Professor Yan is an awesome professor, and I would recommend him for anyone that has to take Anthro 3 for major requirements or wants to take the class as a GE. He runs the class with a great deal of understanding and compassion for students. For example, he dropped our Week 8 ethnographic paper because he knew that it would be a particularly busy time for students.For me, this one of the more time-intensive GEs that I've taken, but I do think the workload is both reasonable and manageable. I found the multiple choice part of the exams to be a little tricky, but as a whole the tests were very fair. My TA was Alex, and I'd highly recommend him! Overall, this is a great class.

This class requires a lot of reading for the discussions. The lecture itself is based solely on his lecture slides; you'll do well on the midterms if you can basically regurgitate how he explains concepts and be sure to memorize the examples he gives. I don't recommend taking this if you're taking it with a heavy-course load because of all of the assigned reading.

Professor Yan has a thick accent, so sometimes it is hard to understand what exactly he is saying. Luckily, he uses slides and foes through them very slowly. With that said, lecture can get very boring, very quickly. It is important that you pay attention in lecture though because the content discussed in lecture is heavily present in the midterm and final.

Homework is to develop two complex questions; one from the reading and one from lecture. Reading is very helpful to understand lecture, but you can honestly just skim it. The midterm is fairly simple (20 MC, 2 SA). The final is similar in format (40 MC, 2 SA). Make sure to attend the study review. I'm sure if I did, I would've secured an A.

I have the textbook for sale!!!! **********

This class was very interesting and straightforward. I would definitely recommend this class as a GE. Dr. Yan's lectures are very interesting and funny, but he does drift off topic often. The tests are very straight forward, make sure to study all of the key terms from the different chapters in the textbook and read the slides carefully. The supplemental readings are not tested on, but they are used for the weekly reading reflections; the reading reflections are very simple.

I have the textbook for sale!!!! **********

Grading:
10% participation (showing up to discussion)
20% homework (writing 2 questions a week with a little analysis/background, about a page double spaced, graded for completion basically)
30% midterm
40% final
This class was so easy. Very minimal effort needed for an A. It was also pretty interesting, although during lecture the professor would spend like 15 minutes on each slide. In the class you learn about "simple" cultures and different aspects of their society, such as family or power relations, spirituality/religion, and their economies. The midterm and final had the same format: 20-25 multiple choice questions, and 2 written response questions. There were three questions to choose from and you picked whichever two you liked. They were very easy, and the multiple choice question were heavily based on the textbook, especially the vocab. Only bad thing about the class was discussion was useless, but you had to go to get participation points. I took this class as a GE and cannot recommend it more highly. TAKE IT!!!

I loved this class! If you're looking for an easy GE this is the class for you. In addition, you will learn a lot from the class itself and its super eye opening. Dr. Yan is an amazing guy, who has lead a great life. Given his life experiences, he teaches with an interesting perspective. The only issue I had is that Dr. Yan tends to be a tad bit boring at times.

Prof Yan drops major truth bombs in this class. He has lived such a fascinating life and genuinely cares about making sure you get something out of the class.

Tests are made of multiple choice and short essays. Study textbook definitions for MC and the slides for short essays.

Highly recommend! This class has changed how I see myself and the world. And the tests are not too bad. One day Prof Yan showed up to lecture and just cancelled the essay! What a legend!

Professor Yan has a crazy backstory and often incorporates interesting examples in lecture, but also lecture isn't really necessary. Just find key terms from each unit and study them for the midterm and final. Akua as a TA was amazing. Interesting class if you look for it, but it could be boring, depending on who you are.

There is one midterm and a final, a 5 page paper, and weekly reading responses for this class. The midterm and final were heavily based on the key terms from the book so if you study those and the main topics talked about you should be fine. The paper was graded pretty easily ( I believe the average was an 89%). The lectures were somewhat difficult to follow, but as long as you understand the big ideas and themes you should be okay.

Professor Yan is a nice man, but his lectures are very boring and consist of him going off on tangents. He spends a lot of time talking about each slide, so much that he was behind schedule since he continued his lectures going into the following week. There were reading responses due for weeks 2-6, which I found pretty pointless. The midterm and final weren't bad, they consisted of multiple choice and a few short-response questions. Most of the content on the exams came from lecture and the readings from the textbook; the supplementary articles are practically worthless. There was also a 5 page ethnographic observation paper that required us to go do fieldwork at either Wooden, Trader Joe's, or the farmer's market. Overall, this class was okay and definitely requires some effort to do well.