SOCIOL 152
Comparative Acculturation and Assimilation
Description: Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour. Requisite: course 151. Comparison of acculturation and assimilation of Europeans, Africans, Mexicans, and Asians in the U.S., with emphasis on long-term cultural consequences of immigration. P/NP or letter grading.
Units: 4.0
Units: 4.0
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Most Helpful Review
Fall 2020 - This class was great. Andalon is a great instructor. He cares about the students and it was easy to get an A if you turned in the assignments. He divides the research paper up into 4 parts, and each part leads up to the final paper. He doesn't try to trick you - he just wants the students to learn and be passionate about the subject matter. I would definitely take a class from him again.
Fall 2020 - This class was great. Andalon is a great instructor. He cares about the students and it was easy to get an A if you turned in the assignments. He divides the research paper up into 4 parts, and each part leads up to the final paper. He doesn't try to trick you - he just wants the students to learn and be passionate about the subject matter. I would definitely take a class from him again.
Most Helpful Review
Look, I'm not going to use this space to attack the guy. He's obviously a smart person, and he has accomplished a lot in the field of sociology and immigration studies (check out his CV). HOWEVER, I do feel obligated to take advantage of what BruinWalk is meant for and hopefully provide an objective appraisal of RHL's teaching abilities for future students who are considering his class. The PROs: First of all, the people who claim that this class is difficult or who claim RHL is racist are probably the same students who I saw every day on FB or doing their online shopping during class.. and most likely the same people who are likely saying the same thing about all their professors who don't give them easy As. RHL is not boring (for the most part) and even tries to be pleasant. Having said that… The CONs: 1. There is A LOT of reading. Now, I'm not one to normally complain about this for a class since, hello, it IS A UNIVERSITY and we are COLLEGE STUDENTS. But I think it is a valid complaint when A) the professor makes you purchase "required" texts but then never assigns them, and B) he assigns you 100-200 pages of "required" reading per WEEK but never refers back to those same readings in his lectures. Dude, "required" versus "suggested"… look it up. 2. He has 3 surprise pop quizzes which total 30% of your final grade. At first glance, they might not seem difficult (10 pts. each, multiple choice, T/F, short answer) but they are a big pain in the butt because his quizzes are tricky (the questions are vague and the answers ambiguous at times). Oh, and he doesn't give them back, and it is super difficult to go over the results with him or his TA. 3. The FINAL makes up 50% of your grade. Don't expect a lot of assistance from RHL, and you better well pray you get a really helpful TA because you're pretty much on your own for the final paper (which is a 15 page ethnographic thesis paper). If you've done ethnographic studies before you should be fine… and even then it's a long-shot because RHL will deduct points for the smallest thing such as grammatical errors! Overall: The subject matter is interesting (or at least it was for me but this is my "specialty"), and RHL is definitely an expert in the field. However, despite his expertise, he is not an effective educator. I'm not saying I need someone to hold my hand through the course but I definitely don't need someone to make it harder for me to learn by placing these insane obstacles in front of me and call them "quizzes"... or assign an incredibly complex research paper that takes a lot more time than is given AND have so much of my final grade riding on it. Bottom line: An A is almost impossible to get in RHL's class. I busted my butt and I got a B. I like a challenge in my studies but this was ridiculous. I do not recommend RHL.
