I think this class was good. I expected to have my socks blown off, but hard to do that asynchronously. At the end of the day, I learned some interesting language facts and got to know the Ling field in a way I had no knowledge of previously. I just wish they weren't so repetitive in lectures, because there was a lot of fluff and repetition that made it difficult to sit through all the material. Elisa Migliaretti was a great TA, make sure you can attend her section. I would be still struggling with IPA had it not been for her.

the class just used pre-recorded lectures by howard torrence, and he's a great lecturer. its easy to get behind on work in this class, but as long as you just sit down and make yourself watch the videos once a week then you'll be fine. The tests aren't setup to be tricky or convoluted. Overall a really nice introduction to linguistics and I would take it again if I could!

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.