Stefan is an amazing professor and such a wholesome person. I thought I would eventually stop watching lecture since everything was online but I found myself WANTING to go because he made the content interesting and easy to understand. His positive energy was so infectious, even through Zoom. I couldn't help but smile when he would geek out over the content or when the class taught him how to use "yeet" in a sentence. The only downside of this class was the Zoom chat. Students would often ask highly specific questions that had little to no correlation to the content or provide unsolicited facts that always disrupted the flow of the lecture. Like...take that stuff to office hours or go to Google.com. Anyway, the homework and exams were fairly easy and straightforward. The homework was always similar to the examples during lecture and the exams had the same format as the homework. So, if you understand the worksheets that done during lecture you should be totally fine. However, it's very easy to make mistakes since you are often repeating the same process for several questions in a row. I recommend doing the homework then coming back to it after a while to catch any small errors that could get you docked. This is pretty important since homework is weighted so heavily. Overall, I think this class is pretty interesting and not stress-inducing whatsoever. However, if you plan on taking this class as a GE and you don't have any interest in linguistics at all, you may not find it interesting.

amazing prof amazing class! workload is super manageable and hws and exams are super straightforward (and open note)

I took this class to fulfill my linguistic/philosophical analysis and cannot recommend it enough. Stefan is the best Professor and my favorite I have had thus far. He is knowledgeable, explains all concepts well, and is genuinely the nicest person ever. This class was also incredibly easy and is by far the easiest class I have taken at UCLA. Weekly homework assignments are posted Wednesday night and are due Monday before lecture. The homework typically took an hour or less to complete and was relatively easy to complete if you went to lectures and did the handouts he provided in class. Although lectures and discussions are not mandatory and you probably could still do well in the class without going, I would recommend going as it did help me understand the concepts. There was one midterm and a final. Both were easy; the midterm average was an A and the average on the final was an A-. The exams were very similar to the homework and handouts as well. Overall, I highly recommend taking this class with Stefan, he is the best!

Stefan is the best and sweetest professor I have ever had! I have nothing but good things to say about him and this course. I felt that Stefan made the material fun and engaging and I enjoyed learning it. Grades are broken down into 35% homework, 30% midterm, and 35% final, meaning that the homework is a pretty big portion. I felt that the homework could be challenging at times and it is easy to miss points from making small mistakes, but it isn't too difficult and tends to reflect the handouts passed out during lecture. With the homework it is easy to ask for help from Stefan or any TA (my TA was Lucy and she was always super helpful). Although discussion sections aren't mandatory, it is helpful to understand the homework and to get extra practice. Both the midterm and final are very similar to the homework assignments and they are open note, so they were fairly easy. Overall, this class was great and I highly recommend taking it as an easy GE.

I cannot speak highly enough of this class and of this professor. To start, it was incredibly easy. The workload was one homework assignment per week that took me 15 minutes every time. They are direct paralles to the examples he goes over in class. Discussions are not mandatory but I would recommend going if the topics/examples are confusing for you that specific week. The exams are long, but they are also direct parallels of the lecture examples and homework questions so it essentially just feels like a long homework assignment. They are open note and you can bring as many pages as you'd like. I personally printed the answer keys to the homework assignments but found I didn't need them at all. I would recommend printing the sheet that has the pronunciations of common English IPA symbols as it is useful for transcription. The course material itself was easy and for me, very interesting. But the biggest catch is the professor

After 6 quarters at UCLA, professor Keine is by far my favourite professor so far. He is clearly knowledgeable and excited about the topics and it is evident in the lectures. He makes them fun and interesting for the whole 2 hours (he does also give a 10 minute break about halfway through) so I had no problems paying attention. I went to office hours once and he was super helpful. Professor Keine does everything with a smile and makes the class feel very inviting. He honestly deserves some kind of Nobel Prize or something.

I would 100% recommend to take Ling 20 with Professor Keine! I was originally worried about this class because some people recommend to take Ling 1 as preparation, but I found that this wasn't necessary and the workload was definitley manageable. Keine is a clear and concise lecturer and you can tell he is passionate about linguistics. Outside of lecture, there are 8 problem sets which take 30mins - 1hr to complete as well as a 24h midterm and final. Discussion was not mandatory and the TAs helped to review the content from that week and answer any questions. Both the TAs and the professor held office hours that were helpful as well. But, I would say that this class is pretty technical and meant to prepare you for upper division ling classes. If you're looking for a one off GE or more interested in things such as dialects, sociolinguistics, etc. I would recommend take Ling 1 instead as we really didn't cover that as much in this course.

Amazing professor! So easy to understand in lecture, very kind, and wants you to succeed. Office hours were extremely helpful. Lectures were constantly interesting because the way he teaches and speaks draws you in and makes you curious.
Even if the pandemic caused everything to be remote, thanks to Professor Keine, my first quarter at UCLA turned out to be awesome.
If you complete all of the homeworks, you will do well on the final. It is like one long homework and it is a PDF that you have 24 hours to fill in.

10/10 class and 10/10 professor.
Ling 20 is described often as the "technical" version of Ling 1&2. I found it pretty easy during COVID, coming from a CS background (took this as a GE). I rarely went to lecture (even though I really like the professor... it was just too time-consuming) and sometimes watched the recordings. Much more useful for studying and for problem sets was reading the slides and referencing certain linguistic "algorithms" or rules that were clearly printed there. Doing the problem sets with that method was very easy, since the PS are mostly formulaic. Midterm and final were like long problem sets - exactly similar question formats.
I consider what I learned very useful, and this class was an effective way of teaching it.

Great professor. Wicked easy GE, 8 homework assignments that are easy if u pay attention in lectures. Lectures are recorded so u can watch at ur convenience. Trigg is a great TA! Midterm was just like homework problems. Nothing out of left field with this class. Keine is so sweet and wants every student to understand what we're learning and is willing to help. 10/10 recommend!