If you do all the readings there is kind of a lot, but the professor doesn't test you. The readings are just there for you to write your essays. I did ok on the in class essay and well on the final paper (not in class) as well as on the project. The subject is interesting most of the time. She holds office hours before the paper is due to give everyone feedback which is nice. Overall, a the professor is pretty fair, but the grade breakdown only rests on like 3 assignments lol so could be risky (I would recommend viewing the films as well. It helps you come up with something to write)

easily the best professor i have ever had. truly cares about her students and their learning.

I took this as a GE in my first quarter at UCLA, and it was my favorite class! Professor Nguyen-Vo is a very kind and knowledgeable teacher who clearly knows a lot about the topic. The material is very theoretical, so if you're not paying much attention a lot of it will probably fly over your head—however, the professor is very patient and open to answering questions. She also gave us oranges on Halloween and a very sweet speech on the last day of class. Love her!

Lecture attendance tended to dwindle during midterm and final season, I don't think she penalized anyone for it but she did mention that since we are paying our tuition, we are essentially paying to be there. I liked showing up just because the professor talked about a lot of interesting ideas! Listening to her talk gave me a completely new perspective on the Vietnam War and how it is portrayed in the media depending on who is making it.

The grade is dependent on the midterm essay, final essay/project, one group presentation, weekly discussion posts, and section attendance. I found the midterm essay very doable. Professor Nguyen-Vo gave us an extension because of the election results. She gave us multiple prompts in advance to choose from, and a lot of the prompts were related to the films we had to watch for section. The midterm is graded by the TA, Suong Thai, who was very helpful when I came to her office hours! You do need to actually do the readings in order to write the essay and participate in section + the weekly discussion posts, but I didn't find them too difficult.

For the group presentation, we just signed up to do it in section. It was very simple, just a slideshow about one of the week's assigned materials (usually a film, short story, one was even about Vietnamese wartime music). Suong reaches out to the group the week of the presentation, just to make sure you are on track.

The final essay/project was also pretty flexible. I chose to do the project option since the essay option was a 10-page research paper. You can pretty much do anything creative-based for this (poetry collection, website, magazine zine, etc) and you can work alone or in groups. The final was graded by Professor Nguyen-Vo and I found her grading to be very fair and constructive. Overall, a great class and I'm very glad I got the chance to take it!

ridiculously easy GE

Grading is like this:
Discussion participation/assignments - 20%
Class participation - 10%
Midterm essay - 30%
Final paper or Group creative/multimedia project - 40%

The discussion assignments consisted of weekly discussion posts (paragraph on one the week's readings) and a group presentation, where you in depth analyze one of the week's cultural works (usually a film) with up to 5 people and present for 20 minutes. This was the main workload of the class (besides the midterm and final), and it was very doable. All the discussion sections shared the same TA Suong, and I thought she was nice and helpful, nothing else notable to talk about.

The midterm essay is 4-pages and was graded by the TA. You have about a week to do it and the professor gave the prompts. It's not too bad and I thought it was fairly graded.

For the final, I chose the essay option, and it is more open-ended, but the instructions on it are actually given in the syllabus. It's at least 8 pages, so I would actually really recommend taking advantage of having the instructions early and work on it as soon as possible. Professor Nguyen-Vo does give more explanation on the final later on, but I think having an outline already based on what you're given earlier is very helpful. I only started the final essay about a week earlier, and that was a bad decision just because it will take up a lot of your time/mental energy when you want to focus on other finals too. So make a plan for the final essay early. I can't comment on the final group project option.

There's a LOT of readings, that are "required" but you're not tested on them or anything so you don't actually have to. However they're necessary for your weekly discussion posts and very helpful for your essays/project, so at least get a general idea of what they're about and come back to them when you need them.

There was extra credit given, mostly consisting of watching a live Zoom presentation (usually a bunch of speakers/professors discussing topics related to Asian-American issues or the humanities) and writing a reflection on it.

I was expecting more history/analysis of Vietnamese cultural works, but at least in the first third of the class, you're actually going over general social theory, which could be interesting if you're into that, but it's kinda esoteric and I wasn't really able to follow along in the beginning. The latter half of the class focuses more on actual Vietnamese culture like movies, music, literature, history etc, and personally I found this part of the class more interesting since it felt more tangible.

Our lectures were online (though they were supposed to be in-person) which made it less engaging, but also more convenient since they're recorded. You don't HAVE to go to lecture actually, though if you want participation points you should probably make at least a few comments/questions during lecture.

The professor is very knowledgeable on the content and is helpful during office hours if you want essay feedback or help understanding the concepts. She's also an interesting person to talk to so if you want a conversation you should go to office hours too lol.

If you're taking this as a GE, this isn't the best one out there, but the grading is pretty good, workload is fair, and depending on your background/interests, it may be interesting too.