Anne Boyman

I LOVED this class! Prof. Boyman is incredibly nice and genuinely cares about her students. She was very receptive to if we were tired or distracted and she even ended up implementing a 5-10 min break into class so we could take a breath (since translation can sometimes be mentally taxing). Although translation itself requires a lot of thought, the class itself was super easy. It focused on the nuances of translation so there wasn't really a wrong answer (unless you literally were incorrect about the meaning of the word, but you could use a dictionary so that rarely happened), which made me feel very comfortable expressing my opinions in class. Prof. Boyman is also very understanding of the fact that everyone will come away with a different translation and that is totally okay. She has her preferred translation but yours doesn't have to match that in order to get a good grade. The class is conducted in both English and French, though you're supposed to try to speak French most of the time (she won't call you out for speaking in English as long as you generally make an effort to speak in French). Prof. Boyman will occasionally interrupt you to correct your French or supply a vocab word but it's super chill. She is kind of a grammar nerd -- in the nicest way possible -- and I learned a lot about the intricacies of the French language through random discussions in class. Overall…

Love the prof, first few classes were lectures to contextualize baudelaire/rimbaud and their respective literary work, then became analysis of selected poems by each author (1 by alphonse de lamartine, some by baudelaire, some by rimbaud, 1 on mallarme but didn't particularly get deep into his work).

This class is super chill and the workload is basically 0. The professor is super nice (although she does talk a lot and sometimes will cut off students and go off on a tangent which does suck a little since it's supposed to be a class to improve your speaking skills), but she helps a lot with pronunciation and general speaking. We watch 3 movies throughout the semester (in class) then discuss them. Then the rest of the classes are listening to other peoples' presentations or 1 or 2 pronounciation workshops hosted by the professor. I am not sure I learned a ton but I would definitely recommend for a chill class

I've taken two of Anne's film classes (offered in the spring semesters) and they're with the French department so you need to know French to watch the films (they do have subtitles) and to understand every speaking, but you can write your essays in English if you're not a French major/minor. You can also do your midterm in English as well, if you want. The classes are about 2 hours long (it was always at 2:40pm, as well) and you generally watch a film and then discuss it for several days before watching another film. Anne is a nice professor and very laid back. There is relatively little for you to do in this class besides watch films, discuss what you just watched, and then watch more films. In one class she gave us a group project (which was running the discussion about the film that day) and in another class she gave us an open ended sort of essay that we wrote up as a grade besides just our midterm and the final paper. She is incredibly lax in what you can write about, and her midterms are open ended enough to include all the films you've seen up to that point. Midterm is 3 essay prompts, and you pick two. Generally doesn't take the entire class period, so you could be out a bit early. I used this class for some of my Barnard 9 ways, and also it was just a fun way to spend my time. Sometimes it was boring or hard to focus, but I think that was mostly due to the length of t…

I LOVE ANNE. You absolutely should take her class. Not just this class either. You should take all of her classes. What's really great about this class in particular though is that it will perfect your french pronunciation. Does this sound hard? Even impossible? It's not. And Anne is just the professor to do it. She creates sort of a "safe space" environment unintentionally. That is to say that yes she will correct your pronunciation in front of the whole class (OMG 9 WHOLE PEOPLE), but that happens to everyone. EVERYONE. So it's fine. It's in no way humiliating, and it helps the other students hear mistakes (which is sort of the first step towards perfect pronunciation.) Really this class is like first grade phonetics. But you're in college. So I think you can handle it, whoever you are. And now a short list of things that are great about Anne: --She's the sweetest teacher ever --She switches between English and French, so if something isn't clear to you in French, she'll explain it in English --She speaks SUPER clearly, exaggerating sounds so that you start to get a really good sense of what words you've always been mispronouncing without knowing it actually sound like --She just an all-around baller

The title of this course is deceptive. You don't learn about French women writers. You learn about four women who fit one very specific movement within 20th century Marxist France. Granted, fascinating and influential writers, but jeez. This is all about hearing Boyman namedrop. She lectures constantly even though discussion is really a better format for this course; she expects you to be familiar with Robbe-Grillet and Sartre without assigning them in the course. No one wants more reading, but more assignments really would have been better for overall course cohesion. Classes were endless. Sometimes they would turn into a one-on-one conversation between the prof and her favorite student; that's a sign you need to be doing something different in your teaching method. Her corrections of your French are appreciated and not as harsh as other reviewers seem to think. The final paper was thrown at us with little direction, and since all we learned was that Sarraute and Lacan exist--not how to read them side by side, these are some reading strategies, these are some criticisms, just they exist and this is wonderful, right? (Boyman always ends her sentences with a question, either "yeah?" or "right?" as though she thinks she's inviting you to disagree with her... ha!)--I floundered. I think some students adored her, but I'd find a different class next time.

Best French class I've ever had. Anne encourages discussion and disagreement, even with herself. The workload was more than fair, and the classwork was exactly on the level of difficulty of the midterm & final.

This course is a soft introduction to translation that gave me the skills I needed to take more difficult translation courses across the street. Professor Boyman is really bright and enjoys teaching. If you don't learn anything from her class, it's because you are not listening attentively. Prof. Boyman will not coerce you into learning, but she frequently goes on tangents rich with cultural and linguistic information. These are invaluable to the learning experience.

1 midterm paper, 1 final paper, 1 presentation re: the presentation --- about half way into the semester the class divides into groups of 1-2 students (mostly pairs, maybe 1 student alone iirc) and takes a day to a few days to analyze one of the given poems. expectations/ how you should present/analyse it is made pretty clear and basically mimics the first few weeks of group analysis midterm paper was in class (2 prompts to choose from, pick 1, everyone must do the last prompt, all about baudelaire/his writing; 2 about his work more conceptually (e.g., ideas he pioneered/ him in literary context), 1 about 2 of the poems we analyzed in class) overall really easy. didn't really do any of the readings pre-class except for the presentation on my poem & prof is very forgiving time-wise. love her as a person too

I absolutely adored this class with Mme Boyman! It was very interactive, we were encouraged to talk and share opinions. Some other reviews say she’s harsh in correcting but that wasn’t true from my experience at all. She would correct us if we made a mistake and explain how to fix it, whether it be in pronunciation or grammar. As for what we did in class, we watched and discussed three French movies or watched class presentations. Overall, this class was enjoyable and useful, and I highly recommend it!