French 133 was by far the best French class I have ever taken. Prof. Mabanckou is congenial, charismatic, and HILARIOUS. He made the class laugh out loud several times per class! The lectures were really interesting and he grades very easily. I did most of the reading and wrote the papers and I received an A+ in the class; plus, I became quite interested in a topic I knew nothing about previously. I am not a French major, but I will go out of my way to take another course with Prof. Mabanckou before i graduate.

Prof. Mabanckou's French 121 - Studies in Francophone Cultures and Literatures was mainly focused on Rwanda and the 1994 genocide. Prof. Mabanckou teaches in French, is very approachable, and has a great ability to keep the class' attention by using humor and story telling. He is very knowledgeable and helpful in preparing for Midterm and advising for graduate studies. There was no midterm and no final...just a 6-8 page paper, instead. The assigned reading is paramount if you want an A. Count on reading approx. 50-100 pages per week. there were only 3 books for the quarter. If you can pay attention in class, take good notes, and are willing to do the readings, this is an easy A.

Fantastic and very easy class. No exams, just essays, and very engaging lectures on Francophone African literature. I highly recommend!

Fascinating overview of African poetry in French. No tests, just essays, and very good lectures.

The class was very laidback. Discussion of 3 books- all African-francophone literature. Professor is a famous author so it was cool to learn from him, but he was definitely very busy outside of class and did not answer emails/etc very quickly. Regardless, readings were interesting and the grading was very fair. Great class in the French department