LING 103
Introduction to General Phonetics
Description: Lecture, four hours; discussion, one hour (when scheduled). Enforced requisite: course 20 with grade of B- or better. Phonetics of variety of languages and phonetic phenomena that occur in languages of world. Extensive practice in perception and production of such phenomena. P/NP or letter grading.
Units: 5.0
Units: 5.0
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Most Helpful Review
Fall 2024 - I took this class in the morning, which made it a little hard to stay awake sometimes, but the structure was very manageable, and the professor is genuinely one of the kindest and most supportive instructors I’ve had. She uses a skill mastery system with a clear grading breakdown, and as long as you track your progress using the Excel sheet she provides, you can definitely end up with a low A- or higher. There’s no homework or exams. Instead, you work on a major project throughout the quarter, which was honestly really cool. As long as you stay on top of the checkpoints and due dates, it’s very doable. Technically, you can submit things late without a point penalty, but the trade-off is that your grading and feedback might take longer. That said, the feedback she gives is always helpful and focused on how to improve. Attendance matters for both the lecture and the section. Lecture points come from participating in class or on Zoom, while section points are based on attendance. At the start of the quarter, lectures aren't recorded to encourage in-person participation, but later on, she starts uploading recordings and offers a Zoom option too. Overall, this is a fair, flexible, and well-organized class with a great professor. I just wish I had taken it later in the day when I was more awake.
Fall 2024 - I took this class in the morning, which made it a little hard to stay awake sometimes, but the structure was very manageable, and the professor is genuinely one of the kindest and most supportive instructors I’ve had. She uses a skill mastery system with a clear grading breakdown, and as long as you track your progress using the Excel sheet she provides, you can definitely end up with a low A- or higher. There’s no homework or exams. Instead, you work on a major project throughout the quarter, which was honestly really cool. As long as you stay on top of the checkpoints and due dates, it’s very doable. Technically, you can submit things late without a point penalty, but the trade-off is that your grading and feedback might take longer. That said, the feedback she gives is always helpful and focused on how to improve. Attendance matters for both the lecture and the section. Lecture points come from participating in class or on Zoom, while section points are based on attendance. At the start of the quarter, lectures aren't recorded to encourage in-person participation, but later on, she starts uploading recordings and offers a Zoom option too. Overall, this is a fair, flexible, and well-organized class with a great professor. I just wish I had taken it later in the day when I was more awake.
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Most Helpful Review
Spring 2024 - LING 103 with Cychosz was genuinely the worst academic experience I’ve had at UCLA. She is passive-aggressive, extremely unfriendly, and gives off an uncomfortable, mean energy that makes it hard to engage or even ask questions. During office hours, she was consistently dismissive and unhelpful — speaking to her felt more like a confrontation than a conversation. The phonetics project was assigned with guidance, yet expected us to perform at what felt like a graduate-level standard. We're undergrads, not PhD students. On top of that, the production exam was brutal — incredibly difficult, and graded with zero leniency. No matter how much effort you put in, it felt nearly impossible to get a good grade or actually learn anything meaningful. Throughout the entire quarter, I felt stressed, confused, and deeply unhappy in this class. The only reason I made it through was because of our TA, Isa, who was the only source of support and clarity. If Cychosz is teaching this course, I’d seriously reconsider taking it.
Spring 2024 - LING 103 with Cychosz was genuinely the worst academic experience I’ve had at UCLA. She is passive-aggressive, extremely unfriendly, and gives off an uncomfortable, mean energy that makes it hard to engage or even ask questions. During office hours, she was consistently dismissive and unhelpful — speaking to her felt more like a confrontation than a conversation. The phonetics project was assigned with guidance, yet expected us to perform at what felt like a graduate-level standard. We're undergrads, not PhD students. On top of that, the production exam was brutal — incredibly difficult, and graded with zero leniency. No matter how much effort you put in, it felt nearly impossible to get a good grade or actually learn anything meaningful. Throughout the entire quarter, I felt stressed, confused, and deeply unhappy in this class. The only reason I made it through was because of our TA, Isa, who was the only source of support and clarity. If Cychosz is teaching this course, I’d seriously reconsider taking it.
Most Helpful Review
Fall 2019 - This class was interesting but actually very hard. In my opinion Professor Faytak expected a lot (maybe too much) out of us for people who hadn't had any phonetics training prior to this course. The production exam was okay, but I found the transcription exam to be very hard. The course also has a paper, and Professor Faytak was very unclear when it came to how it was graded - he basically said that it would be different for every language, which you can imagine was unhelpful. Definitely go to office hours frequently, I think it made him like me a lot more and ultimately contributed to him possibly bumping me. I really liked him and the class was fun but I think unnecessarily difficult.
Fall 2019 - This class was interesting but actually very hard. In my opinion Professor Faytak expected a lot (maybe too much) out of us for people who hadn't had any phonetics training prior to this course. The production exam was okay, but I found the transcription exam to be very hard. The course also has a paper, and Professor Faytak was very unclear when it came to how it was graded - he basically said that it would be different for every language, which you can imagine was unhelpful. Definitely go to office hours frequently, I think it made him like me a lot more and ultimately contributed to him possibly bumping me. I really liked him and the class was fun but I think unnecessarily difficult.
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Most Helpful Review
Winter 2025 - If you have the opportunity to take this class, save yourself the trouble and just do 102 or take a different professor, Professor Jun is a very nice lady, but the lectures were lacking. She talks at a really low volume and it's hard to understand what is happening. The last few weeks of the class were also hard to juggle as you would be learning new topics, practicing for the production exam, and writing your research paper. I also feel as though we weren't adequately prepared for the transcription exams.
Winter 2025 - If you have the opportunity to take this class, save yourself the trouble and just do 102 or take a different professor, Professor Jun is a very nice lady, but the lectures were lacking. She talks at a really low volume and it's hard to understand what is happening. The last few weeks of the class were also hard to juggle as you would be learning new topics, practicing for the production exam, and writing your research paper. I also feel as though we weren't adequately prepared for the transcription exams.
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