Hey~
Okay so, I have a million excuses that I could give about why I fell off the face of the earth this whole semester. Long story short, I am sorry and I blame my computer and classes.
So, first I'll do a post on my classes last semester like usual, with tips (such as whether to buy the textbook, attendance, professors etc.)
Chinese 201: Second-Year Chinese. A look at schedule builder tells me that my professor is still teaching the only section of 201 this semester, as well as a section of 202. TAKE HER. I had Y. Chen. My class only had four students (including myself) and she is hands-down the best teacher. She is very passionate and enthusiastic about teaching Chinese, she shows Chinese music videos before class and occasionally shows Chinese tv show videos during class. The other teacher subbed for my class one day, and I am very grateful that I had Chen laoshi. Plus, I heard that the other teacher (H. Wang) is a bit more stricter on homework, so the answers have to correlate exactly with what the textbook teaches, while Chen gives a little bit more leeway.
Textbook: You always need the textbook for Chinese class. You also need the workbook, although not the character workbook now that you are in the 200-level (which I am thankful for because the character workbook was the bane of my existence in 101). The thing is, Chinese textbooks are really a long-term investment because if you decide not to continue learning Chinese, you can sell them and make most of your money back, or if you are minoring/majoring in Chinese, you can keep them because all of the vocabulary builds on each other. I mentioned before that I bought a bundle of 7 books for Chinese (I think it is 101-401 but I am not sure) from someone who was graduating for $100, so now all I have to buy is the workbooks. (Although be careful about that. I did not check carefully on Amazon and when I received one, it was missing half of the pages from each lesson, so I had to return it (because that is $20 down the drain) and buy a new one).
Economics 201: Intro to Microeconomics with Ballard. Okay, so I liked this class. Kind of. He started taking attendance for the first time this year, but that is easily got around by swiping in on the card readers and leaving (ahem). His teaching style is very good, and he makes it easy to learn and understand the material. Admittedly, I did not go to classes after a certain period, but that is okay because the textbook has all of the info you need. A week or two before each exam, he sends out a packet of notes of important topics that could be on the exam (which is basically just sparknotes of that section from the book) as well as two old exams with solutions and explanations. These are gold because a lot of the questions from the old exams are verbatim on the exam. Also after you take the exam, he releases the solutions to all of the exams so you can figure out what you did wrong. So Ballard is really the best professor for Econ 201.
Textbook: If you do not go to class (like I did) then this is very, very helpful. Since he wrote the textbook, all of the exams are basically pulled straight from the book. The new editions sell for a ridiculous amount (I awkwardly left one of the bookstores after taking it to the counter and discovering it was ~$160), and I ended up buying the older edition from Straight A Bookstore for $50, and there was no difference. Everything that was covered on the exams and in his notes were from the old edition, so I did not miss anything. If you are looking to buy older editions, I highly, highly recommend Straight A Bookstore. It is on Grand River closer to Chipotle (I think), and it is in the basement of a building. It is run by international students but it was not a problem. I have bought a couple of older editions from them and it is always much cheaper than the bigger bookstores.
IAH 204: Asia and the World. I see that this class is not being offered this semester; I took the normal class that did not have a focus on China and Japan. The professor was Aminda Smith. OKAY CONFESSION (I am going to lose all my respect), I only went to class sporadically... It is a large lecture class with a weekly recitation. They have quizzes every unit, usually on Thursday, but she does not tell you when it is, so you are supposed to go to class to figure it out (guess which days I usually went...). And then there are 5 papers, but you can only do 4 of them. I would recommend that you do the first four, that way you can have your pick and do not have to do the final paper during exam week.
About the class: I chose this class because I have done a lot of studying about Asia and I wanted to learn more. 3 out of the 5 papers were about colonization and India, which was not a point of interest for me (but thankfully, I learned how to BS my way through a paper in high school). Other than that, I pretty much skated by in recitation with my previous knowledge. I got a 3.0 in the class which is not that great, but considering I missed four of the quizzes, only made it to about half of the recitations (they were at 9 AM in BERKEY, okay?) and totally BSed my papers the day that they were due (they are due at 11:55 PM on the Monday of the week, so I would start at 2 or 3PM and get writing), this was a pretty good grade. Yay for underachieving.
