Professor Vine probably taught well in the past but not in the quarter that I took this class. I took the class since I saw many comments recommend this class, but I regret taking it so badly. Vine posted the slides on CCLE, but they were fragmentary. If you are absent and try to self-study on the slides, you won't understand what he taught. But even if you go to the class, you are still hard to get the main points from his lectures. There was no midterm, but the final was extremely difficult. DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS if you don't want to ruin your GPA. It is totally NOT an easy A class. Even if you only want to get B, you also need to spend a lot of time on it.

DON'T TAKE THIS CLASS AS A GE if you're not willing to put in a LOT of work! the class material is pretty interesting and applicable to everyday life, but Vine ruined the class for me. his lectures are detailed and dry, his voice is monotonous, and his homework assignments are difficult if you have no previous experience in linguistics. There are biweekly quizzes (instead of a midterm exam) that are very detailed and require heavy studying throughout the quarter. Vine is very knowledgeable, but did not come off as sympathetic towards students and their learning and instead was often snobby and unapproachable. The only reason why I got through the class was because I was able to suffer with my friends and we helped each other barely figure out things that Vine didn't explain very well. 3/10

classics 185. easy A.
selling textbook Etymology.
previous edition but still has the same materials!

$5
please email!

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selling textbook for Classics 185.

Oxford Guide to Etymology

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Professor Vine is extremely intelligent in this subject matter, however he is extremely dry and his lectures are positively unbearable. In addition, for those who are considering taking this class to fulfill a GE... don't. It would be one of the worst mistakes to make. The course website says that there is no expected knowledge of Greek or Latin; however, it is really useful if you do, since he is always asking the class about words in Greek and Latin, and you have to memorize about 500 Greek and Latin roots for the final. Also, instead of a midterm there are weekly quizzes that are extremely difficult and impossible to pass unless you have studied everything in great depth the night before. The final was difficult but manageable if you memorize everything covered the 10 weeks in class, because he doesn't leave anything out. My final comment, if you are a classics major, this class is great, if not, don't take it, save yourself the headache.

Professor Vine is great. He answers students questions, and takes time to go over concepts if students have difficulty. He always gives sufficient feedback on homework assignments, exams and other projects so students know what they need to improve. Lectures can go by slowly though, and aren't the most attention-holding. I had no interest in this topic after the first two weeks, but Professor Vine made the quarter interesting and I've learned probably more than I should care for in the development of the English language.

Vine's class was great! His lecture outlines were immensely helpful, he didnt include anything on the exams that he didnt go over in class, and he encouraged us to have fun with English. Yeah he is rather dry, but he is straight-forward and can talk about the origin of a word like 'cunt' totally straight-faced. I agree he seemed to have a sense of humor that he didnt quite let loose in class but his class was interesting and engaging and straight-forward.

Excellent subject matter and Vine really has some interesting things to say, however dry it comes across. He graded fairly and had interesting homework assignments. It's too bad that he reads everything off of his lecture outline, because the professor has a lot of potential! He posted the lecture notes online, so if you didn't make it to class you could teach yourself the subject matter with the book as a guide. While it was one of the more interesting classes I've taken at UCLA, it was quite unfortunate that the professor was so shy. His notes on HW's and outlines were really funny, he just didn't transfer it to class. I'd say if he lightens up a little and forces a little more participation from the WHOLE class, it would make one of the best classes at UCLA.