I loved this class! Laurence is an amazing person and professor. I was at first scared to take this class because I thought it was going to be too high a level of French for me but Laurence made it super manageable. There were a lot of assignments but they were all relatively easy. Most of the work just helped you study and improve your French anyway. The hardest material to read was the required book (La Daronne) but we discussed it a lot in class which made it much easier to understand. Exams weren't difficult at all if you review (most of the writing portions were on topics we talked about heavily in class). I would definitely recommend this class if you are interested in improving your French! I loved how small it was and how much one-on-one attention I could receive if I needed it. Laurence is the sweetest :)

For those unfamiliar with lower-division French language courses, this class is managed/supervised by the professor(s) listed (usually Laurence and Jansma) and taught by a TA, usually a doctorate student. This quarter, my TA was Connor, and he was awesome! I'd definitely recommend him to anyone wanting to take the course, especially since he did an excellent job of adapting the class to an online environment and the events that occurred throughout the quarter. The material is paced out well, the workload is appropriate, and the tests are fair.

Laurence is a gem in the French department (but honestly I'm surprised by how many good profs we have in the French department! I know this because I'm majoring in French)
You are blessed if you have her as your professor.

I hated this class. My professor was technically Laurence, but the section I had was taught by a TA and I never met Laurence, she just supervised the TA (Lernik) and gave him the materials. The class is super easy and incredibly boring, the textbook is required and way overpriced, and my TA was super disorganized and wasn't able to explain the concepts he was actually trying to teach. If you have to take this class, make sure to take the section taught by Laurence.

Definitely the best French teacher I've had thus far. She's amazing! I feel like I really learned something in her class and my French improved so much. Take her class!

she is such a great professor! its like u dont even know that you are learning stuff.. she makes it that comfortable for you. she encourages everyone to speak and sets up presentations that are easy to handle. the class is not too difficult but u need to stay on top of things.. getting behind is pretty easy.

I love this bitch....she is so French, very stylish, and of COURSE a FLAWLESS AWESOME PROFESSOR!

LUV U Laurence!

Don't listen to all the negative reviews that were posted above. I signed up for Prof Denie's French 5 class for Winter 2004 and we ended up getting a new prof in the 3rd week because of a mixup in the dept. Even though we've only had her for about 3 weeks, she's been the best French prof that I've had. Just like what a lot of the other reviews said, she does make the class fun and it's one of the main reasons why I decided not to take this qtr off from French and concentrate on poli classes. Yeah taking a break is the worst thing you can do, but just after 2 days in the class I liked it. The Nantes accent is beautiful and the assignments aren't that difficult. Prof Denie is supposed to be back next qtr (spring 2004), so I'm definately going to try and get in one of her classes. Our new prof...I just don't know. She seems like a nice person and nothing against non-native French speakers, but she has no accent. I don't know if she is originally from France or not, but I don't hear an accent and she stumbled over some words when speaking. I really recommend prof Denie.