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MIN-MIN LIANG:
What's the difference

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between streamlined courses
and regular Chinese courses?

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I think in the
beginning they said

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that streamlined is obvious.

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It's to make it faster.

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So it turned out to be--
it just happened this way.

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And when I start teaching
here, it's already established.

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So most students
taking streamlined,

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they're heritage learners.

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You don't have to be a
heritage learner at all as long

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as your oral proficiency
reaches a certain level.

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So that means we
don't start a class

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with how to pronounce the
words, because we assume you

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have basic conversation skills.

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So versus regular
class, you start out

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with all the language courses.

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You start with pronunciations.

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You start with the alphabet,
that we call the [INAUDIBLE],

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how to pronounce words.

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And then you
introduce everything,

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just like from the start.

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So for streamlined courses, we
assume you have the oral skills

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already at a certain level.

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So that makes it very different.

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And, I think, we're very
fortunate to have this program

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here, because we've
got enough student

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group to attend this course.

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So my goal for this course
is literacy building.

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And this is the main component.

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And the second thing is to help
them too elevate their speaking

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proficiency.

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So I assume by
[INAUDIBLE] standard,

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when they exit this
course, they could at least

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reach the intermediate
high to advanced low level

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in terms of speaking.

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So they came in there
usually at intermediate low.

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Even if you think
intermediate low,

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intermediate high is
not much, but when

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you try to push it
to that direction,

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it's harder and harder,
because they get withdrawn

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into their own little world.

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They refuse to use
new vocabulary.

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They will just speak
in their comfort zone.

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So we need to push them.

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It's really hard.

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So that's my goal to
aim at the discourse.

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And the literacy, as I
said it, some of them

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took Chinese class when they
were at elementary school,

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some even in high school.

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A lot of these kids they
to so-called Sunday school

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once a week.

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So some of them do have some
foundation to have Chinese

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characters, but
sound really don't.

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So how do I start?

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I make sure everybody
learns same amount

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of characters in the beginning.

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The first month, we call
it just pure memorization.

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It's nothing, nothing tricky.

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I hate to say there's
just the effort you

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need to memorize
characters, because that's

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how you learn to read.

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There's no way-- other
shortcut Let's put it this way.

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It's because Chinese
characters are not spelling.

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It's like pictures.

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You have to memorize them.

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There are rules in there.

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So after four weeks, people
really struggle, for those

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who've never done it before.

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Because basically,
every class, I

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force them-- three hours
a week, every class,

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we have quiz, dictation.

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So before the class,
they have to memorize

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50 characters at least.

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Well, as I said, we're unique.

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We're fortunate
they're MIT students.

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They're so useful, hard-working.

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They complain, but
they did it anyway.

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So after one month, everybody,
at least, has 250 characters.

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Some do have more, because
they learned this before.

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But those who never attend
Chinese schools, now they

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have 250 characters.

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So they can read now, because
they know these characters

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individually.

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They put it in a sentence.

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Now they can read
a short paragraph.

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So the moment they
get to read the text,

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they are just like so excited.

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I can read.

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So then there's
the writing part.

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So that's very
different from regular,

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because regular we
have to focus so

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much on four skills together.

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Because for true
beginners, if you

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ask them to memorize characters,
at same time how to pronounce

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and speak is just too much.

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So for heritage learners,
for the streamlined class,

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we can do it all together.

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So that's a huge difference.

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And, as I say, we're unique.

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We're able to do that.

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And I don't think my model
is good for every university,

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every high school,
because it all

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depends on your audience,
your student group.

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I have teachers from
different universities

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that they can't have
just heritage learners

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or streamlined classes.

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They have to mix
them up, which just

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makes the teaching
very difficult,

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because some are
here, some are here.

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How do you make the balance?

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So I said, I'm fortunate.

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You know, I can't
really give advice

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for those teacher who
are in the middle,

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because this is totally
different environment.