2.7
Quality2.5
Difficulty83%
Would Retake84
Reviews83%
Would Retake
84
Reviews
Rating DistributionOfficial
84 total ratings5
16
4
14
3
18
2
18
1
18
What Students Say
“5 or 6 take home quizzes based on reading, pretty easy”
ANTH170 - 2.0 rating“He looks like a great guy, but he is a horrible lecturer”
ANTHR170 - 2.0 ratingClass Info
Attendance Mandatory
83%
Textbook Required
100%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
A-
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Improving
+0.66 avg changeRatings by Course
ANTH141
4.6
(5)ANTHRO
4.0
(1)ANTH3
4.0
(2)ANTRHO3
4.0
(1)ANTHR170
4.0
(4)Difficulty by Course
SOCIALCULTURAL
4.0
ANTHRO114
4.0
ANTRHO3
4.0
ANTH170
3.5
170
3.3
Reviews (83)
No Comments
Prof. Liu is sometimes too abstract to the point of obfuscation, but overall, quite learned and friendly.
Class was horribly boring. Lectures are very abstract and conceptual...sometimes I had no idea what he was talking about. Seems like a nice professor though. Fairly easy class, just difficult to stay awake.
What what!
This professor repeats like crazy. Sometimes he just repeats himself 10 times just to make one easy and obvoius point. Lecture is horrible and boring. The required readings are also very very hard to understand. the class sucks.
Once you actually get past his terrible grasp of the English language, you realize that his lectures are among the most unorganized and uninteresting you will sit through in your years here at Cal
You cant understand anything this guy says! He has a thick accent. he is chinese but was brought up in Britain, you do the math. On top of poor english, he mumbles and eveery other word out of his mouth is uh, uh, uh. ( His uh's always come in threes) He doesnt even write clearly! Its always diagonal or crooked in some way or another. Just dont take the class! I had to drop it!
Boring class. Really hard to stay awake/concentrate unless you can actually follow what he's saying.
His class is my nap time. You can't understand a word he says (which actually ends up bieng "umm ummm ummmmm"). Even my GSI (who's amazing) said that he hates going to lectures. We're basically his guy's guinnea pigs. Take the class because the content is really great, but just never go to lecture ever.
No Comments
Chinese ex-pat, who studied english at Oxford-so he is extremely difficult to understand-though tremendously warm. I was glad when it was over
He's funny and nice. Sometimes his accent gets in the way but some of the stuff he says is helpful but other times its boring and you will get lost. I've counted 8 consecutive uh's this semester. I attend lecture to see if that can be broken. He's cool. Nice on quizzes.
really boring lecturer- no matter what time of day, you will fall asleep to him.. unorganized, doesn't really plan out his lecturers, which results in him repeating himself all the time.. quizzes were pretty easy though, don't have to read that much to do well
Ok well this guy is super nice, really mellow personality, VERY VERY thick accent and has a hard time getting his points out but I have no doubt that this guy is a genius in his subject and probably a phenomenal writer, just not the best public speaker, you can't be good at everything right? good news: he has handouts recapping lectures
seeing xinny is the highlight of my day. he's the chillest prof there is!!!!!!! The best is when I see him walking to class and then I follow him and take pictures... man he is a fast walker!!!! KULA AND POTLATCH FOREVER dont hate because you dont understand please
The class is pretty easy, no midterms or final, just a six or ten page paper due in December. He is kind of boring, but he know's his stuff. It's a good class for a breadth requirement.
He's extremely difficult to understand, but I think it is a shame because I think the way he formats the class is really interesting. He goes about teaching an introductory class is different than usual and I think at a higher level if you take the class seriously. It's just really hard to get past that accent.
i doodle more than i take notes
Liu is one of the most intelligent people i know. He has a very bright mind. yes it is true that you might fall asleep once in a while, but overall, he is a good professor. He is very enlightening all the time. Every lecture, you will find something worthy to remember. He has a cool British accent that I wish i had.