Look, I'm not going to use this space to attack the guy. He's obviously a smart person, and he has accomplished a lot in the field of sociology and immigration studies (check out his CV). HOWEVER, I do feel obligated to take advantage of what BruinWalk is meant for and hopefully provide an objective appraisal of RHL's teaching abilities for future students who are considering his class. The PROs: First of all, the people who claim that this class is difficult or who claim RHL is racist are probably the same students who I saw every day on FB or doing their online shopping during class.. and most likely the same people who are likely saying the same thing about all their professors who don't give them easy As. RHL is not boring (for the most part) and even tries to be pleasant. Having said that… The CONs: 1. There is A LOT of reading. Now, I'm not one to normally complain about this for a class since, hello, it IS A UNIVERSITY and we are COLLEGE STUDENTS. But I think it is a valid complaint when A) the professor makes you purchase "required" texts but then never assigns them, and B) he assigns you 100-200 pages of "required" reading per WEEK but never refers back to those same readings in his lectures. Dude, "required" versus "suggested"… look it up. 2. He has 3 surprise pop quizzes which total 30% of your final grade. At first glance, they might not seem difficult (10 pts. each, multiple choice, T/F, short answer) but they are a big pain in the butt because his quizzes are tricky (the questions are vague and the answers ambiguous at times). Oh, and he doesn't give them back, and it is super difficult to go over the results with him or his TA. 3. The FINAL makes up 50% of your grade. Don't expect a lot of assistance from RHL, and you better well pray you get a really helpful TA because you're pretty much on your own for the final paper (which is a 15 page ethnographic thesis paper). If you've done ethnographic studies before you should be fine… and even then it's a long-shot because RHL will deduct points for the smallest thing such as grammatical errors! Overall: The subject matter is interesting (or at least it was for me but this is my "specialty"), and RHL is definitely an expert in the field. However, despite his expertise, he is not an effective educator. I'm not saying I need someone to hold my hand through the course but I definitely don't need someone to make it harder for me to learn by placing these insane obstacles in front of me and call them "quizzes"... or assign an incredibly complex research paper that takes a lot more time than is given AND have so much of my final grade riding on it. Bottom line: An A is almost impossible to get in RHL's class. I busted my butt and I got a B. I like a challenge in my studies but this was ridiculous. I do not recommend RHL.
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Most Helpful Review
Spring 2021 - Professor Hernandez-Leon seems like a nice person, although I felt this class section lacked effort on his behalf. This class was asynchronous and he used reused lectures from a previous term which was alienating. Our lectures were always jumbled up out of order and the dates of our tests and assignments were confusing because of a lack of communication from him clarifying the wrong dates from his old lectures. It was disappointing to pay tuition to have a reused video lecture and a poorly organized discussion section, as well. I really felt like I was completely alone in this class. I never felt like Professor or the TA cared about our success in this class or put effort into making the discussion section/lecture helpful for their students. I feel like this ultimately hurt the students in this class, as many of us struggled with our difficult tests which she could have provided helpful insight into preparing for. He provided optional Q&A sessions which were never helpful either, as he would wait for a student to ask a question and then would spend 20 minutes or more answering each question for too long or getting off-topic. It was never a productive way to spend time. On top of that, the tests and quizzes accounted for 90% of our grades and were very difficult. I felt as if the questions were being designed to intentionally trick us and make us doubt what we've learned. The material for this course was not nearly as difficult to understand as the tests/quizzes reflected. I would not say the 90% of my grade they accounted for was a fair judgment of our understanding of the material. Sadly, I would not recommend this course to other UCLA students for these reasons, even though the material was interesting.
Spring 2021 - Professor Hernandez-Leon seems like a nice person, although I felt this class section lacked effort on his behalf. This class was asynchronous and he used reused lectures from a previous term which was alienating. Our lectures were always jumbled up out of order and the dates of our tests and assignments were confusing because of a lack of communication from him clarifying the wrong dates from his old lectures. It was disappointing to pay tuition to have a reused video lecture and a poorly organized discussion section, as well. I really felt like I was completely alone in this class. I never felt like Professor or the TA cared about our success in this class or put effort into making the discussion section/lecture helpful for their students. I feel like this ultimately hurt the students in this class, as many of us struggled with our difficult tests which she could have provided helpful insight into preparing for. He provided optional Q&A sessions which were never helpful either, as he would wait for a student to ask a question and then would spend 20 minutes or more answering each question for too long or getting off-topic. It was never a productive way to spend time. On top of that, the tests and quizzes accounted for 90% of our grades and were very difficult. I felt as if the questions were being designed to intentionally trick us and make us doubt what we've learned. The material for this course was not nearly as difficult to understand as the tests/quizzes reflected. I would not say the 90% of my grade they accounted for was a fair judgment of our understanding of the material. Sadly, I would not recommend this course to other UCLA students for these reasons, even though the material was interesting.
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