ARTS1450 Chinese 1 for Non-Background Speakers (UNSW Sydney): rated 2.8/5 overall across 9 reviews collected on UNSW Wall.
ARTS1450 is a UNSW Sydney course taught by the Faculty of Arts, Design and Architecture in School of Humanities and Languages. This page brings together its handbook details and what UNSW students say about it.
Review data updated 2026-10-24.
Chinese title: 非母语者汉语一
Type: Undergraduate course
Credit points: 6
Subject area: School of Humanities and Languages
Faculty: Faculty of Arts, Design and Architecture
Level: Undergraduate Level 1
Handbook year: 2026
This is an introductory course in Modern Standard Chinese language (Mandarin) for non-background speakers. The course will start with basic components of Chinese language: the pinyin, and characters.
ARTS1450 has 9 scored reviews: overall 2.8/5 · usefulness 2.7 (all out of 5; higher difficulty means harder).
Sources: 3 StudentVIP reviews (average 2.7 stars); 6 Reddit comments that an AI model judged to be reviewing this course (average would-recommend 2.9/5).
On Reddit: "Hi Chinese second language study-er here, the chinese as taught in the university is quite abysmally behind pedagogically. Much like actual Chinese education they expect a lot of inefficient learning based on reading and writing, there will be very little speaking expected of yo…"
On Reddit: "Not sure if you're talking about the difference between them. But I did 1450 last sem and am continuing Chinese into next year! The only difference I'm aware of between the two is how much you've been exposed to Mandarin before taking the course. I'm pretty sure people had to mo…"
The course panel on UNSW Wall shows every review and discussion in full.
Q: Is ARTS1450 worth taking?
A: Averaged over 9 reviews: usefulness 2.7/5, overall 2.8/5.
Q: Which faculty teaches ARTS1450, and when is it offered?
A: ARTS1450 is taught by the Faculty of Arts, Design and Architecture. Check the official handbook for the current year.
UNSW Wall is an independent student community and is not affiliated with UNSW Sydney.