Spring 2027

First Semester Chinese

First Semester Chinese introduces sounds, basic grammar, 400 characters of standard spoken Chinese, and beginner-level communication skills for everyday life.

no offering record for this termCredits unavailable
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 No instructors listed

Summary

1 / 7

Past student reviews · Tianlu Zhang

The class was vocabulary-heavy, and missing even one lecture could negatively impact your semester. Students reported daily homework that remained manageable, though consistent attendance and intensive note-taking were necessary to perform well on tests.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Speak, recognize and spell Pinyin correctly.

  • Use Pinyin to type in Chinese on electronic devices.

  • Identify and apply basic Chinese orthographic knowledge, including strokes, radicals, Chinese character structures, etc.

  • Recognize and write about 250 new vocabulary items.

  • Learn and memorize beginning-level Chinese sentence patterns and grammar knowledge.

  • Use what students learned in class to conduct similar conversations and activities in various exercises and real life situations.

Source: UW Guide

Grade history

↗
average GPA
letter grades
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AB
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All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

Not open to students with credit forASIALANG 111

ASIALANG 101 used by

“Used by” includes alternatives; linked courses may have other requirements. This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.

Prerequisite text tree

Professors

Spring 2027

No instructors recorded for this selection.

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

TIANLU ZHANG is recorded teaching in Fall 2019, Fall 2020, Fall 2021, Fall 2022, Fall 2023, Fall 2024, Fall 2025. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Calendar & sections

Spring 2027

Schedule loads here as you scroll.

SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist

Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections.

Meeting source records
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Student experience

the class

Past student reviews · Tianlu Zhang

Zhang laoshi taught with an accessible, well-rounded style that made beginners feel comfortable asking questions. The course used a workbook for partner practice, and students praised her lecture slides for clearly breaking down language structure.

Recent recorded grades — Fall 2023: 3.74 GPA, 91.0% A/AB (n=78 letter grades); Fall 2024: 3.65 GPA, 79.7% A/AB (n=79 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.76 GPA, 87.5% A/AB (n=80 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Tianlu Zhang

The class was vocabulary-heavy, and missing even one lecture could negatively impact your semester. Students reported daily homework that remained manageable, though consistent attendance and intensive note-taking were necessary to perform well on tests.

Past student reviews · Tianlu Zhang

Students described the instructor as caring and friendly, noting that she answered all questions and sometimes stayed after class to help. The overall experience was considered enjoyable despite the steady amount of homework required.

Topics

  • Standard spoken Chinese sounds and basic grammar.
  • Beginner-level communication skills in everyday life.

Skills

  • Speaking, recognizing, spelling, and typing Pinyin.
  • Applying Chinese orthography (strokes, radicals, structures) and writing vocabulary.
  • Memorizing sentence patterns and conducting conversational activities.

Grades

Latest available · Fall 2025— not enough history to project Spring 2027.

average GPA
A / AB grades
letter grades
Instructor

Grade distribution · % of letter grades

A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

Grades over time

Through Fall 2025

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Where this course fits relative to

Latest available grades · Fall 2025 · all course levels

GPA

Higher than % of other courses in this group.

Course GPAs · red marks this course’s range

letter grades

More recorded grades than % of other courses in this group.

Typical course in this group: letter grades.

About this comparison

1316 courses over the same term, each with at least 30 recorded letter grades. Cross-listed courses count once. GPA is not a measure of difficulty or teaching quality. The typical course is the median by recorded grade count; tied values are not counted as lower. Grade counts describe course scale, not unique students or typical section size.

Descriptions compare GPA with this group’s average: at least 0.20 higher or lower; otherwise close to average. Section size uses median recorded enrollment: small up to 30, mid-sized 31–99, large 100+. Lectures and discussion/lab sections are described separately.

Sources & history

UW–Madison

Catalog & offerings

Descriptions, prerequisites, and recorded course offerings.

Catalog observation history

Observations at scan time; dates do not imply when a catalog change took effect.

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Selected offering source records

No offering records for the selected term.

Raw records 
[]
Rate My Professors

Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

Read original reviews
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Madgrades

Grade history

Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.

Explore recorded grades
Dataset & model

Recorded 2026-10-14

View the dataset on Hugging Face
Model outputs & technical records
Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B
LLM outputs across runs
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Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

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Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "89152fa9115d19fdac57465f5c9296f38a18e01b3b80918dbd40847ae0950a1a",
  "requirements_status": "needs_review",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}