Ben is one of my favorite professors from my time at UCLA. He cares a lot about his students' learning, and he works really well with the interpreter to make sure everyone understands what's going on in the class. Ben's class is a lot of fun, which is good because you need to go to class in order to do well.

Ben is the best professor I have EVER had. He cares so much about his students and about this class, it's incredible. He has such a great sense of humor, going to class is so enjoyable. He really cares about his students learning the material and always makes sure everyone understands what is going on. His lectures are great, and he doesn't assign too much homework. 100% would take classes with Ben again

Ben is one of the best professors I've had at UCLA!! This was such an eye-opening and engaging class. The grading scheme consists of weekly homework assignments (he posts readings on CCLE and has you answer 2-3 questions about them each week), one student question, a group project for the midterm, a short film review, and a 50 multiple-choice final exam. Mariam, the interpreter for the course, and Ben make such a great team. They really care about you learning and understanding the world in a new way. I highly recommend this class and this professor!

test review

FALL COVID ONLINE QUARTER
Reviewing so that others taking a class with him during covid online quarters can know what to expect
I LOVED this class. Ben is amazing and he's funny and tries to be as engaging as possible despite COVID online conditions.

He splits up the lecture so you'll end up having just one live lecture once a week, which is mandatory attendance but he also uploads videos teaching you the unit you will learn. The workload can be a little much, every two weeks there is a quiz, an interview with a classmate, and a video journal. However I think those assignments are necessary to keep up with learning the language, and the interviews are with different classmates each time so it's a great way to get to know people a bit. You just need to record some pre decided questions and answers for the interview and video journals.

You also have one midterm one final and a final presentation. The presentation was graded way more kindly than the video journals in my opinion. You have to follow videos for all the exams and submit a PDF of your answers and sometimes they can sign a bit quickly but I think just going over the unit videos before class is enough.

You'll also have a TA, we had a student who was amazing, she made a group chat for us and answers literally every single question you could have, as well really helping out during her tutoring hours (sort of like office hours) and was nice about finding other times to meet, would recommend going ove your final presentation with your TA so they can help you out with signs you're unsure of.

materials: you have to sign up for goreact which is a video streaming service and get the book signing naturally. The book didn't seem required until the final where he asked one book specific question