I DO recommend taking this class with LiuXin. The class is boring, and the readings are long (you really don't have to do them). In terms of easiness, the class is simple and straightforward and the information is interesting. It's just that the professor can make you fall asleep.
he is terrible. I don't understand a word he says, and he goes off on meaningless tangents. don't take the class
No Comments
Since prof liu is a genius he has a hard time delivering a good lecture. Even though the readings are VERY hard they are VERY interesting.the GSIs are happy to clarify concepts. No midterm. No final exam. No curve. Expect lots of small quizzes and one giant paper, tho. Overall, good, easy prof.
lots of people complain that they can't understand a word he says. but he's a nice guy and his quizzes are very very very easy. if u need this class, take it with liu.
at the beginning i thought it was going to be hard because his lectures aren't very clear. but i was wrong! xin liu is the best prof ever. his quizzes are easy, his GSIs are cool, and he basically tells you what the quiz is going to be on...and then he makes it take-home and extends the due date! you can't afford NOT to take anthro 3 with liu xin.
I was going to be an anthropology major...BUT this class with this professor made me change my mind! HE IS SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO unclear....it hurt my soul! don't take this class with him...not even for the take home quizzes!
if you cant ace this class then maybe the admission office made a mistake with you. hes nice, the material is easy, and u don't really have to go to his so called "boring" lectures. everything is about section.
The rumors are true, prof is extremeley boring and hard to understand. But the gsi's are awesome and the quizzes are so easy. If you are looking for an easy A where and dont want to attend lecture this is the right class for you. But if your one of those study hard kids(likes to go to class), dont take this with liu!
at first, his lectures are mind-numbingly boring, but he starts to grow on you
His lectures are completely useless. I stopped going in the middle of the semester and I didnt once open his pointless books that I wasted so much money on. Even then I still did decently on the quizes. Thats how pointless this class is. The GSI I had sucked too. His grading was so arbitrary, and he never clearly explained want exactly he wants.
class wasn't as bad as everyone says. i LOVE my gsi. and the prof has a nice soothing voice, so it makes me go to sleep. also, class wasn't as easy as everyone says.....
sthu, ppl who say its easy. you didnt have the hard gsi's obviously. lectures are useless, as previously stated. gsi's range, i guess. mine sucked. didn't care about the class, the students, or the grades he gave, so everyone in his sxns got B's on almost everything. some gsi's are easy, apparently, so it's really not fair.
At first, Liu is hard to understand but then you'll get used to it. He's smart n witty. Lectures are important cuz if u go to class, u don't even have to read the books. My GSI was a tough grader but fair, he would give us a lot of feedback. Liu's class, I think, should be taken by Anthro majors, it'd be a good foundation for u. Tests r open book
you dont need to study that much for this class since it mostly consists of open book tests and take home papers. but why even care at all if the professor is boring, the material seems like a haphazardly planned pile of weird readings, and the GSIs do not care (at least my GSI)? This is one of those classes that you finish and bring home nothing
prof liu is awesome. his class consists of five quizzes (each worth 10% of grade,) section participation (15%,) and a final paper (35%) which is the easist thing to bs on in the world. but its true. his lectures are the worst ever at cal. but maybe that's a good thing =)
Probably the worst lectures I've ever been to. But if you do all the take home papers, you'll be fine for an A. Also the final paper is really easy.
Grade depends mostly on GSI (mine was a middle-man, not too hard/easy). Lectures are interesting if you didn't read the course material beforehand. So in order to not fall asleep read after lectures. Of course that would also depend on your GSI's assignments. My GSI was a good lecturer but bad with handling assignments (got little to no feedback).
this is a very special class. basically, if you like structured lectures and tend to ignore the readings, this class isn't for u. in lectures he gives u like a sentence about the readings and then talks about books he's read. but the take home quizzes will be about the readings. overall, easy class, but one horrible lecturer.
Professor Liu Xin gives circular lectures, which is at first confusing, but he definitely grows on you. He assigned classic anthro. readings that were hard but appropriate & interesting. A lot of my friends didn't go to class often or do much of the reading and still got good grades. I worked hard and feel as though I learned a lot of useful info
I found it impossible to pay attention in lectures, so I stopped going. I didn't really do much of the reading either. Your grade really depends on your GSI, but I think either way it's a pretty easy class. Read his actual work - I didn't get to read it until the end, but it made me change my opinion of him.
the most boring class ive ever taken. However, if you can tough it out, its pretty easy. There is no midterm or final, just 5 quizzes (3 were take home) and one paper at the end. I guess it was worth it, but i didnt really learn a thing. I couldn't understand a word the guy said.
Overall, it was a very easy class, but I felt as if I didn't have to attend lecture at all (in fact, a lot of people did not). The entire grade depends on the GSI, so section is important. Liu-Xin is a bit hard to understand at first, and says things that may just be a little too intelligent for us to comprehend, but he is a nice professor.
