, as I can only speak it - cantonese not mandarin. Would the course allow me to enroll in it/or kick me out because I understand Cantonese? I don't want to take the Dialect course as I can't speak Mandarin at all -- well I know a few words, like water and thank you lol. What do you guys think? Thanks for any replies!

No, they won't kick you out. Reading that course description on the Undergrad Calendar, it seems like this is a Mandarin course built for all the Cantonese.

I also speak Cantonese, and I've taken Mandarin language classes on the weekends for 3 years (I quit 2 years ago). It seems to me that learning Mandarin with prior knowledge of Cantonese is quite easy. In terms of words, a lot of Cantonese sounds quite similar to Mandarin. Because of that, you could pick up a lot of Mandarin quickly.

However, if you can't read Chinese, you might have a difficult time with the course. Not sure because it varies from person to person, but that's just my guess.

Hope my two cents help.

Originally Posted by eycc11

Yeah, the lady told me that everyone's gonna have to write a placement test for Chinese 1ZZ6. Not sure about Chinese 1Z06.

I don't understand why it would be like that. If anything they should have placement tests for 1Z06. It'll weed out the dialect speakers. No one with no prior knowledge of Mandarin would sign up for 1ZZ6.

Originally Posted by jhan523

I don't understand why it would be like that. If anything they should have placement tests for 1Z06. It'll weed out the dialect speakers. No one with no prior knowledge of Mandarin would sign up for 1ZZ6.

I'm sure there will be. (I meant "everyone" as in those who registered for Chinese 1ZZ6.) I don't know much about Chinese 1Z06 because I didn't specifically ask her about it after being informed that only first-years in Humanities and Commerce can take the Beginner's course -- which still makes absolutely no sense to me as to why.

I was told that things can still change around because it's a new course and they haven't finalized anything yet.

Originally Posted by eycc11

I'm sure there will be. (I meant "everyone" as in those who registered for Chinese 1ZZ6.) I don't know much about Chinese 1Z06 because I didn't specifically ask her about it after being informed that only first-years in Humanities and Commerce can take the Beginner's course -- which still makes absolutely no sense to me as to why.

I was told that things can still change around because it's a new course and they haven't finalized anything yet.

That doesn't make sense either... there are no prerequisites for that course :\

Originally Posted by jhan523

That doesn't make sense either... there are no prerequisites for that course :\

What if there are no prerequisites? If they find through the placement test that you do not fit in whichever course, then they will not let you take it.

Just because they don't write every single detail on the course calendar doesn't mean there aren't any other conditions or things you need to do in order to be fully registered in that class, especially since these are brand new courses.

Why don't we just wait and see?

Only Commerce and Humanities students does seem pretty weird. Why are those faculties more entitled to learn Chinese than others?

Originally Posted by eycc11

What if there are no prerequisites? If they find through the placement test that you do not fit in whichever course, then they will not let you take it.

Just because they don't write every single detail on the course calendar doesn't mean there aren't any other conditions or things you need to do in order to be fully registered in that class, especially since these are brand new courses.

Why don't we just wait and see?

I was referring to the "only first-years in Humanities and Commerce can take the Beginner's course". If that were the case they should put that in the calendar as a prerequisite. "Level I Humanities or Level I Commerce".

Yeah, that's what I thought...shouldn't anyone be able to take the Beginner's course like all the other language courses at Mac? T.T

Originally Posted by eycc11

Yeah, that's what I thought...shouldn't anyone be able to take the Beginner's course like all the other language courses at Mac? T.T

That would make the most sense. But McMaster is sometimes pretty weird about stuff.

Originally Posted by PTGregD

That would make the most sense. But McMaster is sometimes pretty weird about stuff.

You mean pretty weird about almost everything...