Textbooks: This class requires three books, which all have to be read and then are discussed during recitation. Monkey by Arthur Waley, Strangers from a Different Shore by Takaki and Midnights Children by Rushdie. Honestly, the only book that you could really get away without buying is Strangers from a Different Shore, because only sections of it was assigned for one recitation. I rented that and Monkey from Ned's Bookstore for about half the cost of actually buying the book, and then I ended up buying Midnights Children on Kindle because I forgot about it, and we were reading it in the last part of the semester. THAT SAVED ME DURING RECITATION because my TA decided to randomly call on people, so I was able to read it quickly during class and keep up with what he was saying (because God forbid I actually do my work ahead of time).
ISS 210: 001 Society and the Individual with Tibebe Eshete. This class. This class. I have no words. This professor was super duper nice, but sometimes it was hard to focus. And he showed a lot of movies. And the class was at 8AM, so I may or may not have always made it. He only started doing quizzes towards the end of the semester, but most of the grade was based off of attendance (which was done by passing a paper around the class. It was a big lecture hall and papers don't always make it all the way around, so I really don't recommend that method) and a couple of papers, a midterm, and a final.
Textbook: The books for this class were a coursepack (which was like $80 and had to be bought from some random printing press off campus) and you could choose between the Four-Inch Golden Lotus and the Lost Boys of Sudan. I chose Lost Boys of Sudan because it was the only one available on Kindle, and I read it the day before a book report was due. Actually, that book was super interesting so I was glad to have chose it. The coursepack is not that necessary.
And here is a quick look at my classes for this semester. If you are in any of the same classes and we might be in the same section, let me know! I've changed my major (again), and I do not have any friends in the same major, so I am going into all of these classes basically alone. I am just waiting for one class to open up so that I can switch into it and it will work better with my schedule, but otherwise I am DONE crazily changing my schedule. I am trying to cram in all of the necessary classes into my schedule for this semester and next so that I can hopefully graduate as close to on time as possible. I was very glad to discover that I did not screw up my schedule again with this major change. Last year, I took mostly pre-med focused classes and when I switched, I basically had to start over. Taking Chinese, ISS, IAH and Econ did not hurt me and fingers crossed that I will be able to graduate almost on time.
Anyways!
CHS 202: Second Year Chinese II. I am doing an additional major in Chinese, so I will be taking Chinese language courses all four years (although I am hoping to do a study abroad during the summer between my junior and senior year). My professor for this class is Y. Chen laoshi again, so I am pumped. I really am excited for this class.
COM 275: Effects of Mass Communication. The problem with this class is that it literally starts just as CHS 201 ends. Probably not the best idea, but the Comm Arts building is less than ten minute walk away from Wells, so I am not that concerned. I do not know anyone who is in Communications so if you are in the major, let me know!
COM 300: Methods of Communication Inquiry. Another required class.
MTH 103: College Algebra. I know. Soo ashamed to be in algebra in college, but at this point I just want to get as many of the requirements out of the way as I can, and this is the one that I can do with the least credits possible.
PHL 130: Logic and Reasoning. Let me tell you what. I strongly dislike logic and philosophy, but this is a requirement for the COM major. I guess we will see how it turns out. Also, it is an 8AM class at East Neighborhood, so I am not so sure about it...
So, this semester there are 17 credits. I had been seriously hoping for a nice and simple schedule like I have had for the past three semesters, where I start at 10 or 11 AM and am finished by 3, but with these classes, they are kind of scattered all over. Most of my classes have like a 2 hour gap, but they are all relatively close to each other/Van Hoosen, so I am probably not going to be buying a bus pass this semester.
Please suggest some topics for me! I will probably do some reviews on places around East Lansing, etc.