Easy and interesting class, but Xin is just too hard to understand and makes little sense in his lectures. At first I thought he was just really abstract, but later I realized he was just repetitive and confused. GSIs are extremely important.
If you can avoid taking this class, do, because it is not worth it, at all. The lectures are unbelievably boring and insanely confusing, especially because of Professor Liu's weird accent. It was an easy A, but I wouldn't recommend the class even with that in mind.
BORING
Seems like a really nice guy, and his own work is really great... but he's a horrible prof. His accent and english make him difficult to understand, but lecture and the readings aren't necessary and the class is easy. But if you can, wait for another prof cause I've heard great things about this course itself.
It is not hard to get an A in this class. Don't bother going to lecture unless you know there is a quiz. He wants you to read but you can pretty much BS your way through. If you do go to class bring a cross word puzzle or some homework from another class to keep you awake.
His lectures are dull and sometimes even incomprehensible, and he really emphasizes reading (there's a lot), but you will realize he's actually a nice guy who likes his students. Accent is tough at first but you'll get used to it.
Everything he said was incomprehensible to me. Not just because of his accent, either. Hated every minute
Professor is imcomprehensible because he does not teach, he lectures. Extemely unclear and vague. Never answers the questions raised in class by students and just goes on tangent. The man does not know how to answer a question.
Prof. Liu is one of the most well read, genuine, and all around nice people I've ever taken a class from. That being said, he is a horrible professor. Lectures are unorganized ramblings that repeat the same point over and over for two weeks in nearly incomprehensible engrish. I still like this professor very much, just not his class.
I didn't enjoy this class as much as I had hoped. The readings weren't bad, but lectures did little to help the comprehension of topics. I had trouble following his teaching style and ended up skipping his lectures completely since they did nothing for me. He’s a nice guy, but not a good lecturer.
Great teacher, extremely brilliant.
Semiotics! I took his Anthro 141 last semester, and his Anthro 170 this semester?and never entirely understood what he was REALLY trying to impress on us...until now. Anyone who has taken him, or wants to take him?look it up. Semiotics. "Man is a double" It must be Xin's favorite quote, I've heard him say it a hundred times.
The most horrible class I have ever taken! And my GSI was useless.
Honestly believe GSI unfairly graded my work. Don't expect lectures to be structured, instead ambiguous. Learning and success dependent upon GSI. My GSI was not good at providing a conceptual framework and was moreover a harsh grader compared to most other professors/GSIs I've taken at Cal.
He's not everyone's cup of tea. Seems to be ambiguous, but if you attend each lecture you will see where he is going because he eventually ties all of his thoughts together. There is a lot of reading. You do not really have to read books cover to cover, just focus on areas he points out in class. Paper is broad so you can focus on anything.
If you are a student interested in pursuing a a PHD or simply like reading then I would highly recommend this Professor. He is extremely insightful and brings a fresh perspective into the intellectual scene.
Professor Liu is the type of professor that wants to teach you how to read texts in relation to one another and interpret them. Having said that, he's not the type of professor who uses a powerpoint and expects you to memorize facts. This class encouraged me to READ more. Definitely an insightful class!
Ahhh Prof Liu. His redeeming quality is erudition, which many students fail to see. I admire his methodology of teaching, although I wouldn't recommend it. Definitely a prototype of the Berkeley mumbling eccentric. Misunderstood but definitely underrated.
Professor Liu is a great professor that is more than happy to discuss the material during office hours.
He's a good professor and knows his stuff. Probably the biggest problems during lecture were his meanderings and lack of an overall structure that tied all of his thoughts. Lecture basically is listening him talk to you about the topic at hand and doesn't have a greater cohesive structure. Overall, his class is OK but not excellent.
I enrolled in this course hoping to learn a/b the Chinese culture but got something very different. Professor rambles on each day about different kinds of knowledge and I was disappointed w/ how little I learned a/b the anthropology of China. 5 or 6 take home quizzes based on reading, pretty easy. Easy grading but I wouldn't recommend the course.
When I took this class I was hoping to learn about the anthropology of China, culture-wise, food ways, rituals...etc. BUT I was very disappointed with this class. Frankly, I didn't get the point of this class. It was confusing and boring. He looks like a great guy, but he is a horrible lecturer.
