Mandarin IV Honors is now offered as the final course in the Mandarin world language series, taught by Shih Min Holland. The Mandarin program is in its 3rd year at Campolindo.
Mandarin IV Honors will be “a more in depth study of what they have been learning,” said Holland. “They have more hands on practice, and so they really have to master all 4 parts of the language.”
Senior David Granicher, who is taking Mandarin 4, thinks that if you start Mandarin, you are inclined to keep going. However, Granicher added, “[This class] is harder than last year.”
Freshman Noah Todd, who is in Mandarin 2, said he is not planning on taking Mandarin 4 because he thinks that he simply won’t be able to keep up once he gets to the more advanced classes. “No one in my family speaks it [Mandarin],” Todd said. “I don’t think I will do well in that class.” He said that it will be a “very hard class.”
Todd believes that people who have a background in the language, or have family members that speak it, can be successful in the advanced levels of Mandarin.
Freshman Rex Chen said, “[Mandarin] is more challenging than any other class I have.”
However, he said, “[Holland] prepares you really well for the tests, and so all you have to do is do the homework and maybe read the text book once or two times before the test and your set to get an A. She is a really good teacher.”
Chen believes Mandarin is already a challenging language to learn. He said, “You need to write stuff down and memorize things.”
An AP Mandarin class is possible in the future. “That’s the hope,” Holland added.