This class was a disaster from start to finish. As my first class as a transfer to UCLA, I had high expectations. I was quickly met with disappointment in the course and professor. First, I want to make it clear that the professor is a sweet person and this is not a personal criticism. However, there is no reason for her to be a professor. It is so evident that she only cares about her research, and that's why she's here. The lectures are extremely disorganized, even the TA's have no idea what is going on, which even led to some of them arguing with her during lecture about her offering extra credit opportunities to some students but not others. She made it seem like we would need to know IPA, and made us take assessments that didn't end up counting towards our grade. The class consists of one huge group research project, which is such a recipe for disaster. We were supposed to find people in LA to analyze the speech patterns of different neighborhoods, but it was such a high expectation for people to coordinate with each other that a majority of the groups falsified their data to get an A. Overall, the only thing I learned from her class is to check reviews of professors first, if I knew what a disaster it would be I would never have taken it. Also that big group project I mentioned, they didn't grade it!!! They ended up just submitting final grades and not entering in the individual grades. I would not be surprised if she gave people A's to cover up for the fact that the class was a disaster. Also she wanted us to read parts of her own book and review it, which is SUCH a turnoff for me from professors, and it plays into that anthropologist stereotype where all they want to do is brag about their research and have students stroke their ego for them. Overall, if you want an A take the class (I didn't go for four weeks and still got an A.) But if you want stimulating material and a professor who cares about teaching, this class is not for you. What a poor introduction to UCLA.

Take this class if you want an EASY A+ in a GE. Don't take this class if you want to actually learn something. Fall 2019, Professor Mendoza-Denton reorganized the class, so old reviews are not applicable anymore. Basically, this is a linguistic anthropology class now.

The entire quarter, Professor Mendoza-Denton had no idea what was going on in the class. Lectures were unorganized, and there was little to no communication with TA's. My TA, Yanina, was very sweet and helpful, and all the TA's want to help you succeed in the class. Your grade in the class is based on a few homework assignments and a group project. The group project is pretty time consuming, because you have to do research and actually go out somewhere in Los Angeles and interview two people. So choose your group mates wisely. But, even if you have a bad group, the grading on the project is so lenient that as long as you follow the TA's guidelines and work with them during office hours, you will get an A+ in the class.

I thought what we discussed in class had potential to be really interesting, and the group project seemed fun, but the lack of organization and clarity in the class really destroyed any interest I had in the class.

Very good class highly recommend. Make sure you get good group mates that are willing to go out and do the research early because its a lot of work but very doable if you get on it early. My TA was awesome and helpful, use them.

I never write reviews but I felt the need to tell whoever is reading this now - don't waste your time taking this class. From start to finish, the course was disorganized and useless. The wonderful TA's ended up grading our final projects easily, but the amount of stress this class created for us students was ridiculous. By far the worst class I have taken at UCLA thus far. Take this course with a different professor.

This class was super different; I don't think I learned much in this class after week 2. She was super nice and everything but her lectures weren't engaging at all. She encouraged us to do the readings but we were never quizzed on anything so no one ever read. The group project was pretty easy if you just go out and interview someone, but then again I got lucky and was placed into a group with people who actually cared (not many did). Super easy A, it was just really annoying having to come to class when I could've been doing something more worth my time.

Norma is honestly a really interesting person. The fact that she actually went out and embarked on this in-depth field work is quite impressive and gives her a lot of credibility. But oh my gosh is this class boring. Albeit, I'm a STEM person through and through, but STILL. Towards the end of the quarter, I couldn't even will myself to stay until the end of the lectures. The material covered in lectures, as well as the readings are not relevant AT ALL to the actual work that you need to put into this class. So basically, LISTEN UP EVERYONE WHO ACTUALLY CARES ABOUT GETTING AN EASY A AND NOT LEARNING ANTHROPOLOGY:
You don't need to do the readings. You don't need to pay attention to lectures (I just did online shopping--I would still go, in case she does like a random stupid exit slip or whatever). You don't need to worry about whatever phonetics is or how the best way to conduct an interview. All you need to do is put in the work for the final GROUP essay at the end. Select a neighborhood that's close to campus. Take a few pictures and make a few mental observations (about diversity, dialect, and the lot). When assigning tasks in your group, choose to do transcription! That way you don't have to actually interview anyone! You just take like 15 minutes to type the audio recording of the interview (transcription is wayyy easier than Norma will let on in class). Bulk up your portion of the paper with subjective analysis that the TAs can't question. And there you have it! An easy A in a necessary GE!

