She is a very kind professor with a welcoming energy. However, I did not find this to be an easy GE. You have to watch long movies in Yiddish (with English subtitles) which took up a lot of time. The weekly quizzes were very detailed. I ended up having to take it P/NP, as it was becoming too stressful for no reason... If you are patient and eager to learn about Yiddish film then this could totally be the class for you! But I wouldn't necessarily call Yiddish10 an 'easy'' GE.

I recommend taking this class if you want a low-stress GE. However, the workload isn't exactly "light" but it is very much doable and more time consuming rather than difficult.

Lecture:
3hr lecture w/ camera on that takes once a week with no discussion. The lecture is more discussion based rather than note-based. I recommend taking notes bc the slide material appears on quizzes and the final. The class is very long and zoom fatigue is veryy real but the material is pretty interesting.

Workload:
Most weeks you'll watch 1-2 Yiddish films were are 1-3 hours long EACH. If you watch them in 1.5x it shouldn't be too bad since most films are easy to follow. There's also a good amount of reading which I recommend skimming and taking some notes. There's 3 short papers which were all less than 2 pages are graded very fairly as long as you show evidence that you watch the films and did the readings.

Quizzes/Midterm/Final:
3-4 quizzes which are pretty easy as long as you pay attention. A good thing about this class is that there's NO MIDTERM. The final consists of a final exam and take-home final which aren't bad at all.

I am not artistically minded, and because of that I always felt out of place here. You will have to take quizzes most weeks about the movies you watched and articles or chapters you read for that week's class. However, Professor Koral is very nice and easy to talk to about the material.

Be prepared to contribute to detailed artistic discussions of old Yiddish films (mostly silent). I wasn't, so I took it P/NP.

Professor Koral is so sweet and obviously cares a ton about the course material. I (having little to no experience with either Yiddish or Jewish culture in the past) learned a ton and found the class quite fun!

Watching the films did feel quite tedious at times, as there was often 3-4 hours worth to watch each week. It was honestly more work than I thought it would be, especially because I took notes on all of the films (plot points, dialogue, etc.). However, the notes really came in handy for the essays and discussion in class.

Also, there were quite a lot of weekly readings, but I usually skimmed the history-heavy ones and did fine. There were a couple of stories/plays to read, and I read those more carefully and took notes (which I think paid off).

The grading scale was like this:
30% class participation
30% papers (3 of them)
20% quizzes
20% take-home final

I'm pretty sure almost everyone got the full class participation grade. The class each week is basically completely discussion-based, with tons of opportunities to speak your thoughts about if you enjoyed the week's film or other points. I'd say if you speak up once or twice each class you should be fine.

I thought the papers were pretty leniently graded. As long as you show that you really watched the films, thought about the essay prompt, and responded to the questions in the prompt your grade should be ok. She also really cares about things like grammar/spelling, so run your essay through a grammar checker or friend to double check that things are good. I'm not the best writer (I'm south campus major with rusty writing skills) but I did pretty well on the essays.

The quizzes were probably the hardest part about the class, as there were often pretty specific questions from the slides in class or details about the films. Each quiz was ~10 minutes, and was comprised of 6–8ish multiple choice questions. I highly recommend you take notes on the slides as she goes through them (especially numbers or lists of facts, as some questions are directly taken from points on the slides), and taking notes on the films also helps a lot.

The take-home final wasn't bad at all IMO. There was an essay portion consisting of two short-response questions, each 1/2 page max. Our questions were more or less about what you got out of the class, and the questions were released at the beginning of finals week (and graded super leniently). The other part was 30(I think?) multiple choice questions, mostly asking about facts from the movies or general questions about Yiddish culture. They were pretty basic (especially if you took notes on the films) and there was plenty of time to finish them.

Overall this class was more work than I expected, but the work was more on the tedious side than difficult. It was an interesting class and some of the films were really enjoyable.

Such a wonderful and kind professor. I read the other bruin walk reviews and I must confirm them. Professor Koral is very sweet and really wants her students to learn instead of just trying to earn a grade. Her thoughts are clear and her passion shines through.
The films are enjoyable, but the readings at times can be long.
Easy GE if you're taking a heavy workload. If you have the chance, take her class. Enjoy.

This class was pretty dope, especially for someone with an eastern-european Jewish background who was looking to learn more about Yiddish culture (most people in this class aren't Jewish though so don't think you'll stand out if you aren't). Films were solidly interesting and Miri really knows her stuff. You do have to put some time in and watch a movie once a week though (beyond the ones you watch in class) which is like 2-3 hours. I wouldn't say it's an easy A but if you put the basic time in it's a pretty sure bet.

This was a very enjoyable class and the lightest courseload of any class I've taken. Professor Koral is occasionally dry, but her passion shows! There was an online Yiddish movie and a few readings every week. These movies were surprisingly fun and refreshing to watch for 1930s movies (they had great subtitles and I watched them at 1.5x speed). There were memorable musical numbers and scenes that were just HILARIOUS.

There is also a required cultural event (my friends attended this hour-long concert by a renowned Yiddish composer with lively and varied keyboard and string instruments). Professor Koral also took us to a few talks hosted by the Yiddish department. There were two essays total and a short final exam with straightforward questions. I recommend making a study guide with other students; it's actually quite fun to review the content of the movies and the class together! It's also entirely possible to cram the readings before hand.

This was a fun class! I was very pleasantly surprised by this class as a Computer Science major who likes to optimize for efficiency and gets bored easily. A year after taking it, I look back at it fondly as a memorable class where I learned something. Would recommend to anyone!

Professor Koral is brilliant. Honestly, I took this class because I saw that it wasn't very hard to do well. That isn't because you can do whatever - it's because Professor Koral will sincerely make you passionate about Yiddish cinema.

Definitely take this class if you can. Learning about Yiddish film and cinema from a brilliant woman who takes immense amounts of pride in her religion and culture is fantastic. The films are interesting and an important part of history. You write five papers that she grades very fairly, and you have a take-home final that you can pull from your papers to answer questions.

From my perspective, professor Koral is really underrated here. She's nice, patient, and helpful. The film watching is a major part of this class, and most of the films are black and white talkies from the 1930s. (The quality of subtitles is not very good.) If you don't enjoy this kind of films, you might find it a little boring. However, as long as you have a basic understanding of their plots, which are all really simple to digest, you are good to go.
As for the essays, make sure to proofread before submitting them.
Do take notes because there will be a take-home final which covers some details that you can't just memorize all of them.