Professor Liu is a scholar of first rank. Plain and simple, if you are not a scholar in training then his class, and quite possibly CAL is not the place for you.
Liu Xin is horrible. Even our GSI thought he was the worst lecturer ever... I tried to keep an open mind and went to almost all the lectures, but he honestly barely even talked about anthro and never discussed the reading. Spare yourself, don't take 3AC with him...
Nice professor but misunderstood. His accent is a problem but still comprehensible. Insightful lectures without ppt, an interesting and different experience. He's always happy to discuss materials during office hour. Grade depends on GSIs...
Understanding of the theories and thoughts is way more important than memorizing the content of the books in this class. Helpful during office hours. Corky. Slightly weird sense of humor.
Worst professor I've had at Berkeley. Lectures were just about useless- usually it was just an hour of him ranting about things he hates. Rarely discussed readings or any actual anthropology.
This was by far the worst experience I've had in any of my classes. The course was run by the GSI's, without them nobody would have passed. After the first few lectures it was clear that lectures were not going to be helpful whatsoever. Liu does not use any tech and rambles on the entire lecture aimlessly. It's nearly impossible to take notes.
His unscripted & free flowing lectures were thought provoking & often inspirational. His thorough talks on very specific topics, such as marriage in different cultures, really got to the center of anthropological thought. In a school where so many people are science and technology minded and things move quickly, it was nice to just sit and listen.
A scholar first & a prof. second. Style is unorthodox & not for all. Doesn’t teach with pwpnts/info to memorize & regurgitate. Tries to help us think originally, to read & interpret carefully/correctly, & to respect anthro. TL;DR: often misunderstood, he is a scholar best fit for those who wish to be scholars or those really interested in anthro.
his lectures were hard to follow, but he's a nice guy
Not a great introduction to cultural anthropology. In lectures, he expects previous knowledge and uses words without explanation. Lectures can be difficult to follow, but he says profound things if you are able to pay attention. He is very kind and has a sense of humor. Do the readings, go to section and you should be fine. The final is super easy.
His lectures were pretty much useless. I didn't know what he was saying because of his accent, and will not take another course with him again. Passing the class is easy if you read through all the required reading, but I would fall asleep during lectures as they were of no help to me.
He's a nice guy but his lectures are all over the place and confusing, relied on GSI all semester and just make sure you read the books
I think a lot of the reviews here show students' lack of open-mindedness and critical thinking. Liu is so smart and so kind. Perhaps his teaching style is different than the norm, but he knows his stuff and if you try, you will learn. I think he's great.
Great Professor. Incredibly knowledgable, funny and caring. You do actually have to go to class, pay attention, take notes, and do the readings to be able to effectively answer the test questions, so if you're simply looking for an easy class, this might not be for you.
Liu is by far the worst professor I've ever had at Berkeley. His lectures are just him talking nonsense that is barely even understandable. His class is super uninteresting and only graded by attendance, midterm, and final. All the good reviews are from try hards don't listen to them and do yourself a favor and don't take any of his classes.
Professor Xin Liu is exceptional! His teaching style is unique, he lectures the entire time through a freeflow format and encourages students to join the discussion. He does not use a PowerPoint or have you memorize random facts. His lectures are thought-provoking and inspirational. Such a compassionate person, best Prof. I have had at Berkeley!!
Professor Liu is incredible. If anybody seeks to truly understand the essence of anthropology, taking one of his classes is an absolute must. If you open your mind and listen to what he has to say, I don't think you can get a bad grade. He is by far one of the best professors I've had the pleasure of learning from at Berkeley.
Prof Liu is incredible; very thought-provoking and inspiring. He's very serious about the content; he has an unconventional teaching method (he's anti-powerpoint), but he motivates it well. He's also incredibly caring toward students, and has inspired me to become more serious about my intellectual growth through reading.
This is the best professor I've had this semester. Absolute genius, and he really wants to connect with his students and cares deeply. The concepts are hard to understand, but it is so worth it.
Class Info
Attendance Mandatory
83%
Textbook Required
100%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
A-
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Improving
+0.66 avg changeRatings by Course
ANTH141
4.6
(5)ANTHRO
4.0
(1)ANTH3
4.0
(2)ANTRHO3
4.0
(1)ANTHR170
4.0
(4)Difficulty by Course
SOCIALCULTURAL
4.0
ANTHRO114
4.0
ANTRHO3
4.0
ANTH170
3.5
170
3.3