This class needs to be revised by the department immediately. The content had the potential to be interesting and challenging, but the textbook and lectures seemed dated. For an upper division class, the Korean language aspect was surface level and the linguistic analysis aspect was nonexistent. Most of the class are either native or intermediate/advanced L2 speakers but the class seemed geared towards people with no Korean experience at all.

The professor was disorganized. To have any help or something fixed you would need to ask her multiple times both in person and email. The pacing of lectures was incredibly slow and we would end up seeing the same slides over and over again. Going to lecture just felt like a waste of time. The assignments were just busy work from the textbook which really had no connection to lecture content. The final paper wasn't even discussed until week 9 where there was no guidelines, no rubric, and no example paper. We gave presentations during week 10 of our research but she would constantly interrupt them to give her own comments. Participation is graded through "exit tickets" which just stopped happening after week 7.

When I tell you EVERY fiber of my being wanted to drop this class since week 2 but I needed an upper div ALC so I just stuck with it haha

Preface: I have no ill will toward the Professor. Outside of teaching, she is genuinely kind and has a strong passion for teaching.

That said, this was literally the worst class I have ever taken at UCLA. The professor is severely disorganized, forgetful, and constantly changing her mind. A few examples of this: when class began the BLEARN had not been updated since the last time she had taught the class, spring of 2020. In addition to this, we did not receive an updated syllabus for the current quarter until week 3 and even then none of the dates had any bearing on the assignments we were asked to complete. Around week 4 she randomly informed the class that we would have a group presentation project on the articles we were reading. When it came time for my group to go we were delayed three weeks because she kept forgetting we hadn't gone. These instances were among many more experienced.

TLDR: if you need to take this class for your major (like I did) please go in prepared not to know what it going on. If she forgets to grade an assignment or you need to ask her a question you will literally need to pester her and email her until something gets done. Good luck.

Professor Sohn was very sweet, but she is very disorganized. She would often mix up due dates, or would have contradicting instructions for the assignments between her syllabus and her slides which made it confusing and a bit frustrating. However, she is very lenient on grading and often extended deadlines.

selling textbook $20 brand new - *************

selling textbook $20 brand new- *************

I had a very negative experience with a professor at UCLA. Unfortunately, I found her teaching to be outdated, and she seemed to lack a clear understanding of the subject matter. Moreover, she struggled with basic technology tools like Bruinlearn, which made it difficult for students to follow the course. What was worse is that she penalized students even when they followed the prompt, and her grading was inconsistent and riddled with errors. Despite students raising these concerns, she refused to take responsibility and instead blamed students for her mistakes. Even when I visited her during office hours, she was not open to communicating effectively. I strongly advise against taking her class.

Professor Sohn is possibly one of my favorite professors at UCLA. Especially with the context of COVID-19 and everything being online, she was exceptionally understanding of students' circumstances and structured her class in a way that wasn't overwhelming but still digestible. The course content is pretty consistent with any linguistics class but Professor incorporates interesting data from Korean culture (e.g. mukbang, variety shows, etc.) to make the class more interesting. There is a "required" textbook for the class, but you can possibly get by with just the articles and slides she posts online. I would highly recommend taking this class with Professor Sohn if you're at all interested in Korean culture and/or linguistics.