I've done both German and Chinese at beginner levels.
German: It really depends on whether the tutor wants to speak in the language or not. In GRMN1111 the tutor spoke in German 95% of the time. Even when someone asked what something meant, she wouldn't explain it in English - she'd use body language or "easier" words so we could guess. However, she left after a few weeks due to a family incident and we had a new tutor who spoke in English most of the time. For GRMN1122, the new tutors spoke a mixture of Eng and German, but preferred German. This has been the style for every other German course i've done (last semester of my degree now and final German subject)
Chinese: Lecturer and tutor spoke in English 90% of the time.
Generally languages taught at the uni are quite intense for beginner courses - it's very full on at the start and moves quickly. They are not suitable for people who slack off and fall behind as you are expected to have revised and learned the new grammar structure, theme or vocabulary the next time you come back to class. Chinese Beginners was quite difficult, i'm not really referring to content here, but rather the nature and constant flow of assessments. The more intermediate and advanced classes (in my experience, German) seem to be more laidback - it's just the beginning that is the worse, especially for anyone who hasn't studied languages before. In most cases, there is adequate support from tutors, but of course i can't speak for all language departments.
