Benito Vergara

I took this class having already taken an intro to cultural anthro class several years ago. The material covered was superficial and glossed over. It would have been better had there been an actual textbook... instead we read only a handful of so-so ethnographies. One student in the class seemed to have better knowledge of the subject than Benito.

He's a nice guy, however his lectures plod along slowly. At one point, for example, as an introduction to a lecture on the basics of globalization, we wasted 15 minutes looking at the tags on our clothes to see their origins and then writing the names of countries down on the board, as if this was somehow enlightening.

Cultural Anthropology has deep theoretical roots, yet somehow this class seemed to gloss over all the them. I felt this class was at a remedial level - perhaps what a Jr. High anthro class should be as far as curriculum goes.

Lastly, he's too stringent a grader. Even though a student might show on an exam that they indeed grasp the subject matter, if you do not state your ideas in his terms, then he marks you down. Also, his instructions for the first essay assignment were so unclear that a number of students executed the whole thing wrong, and were subsequently marked down for it.

He's a nice guy, young, and has a good sense of humor... however this instructor needs more experience teaching before he will deserve a better evaluation from me. If he indeed has a deep understanding of anthropology, he failed to illustrate it to me.

My main suggestion for him would be to make his lectures more engaging: dive deeper into the subject matter; try to cover more ground; don't get caught up in off-topic tangents, and stop underestimating the ability of his students to comprehend complexities.

Benito Vergara is a okay teacher when it comes to teaching Asian American Culture because he himself is Asian (he's Filipino) and he's a young teacher who has experience in Anthropology and knowledge of ethnic enclaves in California like Daly City and Monterey Park where the majority of the population in these two cities are Asian. However, Vergara goes really fast when he's lecturing. I understand there's a lot of material, some are VERY interesting, to cover in just one semester, but when he goes TOO FAST especially when it's 8 in the morning, he can easily lose the students who are still tired and sleepy. He does ask students to slow him down when he goes fast, but everyone in my class just doesn't respond which leads to the class participation.

The class participation is HORRIBLE. Vergara tried and failed in almost every class to get students to participate in class discussions by getting everyone to sit in a circle. He needs to understand that many times this form of discussion just doesn't work. As a result, everyone just sits there quietly and stupidly with only the same 2-3 students who are brave enough to participate. When he does decide to put us into SMALLER group discussions everyone participates and talks.

Class-wise it's pretty easy. It's based on participation in class and in Blackboard, 1 midterm and final consisting of short-answer and essay where he grades really hard on, as well as 1 pop quiz where everyone including myself got screwed up on as it came out of nowhere. We also had a final project of either a group project of going out into a community in SF with a ethnic enclave and write a 20 pg group paper (groups consists of 4-5 people, so don't be scared!!) or you do a individual 12 pg paper about 2 of the stories we read and discussed. Some of these stories include "Fifth Chinese Daughter," "Rolling the R's," and short stories and poems that comes from "Asian American Literature." The only confusing story that all of us hated was "Rolling the R's" probably because it's written in Pidgin English.

My advice for Vergara is to have class discussions but do it with small group discussions but do it with small group discussions instead of having everyone sit in a circle with only 2-3 people out of 40 people participating. Part of this is because people aren't their best at 8 in the morning, as well as people who are just too shy to talk when 40 other people are looking. If you do this, you mine as well have the class do a speech in front of the class like SPCH 150 class.

If you plan on taking ETHS 210 with Vergara as your instructor, don't take it at 8 in the morning and be prepared to participate in class.

Mr Vergara created a great in class discussion atmosphere which stimulated deeper and more complex thought on the topics. The readings were provocative and diverse, covering cultures which were relevant to the themes of the course overall as outlined by Vergara in the syllabus. The documentarys shown in class complimented the readings of the cultures studied and the anthropological methods applied in studying them. Word to the wise, he is very tough on grading the papers-come up with your own ideas, don't just repeat his lecture material or you will not earn an A....

Vergara is an extremely entertaining teacher. Even if you don't like Anthropology (which I don't), he's still a really good teacher. There is not a lot of reading for his class, just three books over the semester. There are three essays, and one homework assignment the whole semester.

His tests are kind of hard, but nothing you can't handle if you study.

However, his lectures are amazing. He can sometimes go over material a little fast, but if you tell him to slow down, he will. He is a really nice guy, overall.

Also, the movies he shows are extremely pertinent to the class and they will show up on the tests.

His class is very good and I would recommend it to anyone.

This review is written on whatever I remember from the spring'00 semester...

You learn sooo much in this class about anthropology! His teaching of this class makes it interesting.. and the class is active in responding back with questions/comments etc... he can call people by name in the class.

I think though, that group projects should've been used to reinforce the concepts covered etc... group activity was the one thing I felt lacking in his class that could've made it 10x better.

Sometimes it can get difficult to sit through his lectures. There are also a few occasions where he'll drop some relation to the philippines/filipinos- but not soo much that it's completely obvious.

So overall, his teaching is good. Hopefully these past two years it's gotten wayy better.

He is a great teacher. He really knows the subject well. He keeps the class exciting because he he keeps it comfortable. Meaning that, jokes are welcome in the discussion. He gives two short quizzes, one midterm, one 15 pg. group project, and one final. As long as you come to class(the quizzes are pop quizzes), go to the reviews, and do some some of the little reading. I learned a lot from the class, hopefully some of you will take the class and do the same.

Mr. Vergara is one of the best teachers I've had at SFSU. His lectures are interesting, and can relate to the students. There were 2 pop quizzes during the semester, one midterm, one final, and a 10-page paper. To do well on all the tests, it's best to go to class since some of the topics he lectures about can be hard to research on the internet. The questions on these exams would consist of briefly explaining terms and write one essay. Vergara also grades on a curve. I would definitely take this teacher again in the future.

Professor Vergara is the best teacher at San Francisco State University! I learned so much from one semester with him not just about anthropology but about the world and accepting people for who they are. He is so refreshingly new with his ideas, full of energy, and incredibly open minded. He always allowed each and every student to voice their opinions, so while we discussed issues, we also learned terminology, and became so aware of diverse cultures and such. Also, all the books he assigned where so interesting that I kept them and am so glad he assigned them. I absolutely love this man and wish him a happy fulfilling career at SF State. A++++

He is a good teacher that gets along well and can relate with his students. Also, he grades fairly.