I found ling1 a very interesting class. Human language is a very interesting concept, and if you have the slightest bit of interest in language learning or linguistics, I highly recommend taking this class. If you already know you despise linguistics, you may want to not take this class.
I found Giuseppina's lectures interesting, but honestly For Ling1, the professor you have doesn't matter. Even though it's required to attend Zoom lectures live, (or to watch the lectures and take a quiz), none of the content discussed in the lectures is tested. Instead, material from prerecorded lectures by Harold and a few by Russel (R.i.p.) cover the course material. Harold gives very in depth coverage of the material, and pretty much verbatim of the textbook. Even though the lectures are long, I suggest watching them and paying attention. Russel covers the last two weeks, but his lectures are less in depth so you may want to read the textbook.
It's also required to attend a discussion section each week, but due to the distance learning, you were able to attend whichever you desire. Material in the discussion sections will be tested, so it's good to pay attention(Phillip Barnett covers the material well).
The analysis papers are relatively simply and easy to write. Just hit all the points on the rubric and you should be able to get an A. Though I have heard certain T.A's grade harder. Gabriel Teixeira graded my papers, and I think he's a pretty easy grader (my papers kind of sucked but I still got 100%).

I think the hardest part about this class is getting into it in the first place. This will be the easiest class you can get for the Linguistic analysis GE, and it is very well run. I took it when it was completely asynchronous, watching online pre-recorded lectures, but in person wouldn't be much different because most of the grade is made up of the 2 analysis papers, the mid-term and the final. And, having the midterm or final online doesn't really change a whole lot, you can't cheat your way to an A because of what this class really tests on. Furthermore, she gave us the phonetic and IPA charts for the final exam which was all you really need, plus it means you don't have to memorize the symbols. I definitely put off doing work in this class because it was asynchronous, and I think it is better taught in person. That being said, 25% of the grade is based off 6 homework assignments, all of which are on a quizlet somewhere. The 2 analysis papers, each worth 15% of the final grade, are very strait forward. They don't grade that hard, depending on your TA. The 2nd one does require some more thought, but she gives you example papers which helps a lot. For the first paper, I originally got an 84 but felt my TA graded to harsh, talked to him, and he changed it to a 98 (shoutout Zia I love you, you are a god). She is VERY understanding (won't move test dates but reach out to her for anything) and HAs make themselves available especially for clarifying sections of the essays which can be confusing. Also, you can get up to 3 EC points by being a test subject for the UCLA psychology pool and taking the Respondus test early. If you have a good enrollment time and need to fulfill this Ge USE IT.

I would definitely recommend taking this class if you want a fairly easy GE that you can do on your own time. It was taught asynchronously when I took it so I could watch and take notes on the lectures whenever I wanted. There are usually 2-3 lectures to watch each week between 30 mins to 1 hour long, along with a textbook reading and possibly an extra article or video. There was homework once a week which was a quiz on canvas about the previous module. The midterm and final exam had to be taken on a lockdown browser with a camera and audio. There were also two analysis papers we had to write but Silvestri provided a clear layout for everything she was looking for in the essays so they weren't too difficult. The topics itself are pretty easy to learn - the section most people struggled with was the phonetics section but it's not too bad if you practice it. Silvestri also offers a few easy extra credit opportunities! I would 100% take this class again.

Best part about this class was that the amount of extra credit offered means you really don’t have to worry too much about the midterm and final, which are without a doubt the only parts of the class that are at all difficult.

I enjoyed taking this class with Professor Silvestri, who is a very kind and approachable professor! The homeworks and exams felt very fair, and discussion sections helped a lot in practicing and reviewing the material. I would recommend knowing or at least being familiar with a second language when taking this class as the entire course is about comparing languages, but it's by no means a requirement.

I took this class while it was async so I didn't really interact with the prof much. A lot of the recorded lectures were by someone else and it could be tedious and boring at times (especially with having to memorize the phonetic alphabet). However, the midterm and finals were relatively easy and the two papers were graded very leniently and were pretty fun to write. Do the extra credit she offers, it really boosts your grade. Overall, not a bad GE and a relatively easy A

I loved every aspect of this Class.
I did not know much about Linguistics and, at the end, I can tell I learned so much and all seems quite interesting and relevant.
Great experience for a GE.

I loved this class, would 10/10 recommend as a GE. The material and lectures were engaging, professor was sweet and helpful, and online lecture videos were well prepared. Probably depends on your interest in linguistics, but I found the course to be intriguing and thought provoking, definitely learned a lot!

I loved taking this class with Giuseppina. She was engaging, excited, and passionate about the topic. When I took the class, it was her first quarter teaching at UCLA, so at times it seemed like she was still finding her stride. That said, she was wonderful. She valued her student learning very clearly. The tests were fairly easy, with a lot of the material being put in a sort of "appendix" for students at the back of the test for reference. I only went to office hours once, but she answered my question completely. She assigns a decent amount of readings, but they do help with the classwork. The homework was due weekly and was generally easy.

This was one of the toughest, disorganized courses I took in the ling department thus far. The readings were dense and not debriefed, leaving lots behind on topics. Lectures were scattered and often lacked background information. The exams were tough; 2-3 essays closed-book. There was also a final project where the professor pairs you up with another student in the class to do a research paper, with a presentation included. I stopped going halfway through the quarter because the lecture did not help, and it was frankly a waste of my time.