I have the answer to all of your problems. Well, not really, but I might have the answer to one of your big ones. One of the main gripes of Princeton students is inconsistency between the cognitive and teaching abilities of our professors; it seems that everyone has had a professor teaching Earth Shaking 101 who is a complete genius yet couldn't teach his way out of a cardboard box. This type of inconsistency is not always present, but enrolling for a course with extremely high expectations and discovering mediocre teaching invariably results in the crushing of more than a few cases of bright-eyed freshman idealism. But I know a way out of hell. The Princeton Chinese Language Department is one of the most thoroughly outstanding institutions I have ever had the pleasure of being acquainted with and highlights all of Princeton's strengths without any of its weaknesses. If anyone reading this is tired of not knowing what kind of course he will pick out of Princeton's own little-box-of-chocolates course guide, simply enroll in Chinese and you'll immediately know just what you're going to get.
Like many of the disappointing classes at Princeton, Chinese 101 has the benefit of an absolutely brilliant professor. By many accounts, Perry Link is the best caucasian Chinese speaker in the entire world. Allegedly, he speaks better Chinese than even our drill instructors, who are all native Chinese speakers themselves. Professor Link is also world-famous. He has been banned from the People's Republic of China for his role as a student organizer during the Tiananmen Square massacre and will probably be unable to return to China as long as the Communists hold power. When dealing with China, it is impossible to escape professor Link's influence. He has written myriad books and is highlighted in the Lonely Planet Travel Guide for Beijing as having the best work discussing recent Chinese intellectual history. He has been featured on "Larry King Live!" discussing his recently published Tiananmen Papers. He has all the qualifications to make him as removed and distant as any other field-leading professor, yet he exhibits none of the expected vices. He is always ready (more like insistent) to take any and all questions one might think up — no matter how mundane — and is obsessed with making sure that every single mistake one makes is thoroughly ironed out. If language isn't your forte and you don't believe you are up to the challenge, professor Link is the great equalizer; every single one of his students is humbled by his mastery of Chinese and simultaneously longs to impress him if only for a moment. The most enjoyable memory I have from a class last year is when I applied a little-used Chinese idiom that even he hadn't thought of, which filled me with immense joy. Bar none, Professor Link is the best teacher I have had at Princeton.
The preceptors who instruct your drills will work equally hard to make sure you both learn Chinese and enjoy yourself in the process. Every drill session has six students or fewer, giving a definite seminar quality to the instruction. The preceptors try hard to make their classes both interesting and funny, and several times a day the classes erupt in bursts of laughter. Oftentimes the preceptor himself will lose all composure, because due to the simple nature of Chinese pronunciation, it's very easy to sound out Chinese expletives when one has no idea what they are. Very few preceptors actually make an effort to get to know you personally, yet one of my Chinese preceptors has gone on to become both my Chinese professor for this year as well as my friend. The class also brings together students of all different backgrounds, and I have met many of my good friends while sitting in Perry Link's Chinese 101.
Taking Chinese at Princeton has so many benefits that I cannot fit them all in this column, and you will have to discover them for yourself. If you think this article is completely worthless, then simply don't take Chinese; nothing terrible will happen to you. Like many courses, Chinese is not for everyone. It will probably be more work than the rest of your courses combined and will drive you to the brink of desperation on a weekly basis (when your quiz is returned). However, the vast majority of the people who have taken Chinese have found it is so amazing that it becomes an addiction, and only after experiencing it firsthand can one really know what every course at Princeton should be like. David Sillers is from Potomac, Md. He can be reached at dsillers@princeton.edu.
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