Eric Leveau

Incredibly kind and talented French professor. Not only a nice guy, but also a very effective teacher. This is my 4th French course at CU, and he's my favorite professor--it was genuinely enjoyable and you learn a lot.

LOVE this guy. He's a native of France- so his knowledge of the language is obviously amazing- and he was able to contribute so much to our knowledge of French culture and our ability to know how French is really spoken. Despite his being French, though, he spoke the language during class with incredible clarity and at a slow pace so that we could understand what he was saying-- one day we had a substitute (who incidentally was a grad student and not a French native) who was completely hot-shotting it with her French accent and rapid dialogue, and we couldn't understand a damn word she said. Additionally, Eric is just absolutely adorable and really enthusiastic about teaching-- and is also really sympathetic about how hard it can be to start learning a language. Take a class with him if you can!

I really feel the need to disagree with the previous review. Eric Leveau was an extremely knowledgeable, wonderful professor. His in-depth knowledge of the literary and political history surrounding each book or play was very helpful in understanding each work. He also made himself very available to students. I would frequently email him late at night with a question on a paper topic or simply a vocabulary word I wasn't able to find in the dictionary; a few hours later, I would find an email from him giving me not only the definition, but also a page-long story on the history of that particular word. Leveau does his best to keep classes interesting. He has a great sense of humor and actually cares about his students as human beings, often taking 5 minutes at the beginning of class to tout the study-abroad program, the French major, or the Columbia blood drive. He pushes his students to participate and be enthusiastic about the course, but understands when the hefty workload keeps a student from finishing every page of the week's reading. Leveau really brings life to the course.

Just like all the other French classes at Columbia--not too bad, very predictable tests.

Par for the course of language classes. Weekly workbooks and quizzes, some one-page compositions, two oral exams, and 4 tests throughout the semester. He is very laissez-faire (ha) about submission deadlines, but please don't take advantage of him-- he's just such a sweetheart. Grading seemed definitely fair to me.

Wow. I don't even know where to start with this man: let me just say that he is without doubt THE worst French teacher that I have ever had. Leveau's class is highly unorganized- every lecture seems the same, no matter what work the class is reading. He ask the same question about three times EVERY class about every book: "Est-ce qu'il y a des choses que vous avez trouves frappants?" Leveau failed and failed again at getting the students interested in the class- partially his fault and partially the fault of the course itself, which is in my opinion and in the opinions of many others, a complete waste of time. The frequent periods of deafening silence in the class were horribly painful. Although the fact that he is a native French speaker is a plus, I feel that my AP French Lit teacher in high school was indescribably better and much more enthousiastic. I am not taking any French classes this semeter because I just need a break from the language after Leveau! This course is absolutely horrible and so is Leveau as a teacher. He is a nice man, but one cannot help but feel sorry for him because of his lack of teaching ability. This is definitely a class to avoid. If you are signed up for it, GET OUT WHILE YOU STILL CAN!

Three 4-5 page papers (fairly graded), midterm and final (which you can do very well on provided you've been taking good notes all semester)

Completely unrealistic. WAY too much reading. One Monday, Leveau assigned us to read over 200 pages in French for Wednesday. I don't even read that much in Lit Hum and I am a native English-speaker! There are 3 papers with HORRIBLY ambiguous topics, which Leveau grades mercilessly. And don't worry, although the syllabus states that the papers are to be 3-4 pages, Leveau demands them to be 5 pages. Midterm and final are, however, relatively easy.