Only because my money was invested in this course i stayed.

Introductory indeed, thanks to this course I knew where to start with my Chinese Language acquisition. The sentences given can be used in the real world. But there was a lot to be desired.....

I don't live in a place where I can get much practice face to face and so feel that there should have been more in depth lessons to help what I was learning to stick.

For example, more cultural backgrounds, how one word or phrase could differ in different places, a number of realistic conversations in regular speed not just one scenario using students of the language like myself (I would've been more accepting if the demonstrators weren't so unnatural). There was a lot of things that detracted from the videos.

At times the accent of the instructors from the lesson videos took away from the message, though i wasn't distracted, I wasn't totally present either It took much effort to stay focused. Delivery is important for such a complicated subject.

The App was convenient, I could download the video lessons, and do some of the tests then have them submitted when I had internet access again. But there were some bugs, especially on the new vocabulary page.

The PDF lesson sheets had valuable information in them, I just wish there was a way to have been tested more on those. It was like pouring information into my lap and asking me to learn, and correct myself. I've learned that can hurt language acquisition.

Lastly, the community in my opinion is almost purposeless. I've seen comments sit unanswered and conversations unexplored for months on end. This would have been no big deal if my grade didn't depend on another persons involvement in the course. The final Peer Review was a pain to wait through. One can submit their assignment in 10 minutes but must wait a month for it to be graded by another. I've noted too (because I did it myself) When someone finally does check the assignment they are not obligated to give marks based on criteria. I could just give full marks without checking with no consequence. When I did pay attention to what I was listening to, I heard many mistakes in pronunciation and grammar but could still give full marks because that wasn't the criteria for the assignment. Whats worse is that I'm not aware of other mistakes a native speaker could pick up, and yet...I could still give ...full marks. That needs to be corrected or removed entirely.

Sadly this review is filled with criticism, but only because I believe it has the potential to be better.

This course is excellent for beginners, I am amased of how much I learnt and how at the end of it I was able to say and record my first sentences in Mandarin.

I'm really satisfied with the course. It helps you learn all the basic chinese words you need to make short conversatiosn with people.

it's really good course, for beginners, hopefully everyone will like the course for sure, thank you teachers for providing such amazing course

Excellent! If anyone can teach a 68-year-old "geyser" Mandarin, they deserve 5 stars. Will be going on to next course!

Excellent class training and good concepts but I think a bit more basic must have been cleared in the early classes as I got a bit difficulty in understanding the concepts so I think basics must be taught in the very early session so that it does not create any difficulty in understanding the concept. Overall I have a great experience with this course, hope I could continue to learn more in more advance level of courses.

Verry good. Chinese is difficult to learn but this course kept me intrested and practicing. I do recomend to print the pdfs so you can practice and keep information. Videos can be downloaded too.

So I learned more things from here. Not only about the Chinese language but I really like Chinese culture and food too. This course is useful for everyone. Thank you so much.

Mr.Navin ARUNRAT

I was auditing the course. I finished every assignment I was allowed. The course says overdue. It is apparently a bug since there is nothing to complete.

This a great course to learn Chinese for real-life purposes. The pace is perfect for adult learners. It's also fun and not stressful at all.

Very good examples and having access to the PDF:s for each lesson. A bit too fast rolling of the video sometimes in the "plays" when you are supposed to read the lines after the actors. Too little explanations about why new words are used as they are. how to effectively use them in sentences. that is only "explained" through examples, but it could be explained in 2 minutes during each video, s

I really LOVE it!!!!

Before I took the classes, I never imagined they would be SO interesting and practical!

By mistake, I am taking level 1 & 2 together :)

I have been taking Traditional Mandarin for almost 10 years and I am impressed with the high quality material both 老師 are providing us with!

By the way, I purchased both books! High quality books as well! WOW!

Congratulations!!

謝謝 您們！

加油!

古麗雅

Great course for beginners . Does a good job at introducing Mandarin, and teaching a lot of basic conversational phrases and words. The quizzes are too simple in my opinion, they don't reinforce the material that well. But overall the course still provides a good starting point.

I wish there is more chinese basics class

Course was good. Instructor was dedicated and professional. She kept me engaged throughout the course and never let me feel bored. Course content was sufficient and well organised too. My overall experience was fantastic and it delivered everything, I had expected from this course. I look forward to take other leading courses on Chinese too.

Additionally a little focus on the Chinese Script would have a cherry on the cake.

Thank you

Shivam Kumar

I really enjoyed the course! It was easy to follow the instructions and fun to learn. I liked the structure and selection of vocabulary. At the end of the topic, there is a video about cultural differences that I found were important to know. Language knowledge is nothing without understanding the culture. I found all the handouts from the book useful and I will recommend this course to others.

It's a little frustrating that I need a VPN (because I live in China) for this MOOC. However this course is nicely balanced and timed. I feel i am picking things up. You can download so you can get home/offline practice and the pace is nice and steady (not too fast).

It is always a difficult task to learn a new language from scratch but the teachers and their teaching methods were so cool that I learned very easily from them i loved the course as it would also be a new feather in my resume and enable me to find a better job

I've used several resources to try to learn Chinese on my own. This course is incredibly well structured, the audio-video content is clear, and I appreciate the ability to get feedback. I look forward to the other courses in this series.

An interesting course for curious people, an opportunity for language learners. This course has customizable levels of difficulty that can be openly explored by the learners.

I know it's difficult to encourage student participation - in the 'discussions' for example - but a bonus of some kind for participation might do the trick. Not sure whether coursera software provides a means of measuring participation, but a count of 'substantial' comment postings might be a measure.

By the same token, compulsory comments on the peer reviews would be helpful for feedback and also to indicate whether the peer reviews have been posted yet.

A great introductory course for those who desire to learn one of the most difficult languages in the world - Mandarin Chinese (中文). Suitable for people interested in the language or culture.

My only negative is that the work is much more intensive than mentioned, and should not be done without a little knowledge of the language itself.

Otherwise, a great course and one which is well structured and a great glimpse into China itself.

I like the class format and the skits. I really like the "idea" of the peer-reviewed assignment, but it caused me a delay of like 3 weeks waiting for one of my peers' submissions to be available for review. I picked this class because the search thing said it used traditional characters, so I was kind of sad to see it was only simplified characters. Nice course overall.

The "final" for Course 1 is speaking & peer feedback comments and your comments in return. This is WITHOUT knowing if your pronunciation is at all satisfactory, since there has been NO feedback along the way. This is why I've taken away a ★.

The structure was good and useful, but I expected richer content. I would prefer if there wasn't a peer-reviewed homework or that there was reassurance of timely peer review.