I could not finish this course, although I admire the teacher for preparing this difficult material for English speakers. I have studied several Romance and one Semitic language but I was unable to understand the lectures here. I did pass the first few quizzes but I did not feel that I knew what I was doing. I really am motivated to learn some Chinese because it is like a 2nd or at least 3rd language in my city and very much a 1st or 2nd language in my neighborhood. But I needed something a little more tangible with which to get started . I am sure this says more about my inability than the teachers ability. I know I am not explaining myself well; I simply mean that to learn a language in which the alphabet is different and the meanings are based on emphasis rather than actual words, requires, I think, perhaps a bit more anchoring for the complete novice. For example, i wish we could have learned some simple conversational phrases, early on, just to get started, without worrying right away about all the sounds. Then once we can do that, we could get a bit more technical. Also, it would be helpful to be referred to a relevant text book. However, thank you for the effort. I hope Coursera will offer more languages since I could not find any other languages in the list.
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