John Mcwhorter

I went into this class largely for the professor, and that expectation was fully met. Professor McWhorter is genuinely engaging, funny, and one of those rare lecturers who can make a large lecture hall feel lively just by talking. His style is very conversational and anecdotal, which makes lectures enjoyable but also means they can drift off topic or feel loosely structured at times. While the big ideas of linguistics are clearly communicated, the methodology behind identifying and solving linguistic problems is not always explicitly laid out in lecture, which can make it easy to feel a bit lost when sitting down to do the homework. That said, the content itself is interesting, approachable, and intellectually rewarding even for students without a linguistics background. Ultimately, this is a class you take as much for the experience of listening to McWhorter as for the subject matter, and he is absolutely the reason the course stands out.

I took this as a CogSci major to complete my Linguistics requirement. I genuinely think that Professor McWhorter is a fun and engaging lecturer, BUT with that being said, the lectures still felt useless to the homework assignments. There are no lecture notes, majority of our lectures was him solely talking (it can be easy to miss things that he's talking about, even if you're writing notes). So when it came to HW assignments or quizzes, you are often left feeling confused and have to resort to make time to visit the TAs during OHs. The TAs truly are the stars of this class, but it sucks that you have to make time to visit them consistently because they should be a supplement of your understanding, not the sole reason why you are understanding the content. Overall, it is easy to feel lost in the class because of this sort of teaching. The exams are straightforward, but you really can't rely on the lectures to help you, which makes it seem difficult.

This review is for the American Studies class, Language Contact. Let me preface this by saying it was definitely not an American studies class, it focused very internationally on cases of language contact. As a philosophy major who is marginally interested in American studies and even less interested in linguistics, I would say this class lived up to my expectations. I found the actual content of the course to be a little banal and uninteresting, but I was really only here for McWhorter himself and he did not disappoint. A truly magnificent man, he was a pleasure to listen to in class and I thoroughly enjoyed his moderation and narrative of the class structure. Being a seminar, it was very loosely focused and besides the day's lesson plan, it was always just a rambling linguistic conversation. Having absolutely no linguistic knowledge going into the course, I really struggled with some of the assigned papers. This was relatively inconsequential as we were never quizzed on them, but we referred to them occasionally in class and I would have gotten more out of the course as a whole if I had had more linguistic knowledge. The one thing I will say is that McWhorter is occasionally a little too hands off with the class. He often deviated from the (already vague) syllabus and gave no definitive structure as how the class would be graded or what the final project was really supposed…

McWhorter is a very engaging lecturer who keeps lectures interesting through a mixture of semi-relevant humorous digressions and videos and sound clips he found online. He has a nice voice and his explanations are generally very clear. However, I thought this class was not as organized as his Introduction to Linguistics class. Sometimes he would go on tangents which would make it hard to keep track of what was going on. Furthermore, McWhorter would sometimes stop lecturing and spend the rest of class having students share their own experiences, which I didn't really care for since 1. some English majors would try way too hard to impress McWhorter or to play the contrarian and 2. who cares what other people think? I'm here to learn from McWhorter, not to spend half of class listening to other people hear their voices. While the material is interesting, if you're looking for a challenge, you probably won't get one from this class, since the grade for the class is based on only three exams. As long as you study, you will be fine.

I decided to post this after reading the previous reviewer describing Professor McWhorter as "what every professor should be". Granted, the class was an engaging discussion on current events and questions that seem to have no one right answer, and many of these discussions got heated really quickly. However, other than in the first ten minutes of class and when I was writing my weekly response paper, there was no mention of the texts or how they related in anything less than the most obvious way to what we were talking about. Perhaps because the professor I had for CC the fall semester took a completely different approach, I could not appreciate this style. There wasn't much said in class that illuminated, explained, or made concrete what we read at home. In my opinion, most of the discussions we had could have been conducted without having read the books. All that said, Professor McWhorter remained an entirely interesting, charming and understanding person. This review should help if you know which style of Contemporary Civilization you prefer.

I learned about the different ways that language has been changed in, persecuted, or been brought to America. I learned about how marginalized communities use language. I learned why some languages die and some survive. I am now able to engage with linguistic ideas and read linguistic papers.

How to conduct my own independent research project and work as a freelance researcher in a field that fascinates me.

I was not at all expecting to like this class at all. It was one of my major requirements so I decided to get it out of the way. BEST CHOICE. Professor McWhorter is hilarious AND he's great at teaching the material. Everything is presented in a way that is easy to understand and all the TAs are amazing. The material isn't easy, but it's definitely not hard, and if you go to office hours it's hard to not get an A.

I took this class under the impression that Professor McWhorter was a must-not-miss lecturer. While he was definitely entertaining, and the lectures were fun, I often found myself confused when I sat down to actually try and take notes or do my homework. While he leads into topics with fun anecdotes, I had a lot of trouble understanding the methodology of each topic, particularly as the semester went on and the textbook became inconsistent with how he was teaching different topics. A lot of the time, he would introduce the day's lecture with an example of the topic, but not actually address how to identify the topic or really any general methodology, so I was guessing every week about what we were actually supposed to be learning. Office hours were a total necessity for this class–I didn't prioritize them early on in the semester and my grade really took the hit. The problem sets each week are more difficult than you think and nearly impossible to do alone, even with the textbook and online help, but the TAs were super helpful and understanding and walk everybody through all the questions if you make time. I took this my very first semester at Columbia, and it's definitely a must-not-miss if you already know you're interested in linguistics/have some baseline knowledge or want to take a fun course that you aren't invested in, but it was also frustrating when the lectures felt…

For Linguistics Majors (yes we exist): This class might be the chillest way to get through the language contact requirement. There's weekly readings of somewhere between 20 and 60 pages, all interesting. McWhorter facilitates conversation well, but you sometimes feel it's a 50/50 split of academic discussion on sociolinguistics in America and hanging out with him. Notes to others (often American Studies people): There's a lot of underlying linguistics stuff in the readings/discussion that AmerStudies people in my section found to be new, but it was definitely nothing insurmountable. I found that the mixed crowd of linguistics and Amer studies kids brought a richness to the discussion. The final paper is easiest when you start getting sources a month before it's due. Choose a topic that fits your interests. Also, he's not kidding about getting it in on time.