I have a lot of respect for Professor Bascara because I can tell his thoughts are very complex and interesting. However, his lectures are incredibly dry and boring and you'll probably end up falling asleep on a couple occasions. The good thing about this class is that there is no midterm. My TA was also another plus, since he made the discussions very interesting.

I think its very important that you have to be interested in the course to succeed.

For the final, you should be pretty familiar with your readings and be able to think on the spot for the essay.

Overall, I really enjoyed this class because of its discussion when my TA elaborated further on Professor Bascara's complex ideas.

So I signed up for this class thinking it'd be an easy GE and all that good stuff. Turns out, there's a TON of readings to do so be prepared for that. His final is pretty much based off of the readings that are assigned. That said, there is no point in attending his lectures because his lectures are random and vague. One minute he's talking about racism, the next he's talking about mangoes. I suppose it would make more sense if I didn't fall asleep all the time. There was no lecture that I did not fall asleep in. The only lectures that I would recommend going to are the ones during the last few weeks, where he reveals essay prompts and example short answers.

There are two papers and one final and they're both based off the readings. Again, no point in attending lectures. I would recommend finishing the papers early to have your TA look over them. The final consists of two essays and 13 short answers, all from the readings so I would suggest you look over the readings in order to study.

Overall, I would not suggest taking this class. It was very broad and I felt that all we talked about was racism and activism. I got an A in the class but I had to spend a lot of time on the readings and on the weekly journals we had to do. I suppose it was fairly easy, but just prepare yourself for a lot of irrelevant busywork.

I took his Filipino Experience 133 class. He is very professional and a very easy grader. I turned in many assignments that I thought I did not do too well on but he always gave a better grade than I deserved. His format of the class is very easy. He makes you appreciate Filipinos and their history. TAKE HIM YOU WILL ENJOY IT AND AS LONG AS YOU SHOW UP and do the work YOU'LL GET AN A!!

Those who are taking this class, prepare to read multiple passages almost every week and write journals. The lectures are incredibly boring but Prof. Bascara does provide insight on the readings that can be used when doing journals. Getting a helpful TA is probably the most important thing in getting an A just because he/she will help you on your two essays (one short, one long) during the course. The workload isn't too bad if you read everyday but if you're the type of person to do all the readings before discussion, then life is gonna suck. Overall, this course wasn't super hard nor was it super easy. As long as you get your work checked before turning it in and actually read the assigned passages before midterm/final, then attaining an A is definitely possible.

Professor Bascara seems to be a very nice man but I had a difficult time relating his lectures to the materials that were covered. There are abundant readings (which was expected since the class was a 5 units course) and the professor expected us to understand the main points for each readings(many of them were pretty lengthy readings that took a lot of time). We had one additional book to read for the final.
Overall, the class was not extremely hard though was not worth of all time consumed reading the course articles. The lecture was unclear and unrelated that I almost felt like I was self-studying the matter. The words professor used were unnecessarily difficult and sophisticated, which made the lecture even more confusing and unclear.

I really liked this class, it was nice to study different Asian cultures and how it related and interacted with American culture.
Before Lectures the professor would play contemporary music and that really woke me up after 8am discussion. My TA, Diana, is really nice and helpful and she helped with the two essays (one short, one long). The lecture were from powerpoint slides and it helps to sit in the front or else you will fall asleep. He synthesizes ideas for you so pay attention and you can get ideas about the sometimes arbitrary readings.
There is a lot of reading but they are not too hard. There are one page journals due each week, one short essay (one page), one longer essay (5 pages), and a final that is really easy and only based on readings.

Although his lectures can be very dull and boring, Professor Bascara himself is a very kind person. He is not a well-articulated person during the lecture, but his exams are fairly easy. Also the two paper assignments will be graded by TAs. So, getting a chill TA is the most important thing for this class. If you visit him during office hour, he treats you well. I enjoyed a lot even though there were a lot of readings to do. I loved how I experienced different literatures of Asian American literature. Take this class if you can handle all the readings (:

Attending lectures is a waste of time. He throws in ideas and vocabularies that you've never heard of. It's impossible to take notes from his lectures, so people just do nothing or copy down the powerpoint slides that are uploaded.
His grading seems really generous though. It's good to have a good TA who grades easily. Final is difficult, but don't worry, the curve is generous.
This is a GE that requires a lot of work, but you can get an A if you do them all.

selling "aapi nexus: Asian Americans & Pacific Islanders Policy, Practice and Community" <-- Environmentalism: Expansions, connections, and Social Change for $6. Selling "
Amerasia journal: Los Angeles since 1992: Commemorating the 20th Anniversary of the Uprisings" for $6.

Fall 2011, Asian AM 30 (not Writing II)

Professor: He's decent. His lectures are essentially all of his thoughts, analysis, allusions, and syntheses of the readings. Because of this, lecture can get vague. He incorporates videos to his slides though, and that makes lectures interesting some times. However, there's a high risk of dozing off in class.

Class material: Content include literature about: Filipinos, Indians, Vietnamese, LGBT Asians, Japanese, Guam and a whole other of other types of Asians. There's a lot of reading, and a few movies you have to watch online too. I found it pretty interesting, so reading wasn't an issue.

Assignments: Weekly readings are like 3-10 different sources varying in length from short (1 page poem) to long (30 pages). Again, it's not much of an issue if you find them to be interesting, but if you don't like reading, then this could be a drag. Synthesize and analyze (but don't summarize) your readings into a weekly 1-page paper. Also, you have to do one group presentation about the readings and ask questions in that presentation. They were supposed to be like 15minutes, but some of mine went on for the whole class. No midterm, but there were two papers: a one-page one due Week 3ish and a 4-5 page one due 7-8th Weekish. Go to your T.A.'s for help.

Final: 15 free response questions regarding the readings and 3 essay prompts. Free response shouldn't be much of an issue if you did the readings + reviewed the night before; they can get a bit specific. The essay prompts are given throughout the last 4-5 lecture sessions. Outline the essays with good details before finals and you should be fine.

Grading: I got an A with A's on my weekly assignments, a B on first paper, a B+ on my second paper, and a ?? on finals. There seems to be a lot of people that got A's, including ones that did the readings last minute + didn't attend lecture, so this might fall into an "easy A" GE.