FRNCH 114A
Survey of French Literature: Medieval and Renaissance Literature
Description: Lecture, three hours. Requisite: course 12. Masterpieces of medieval and Renaissance literature, including examples of epic ("La Chanson de Roland"), romance (Chrétien de Troyes' "Yvain"), and Renaissance prose and poetry (including Marot, Du Bellay, Ronsard, Rabelais, Marguerite de Navarre, and Montaigne). P/NP or letter grading.
Units: 5.0
Units: 5.0
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Most Helpful Review
One of the worst teachers in French Department at UCLA. Horrible french accent, horrible grammar. Not interesting and not interested in students. She reads the french aloud in class instead of the students. Completely disorganized, sometimes it was obvious she had not looked at the literature until that minute in class. She stands there asking for an explanation of something and after 6 people have tried and were wrong, she says "it's very simple." Well, obviously not. So boring, class seemed to last forever and then she would go over because she just stood there waiting for somebody to say something. Very unclear on what she wants. There is a midterm paper that is take home, but requires 3 papers and then a final that is the same. So hopefully you guess what she wants on the midterm which is so late in the quarter there is no chance to change your approach for the final.
One of the worst teachers in French Department at UCLA. Horrible french accent, horrible grammar. Not interesting and not interested in students. She reads the french aloud in class instead of the students. Completely disorganized, sometimes it was obvious she had not looked at the literature until that minute in class. She stands there asking for an explanation of something and after 6 people have tried and were wrong, she says "it's very simple." Well, obviously not. So boring, class seemed to last forever and then she would go over because she just stood there waiting for somebody to say something. Very unclear on what she wants. There is a midterm paper that is take home, but requires 3 papers and then a final that is the same. So hopefully you guess what she wants on the midterm which is so late in the quarter there is no chance to change your approach for the final.
Most Helpful Review
I took with French 12 and French 118 with Professor Werner. I went in to my first class with him pretty scared after what I read on here. Seriously though, people on bruinwalk need to suck it up. First, he's an absolute genius. I don't think I've ever meet a more intelligent person in my life. And yes, this makes him rather intimidating. Asking questions can be a scary experience but he'll always take them. If you go to class (something that 8 people of my 12 person class failed to do) he'll change the way you think. Yeah, he's difficult. He told me to rewrite my entire 8 page research paper 3 days before it was due. He expects a lot from his students, so don't expect that you can turn in an awful paper and he won't care. He INSISTS that you bring him a draft a couple days before the due date so he can go over it. If you're on top of your stuff (I honestly wasn't) and get an early start, there's no reason why you should do poorly. He'll give you tons of notes and suggestions on your paper when he hands it back, which is always within a week. The books you have to read are challenging and, yes, sometimes a little boring. If you go to class, however, he'll point out passages that would make a good paper. It's tempting not to go to class because he doesn't grade on participation. But seriously, GO TO CLASS. I don't know how you would have any clue what you're doing otherwise. He always emphasizes the fond and the forme. He wants concrete details and really pushes you to analyze the style, which was the hard part for me. If you just sit down the night before and crank out some paper on abstract ideas then don't expect to do well. Yeah, he talks really fast. But he reads things the way they're supposed to be read. He's not you're French 1 TA. Also, he repeats everything in his lectures like 50 times so if you miss it the first time he'll probably come back to it. For French 12, the exams weren't bad at all. Go to class, and study the lectures. All you had to do was regurgitate what he said and you were fine. When grading papers he was more difficult, but he's a challenging teacher. Yeah, he's an old guy. This was his 47th year teaching at UCLA. He loves the subject and he loves teaching. Somebody wrote that he was rude. He was always polite to my class and greeted us every day. Yes, his tests are typed on a typewriter and he writes in the accents. So what. If you're considering taking a class with him, don't go by all of these other reviews. He was one of the most influential teachers I've ever had. Who knows how much longer he'll be teaching, so take him if you can!
I took with French 12 and French 118 with Professor Werner. I went in to my first class with him pretty scared after what I read on here. Seriously though, people on bruinwalk need to suck it up. First, he's an absolute genius. I don't think I've ever meet a more intelligent person in my life. And yes, this makes him rather intimidating. Asking questions can be a scary experience but he'll always take them. If you go to class (something that 8 people of my 12 person class failed to do) he'll change the way you think. Yeah, he's difficult. He told me to rewrite my entire 8 page research paper 3 days before it was due. He expects a lot from his students, so don't expect that you can turn in an awful paper and he won't care. He INSISTS that you bring him a draft a couple days before the due date so he can go over it. If you're on top of your stuff (I honestly wasn't) and get an early start, there's no reason why you should do poorly. He'll give you tons of notes and suggestions on your paper when he hands it back, which is always within a week. The books you have to read are challenging and, yes, sometimes a little boring. If you go to class, however, he'll point out passages that would make a good paper. It's tempting not to go to class because he doesn't grade on participation. But seriously, GO TO CLASS. I don't know how you would have any clue what you're doing otherwise. He always emphasizes the fond and the forme. He wants concrete details and really pushes you to analyze the style, which was the hard part for me. If you just sit down the night before and crank out some paper on abstract ideas then don't expect to do well. Yeah, he talks really fast. But he reads things the way they're supposed to be read. He's not you're French 1 TA. Also, he repeats everything in his lectures like 50 times so if you miss it the first time he'll probably come back to it. For French 12, the exams weren't bad at all. Go to class, and study the lectures. All you had to do was regurgitate what he said and you were fine. When grading papers he was more difficult, but he's a challenging teacher. Yeah, he's an old guy. This was his 47th year teaching at UCLA. He loves the subject and he loves teaching. Somebody wrote that he was rude. He was always polite to my class and greeted us every day. Yes, his tests are typed on a typewriter and he writes in the accents. So what. If you're considering taking a class with him, don't go by all of these other reviews. He was one of the most influential teachers I've ever had. Who knows how much longer he'll be teaching, so take him if you can!
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