Winter 2024 review:

Thay Quyen Di's upper division classes are awesome. In V170, he teaches about Vietnamese songs. During lecture, he'll play a song or two and then talk about their lyrics and maybe reminisce about his time in Vietnam before the Vietnam War. The only two assignments/projects you have to do for the whole quarter are 1 midterm essay, 1 midterm video, 1 final essay, and 1 final video. He does not assign any homework or readings. For the essays, you just have to write 1-2 pages double spaced in Vietnamese (or English) about how you like the class so far, or you can write about something you learned. For the videos, you have to create a 10 minute video with your group that is inspired by a song you learned in class. You can also get away with not attending class regularly since he doesn't dock you off for participation or anything like that. Would highly recommend.

Winter 2025 review:

I decided to retake this course, since the topic changes each year. That means you can get credit for retaking the class. This quarter, Thay Quyen Di decided to teach about Vietnamese war songs. Very easy A. There's only two papers and two group projects. Each of the papers is 1-2 pages double spaced, and can even be written in English. The group projects require you to make a skit/video based on a song we learned about in class. You don't get docked points for not going to class. That being said, please show up because he's a really loving professor and just wants to nerd out about Vietnamese songs in front of everyone. He always brings food and stuffies during midterm and finals week too to let everyone have fun. He doesn't get mad if you're not paying attention. Just show up—it makes him really sad when the classroom is empty.