Victoria is a truly amazing professor! She makes lectures very interactive and engaging, and very happily answers people's questions. Her passion for the subject matter is very apparent- you can see the excitement in her eyes. Additionally, in her office hours, she is always extremely helpful and patiently clarifies concepts. She also replies to emails pretty promptly. If you have questions, don't hesitate to ask Victoria!

The homework is very manageable- there's about one assignment per week. It is graded on accuracy but it's not overly difficult and most of the answers can be found in the slides.

There are two open note exams, and again, are relatively easy if you (1) pay attention in class, (2) try on the homework, and (3) do some studying on your own time.

I really loved Victoria and her class and will miss having this class. What we learned was so interesting, and Victoria is such a caring professor so taking PORTGSE M35 is soo worth it!

This is a really hard class, definitely the hardest GE I’ve taken so, be careful. I spent hours in office hours every week because you really can’t get a passing grade if you don’t make a big effort to learn these things. It’s not a skim and do OK class and understanding is really important. The TAs were super helpful and accommodating, and held a ton of office hours meetings to go over the homeworks, which were really hard. The class was super interesting to me! But really hard for a GE, so keep that in mind.

Now I will start this review off by saying that Professor Mateu is a sweetheart- great professor who is extremely educated and passionate about her field. But don't be fooled by this class being offered up as a GE- it's apart of the Spanish Linguistics minor- and it shows as it's not for beginners (pace wise). The class moves by quickly- and when you get to the more difficult topics (such as syntax trees, x bars, and phonological rules/problems) you'll feel a bit stuck because her teaching style is more so her giving summaries as if she's trying to refresh the class on a topic they already know. The TA strike happened to be occurring at this time- so she was really lenient with her last 2 assignments (graded on completion), and if they're back by the time you take this class just know they're extremely helpful. Another thing about the class- learning about the history and breakdown of words and breaking sentences down into trees for about 2 hours twice a week is a bit boring.... but you do have to maintain focus because she moves so quickly- so take from this review what you will.

Overall, I loved this class and Professor Mateu!
Professor Mateu is an engaging lecturer who creates beautiful slides. This class is a really niche field (bilingual speakers and language acquisition), and I thoroughly enjoyed learning about it from someone so knowledgeable. In her slides, she shares numerous case studies as examples and multimedia to keep it engaging.

Grades are based entirely on weekly Gradescope homework assignments and fair midterm+final (and participation). I found the tests to call for some pretty specific details, but they were all on the slides, and the professor definitely went through them during the lecture. Professor Mateu also offers up to 3% extra credit by volunteering in Spanish/English research.

One tip I have for anyone who takes this class is to go to her office hours. Seriously, not only is she an amazing person to talk to, but she will answer literally all of your homework questions. I don't know think anyone will score below a 90 on a homework assignment if they went to her office hours.

The one con I can think of is that this class is more about English linguistics and language acquisition. In every linguistic unit we did, we had to do the same exercises in Spanish/Portuguese at the end, which felt tagged on to justify the course title. This is not the right class for more Spanish/Portuguese immersion.

At the beginning of the quarter I was worried if I would be able to do good in the class because some of the content was difficult, specifically syntax. But the professor and my TA (Isabel) were so helpful and explained very great. After the class and section I would ask the professor and my TA for help and they were amazing. The final grade consisted of 6 assignments, 2 exams (midterm + final, non-cumulative), and attendance (both in lecture and discussion). Both the midterm and the final were online, so I did them at home. For this class you do NOT need to have knowledge in Spanish and Portuguese. I speak Spanish so I found it easier to come up with examples in Spanish for the assignments and sometimes for the exams. This class is not about learning Spanish or Portuguese, it's mostly a linguistics class that uses some examples in Spanish and Portuguese. If I could take this class again, I definitely would! The professor and the TAs are extremely nice.

Also: the syllabus has a 'required' textbook, but I didn't use it or I think no one used it. The professor even said that the exams would only cover stuff she said in lecture and on the slides.

If you are interested in learning more about Spanish or Portuguese, do not take this class. It is focused on linguistics and is very technical. It only uses those two languages as occasional examples compared to English. I wouldn't consider this class an easy GE, but I found the material interesting and manageable with a little bit of time and effort. Professor and TAs were very helpful and approachable.

This class was totally chill and definitely worth it for an easy g.e. I actually saw a lot of people complaining in the groupme but there were only like 8 assignments for the whole quarter and I never got below an 85 on all of them even though I barely paid attention. She does take attendance in lectures but I was doing work or napping for a few of them tbh and it was fine. I signed up hoping to further my knowledge of Spanish or learn a little Portuguese but I'll tell you now that's not what this class is about, it's a linguistics class that uses examples in Sp and Port. Professor Mateu doesn't even speak Portuguese. That aside, I still thought the subject matter was interesting and overall enjoyed coming to class.

This class is a must if you're looking for a chill G.E.! Obviously, with all classes, you're going to have to put in a little work but compared to many other G.E.s I've taken, this is slight work. Also Professor Mateu is incredibly helpful and makes the class super interesting. 10/10 recommend.