Norma herself is a sweetheart. The class would constantly laugh and smile throughout lectures. Norma has no intention of stressing out her students whatsoever. She kept minimizing workload throughout the quarter and she broke down "difficult" concepts from the "required" readings in her slides. My TA, Hannah Carlan, was irritable and confused, but easy enough for me to never pay attention and still get an A in the class.

This class was one of my first at UCLA, and I honestly wish it wasn't. Don't let the grade deceive you, this was a mess of a class that ended up being graded easily and I did extra credit for. From the beginning, the professor confessed that our class was a lab rat for her ginormous research project and we would all be doing extensively long group research papers for her. This was, to say the least, very annoying.

The research project's guidelines kept on shifting and changing as the quarter went on. Due to extensive complaints from the class (which was mostly freshmen I think) and the TAs begging the professor, the paper ended up being cut down. We didn't know exactly what we needed to do until week 9. I spent a shit ton of money on Ubers to scout the location I was researching and interviewing people there. However, I didn't have to buy any materials, so I guess it balances out?

Attending lecture was a complete waste of time. Professor. MD would go on tangents about her research or absolutely nothing that related to what we were doing. I remember a specific lecture where we talked about "sksksk" and "anna oop" for an hour... yeah. The professor is not a good lecturer, as she was acting like a lecture hall of 300 people was a graduate class of 20. Luckily, nothing that she said in class was of importance.

The TAs were godsends throughout all of this. They understood our struggles and tried to communicate them with the professor as much as possible, at one point they begged her to lower the word count for the group papers. The only gripe I have with them is the homework grading was very inconsistent; one TA would give out extensions and extra credit like nobody's business, while mine stuck strictly to the grading rubric. Felt really unfair when my friends in one TAs section got better grades than me just because their TA was "more chill."

Overall, this class was definitely a mess and I don't know if it will improve in later quarters. I got a good grade, but take it at your own risk.

Norma Mendoza Denton is truly a nice lady and she's very passionate about what she teaches. However, these are by far the most uninteresting, disorganized lectures about absolutely nothing relevant. I don't think I learned anything of value in the lecture, I was always confused, and she would just talk about random stuff for an hour. The final project was a complete disaster; no one was clear on what exactly we were supposed to do and what the entire point of the project was. The fact that it was initially supposed to be 60 pages is insane and I was never clear on what we were supposed to be doing until like week 9. Ulitmately, it felt like we were beinng used for Mendoza-Denton's personal research project, which was annoying. The only redeemable quality about this class was the TAs; they were actually helpful explaining topics, the project, reassuring us, and advocating for us (thank you Hannah Carlan). It's not the worst class if you're looking to get a decent grade, but don;t expect too much out of it.

Bullshit class. Writing a final essay right now about a district in LA and how our urban planning affects the cultures there or some shit, and how that can be linked to their languages, cultures, etc. Can't even find info on google, where do you expect me to get this information. I'm a bisecon major I don't care about this stuff. Take it if you want free time and an easy A but there's gonna be a little assignment that sucks ass every 2-3 weeks and a final paper that's gonna take me 3 hours to write but the topic is so boring its a drag.

This class is fine. It was a fuckton of work; we had to go out to an LA neighborhood and interview a local to analyze the way they speak. It was a cool idea, but poorly structured. The professor isn't bad, but she didn't have any organization in her class. If you're an anthro buff, this is the class for you. If you're a normal person, I'd smash that pass button.