French · Columbia University
Raina Udhen is so sweet. She is really a good soul. Enthusiastic about the class and the language, she is generous with her time and her patience comes across as genuine and unforced. The course material and assignments, i believe, are set by the department; good literature, but the paper topics seemed at times, uninspiring. There is not a terrible amount of time spent reviewing grammar, rather papers are geared towards analysis of the literature. Good news: pretty good reads and wonderful teacher
Raina is an amazing french teacher. Not only does she know her stuff, she makes everyone feel at ease to participate in class. I know she is only a TA, but I hope that she keeps teaching a while so I can take another class by her.
Raina is extremely nice and energetic. She speaks mostly in french, but if she notices blank faces, she switches to English. Class was mostly group activities with occassionally a short grammar lesson. The tests and exams are very straight-forward, and I felt really prepared for them. Before tests she gives review sessions, and if you ever need help she answers her emails promptly.
Workload- on the heavy side, though nothing too unexpected for the sort of advanced language course. (papers and reading and grammar excercises and a few tests)
Pretty easy, quizzes every week, essays every other week (corrections in the opposite weeks), readings, generally grades pretty easily.
Raina is an absolutely wonderful person. Everyone in my class loves her and her enthusiastic manner. She's lighthearted, but she also has an excellent command of French and is very well organized and prepared. Group activities and readings are always relevant and well-thought out. ... I only wish she could shut this one kid up in the class who always raises his hand and drags on forever because he doesn't know how to say a single word in french. "et alors, je suis, 'comment dit-on ', fatigue, ensuite, 'comment dit-on.."." But that's not her fault, Raina's wonderful and I highly recommend her! She's very accessible and very patient.
Workbook due weekly, occassional essays, tests, mid-term, and final. She's very understanding around mid-term and final time. You can re- submit your essays for a new grade, and she grades the workbooks loosely. Class participation is a must.
c'est juste ...workbook packets for each chapter which are somewhat lengthy, 4 papers ~300-350 words, 4 midterms, final. midterms are not difficult - if you study the material from the chapters you will do fine. as long as you attend class and stay caught up you will get a good grade.