[GRMN 0202]
Intermediate German II

Rate This Class

Professor: Russi, R

Value of Course / Overall Score

Not Much (44.4%
Average (33.3%)
Valuable (22.2%)

Material

Friendly (55.6%)
Average (33.3%)
Competitive (11.1%)

Class Atmosphere

Boring (33.3%)
Average (55.6%)
Fascinating (11.1%)

Prep Time Needed

1-2hr (33.3%)
3-5hr (33.3%)
6-8hr (22.2%)
9-11hr (11.1%)
12+ hr (0%)

Grade Weighting

Harder (11.1%)
Average (11.1%)
Easier (77.8%)

Adequate Assistance

Yes (88.9%)
No (11.1%)

Would Recommend Class

Yes (33.3%)
No (66.7%)

Evaluation Comments for Russi, R

  1. i hate to pile on, but roger is really not a good professor. not engaging at all. compared with roman and florence who i had for 100 and 201, it was a real letdown to do 202 with him.
  2. I often found myself looking forward to Prof. Russi's class. The pace is slow, as people pointed out, but he just carries this friendly (intimidating? What?) attitude with him. I mean, every day was basically a discussion section. Some of the Weiter Geht's e-homework was a real drag, but he made the class enjoyable. I would definitely choose him for another Deutsch class.
  3. Russi stressed me out in class. He moved way too slow and his few randomly long finger nails bothered me. I dreaded going to class most days, and stopped going to the german table when I found out he was there EVERY day. My German (both spoken and written) did not improve with Russi's class. Unfortunately, this class is mandatory for German majors or minors.
  4. This is a very troubling class indeed. 1. Roger ALWAYS keep us after the time when the class is supposed to end, despite the fact that everyone looks bored and our discussion hasn't been going anywhere for at least half an hour. 2. He is an abominable discussion leader, which is more than a little problematic considering language classes are entirely discussion based. 3. He seems slightly creepy. 4. He often fails to correct our spoken errors, as a result, the general consensus among my classmates is that our German has not improved.
  5. Obviously if you are planning to go to Germany, this class is not optional. However, Roger can be a little boring and the class is tough to sit through. I do not feel that my spoke German improved at all. He's a pretty easy grader and you have very little work, all of it busywork that you can do in about an hour.
  6. So SLOOOWWWWWWWWWWWWWW. Compared with the rest of the German department, Roger moves class at a snail's pace. We would often spend an entire class looking at one passage of text. I found this class to be very frustrating, as did other students. Compared with the other German professors, who are outstanding, I found Roger to be pretty mediocre. Ask him about his 20 year old cat.
  7. This class has some bad reviews, which is perfectly fair. Roger is not a professor who will go out of his way to get students involved in discussions - if you don't feel like talking, he generally won't ask you to. Almost every day, our discussion would subside into a lecture which little of the class understood, with a couple of the more venturous students chiming in now and again. All in all, I thought a lot of the cultural history was very interesting, and Roger brought up many intelligent points, but overall I have to rate the course badly. I feel that the role of a professor is to force students to learn, and this simply doesn't happen in German 202. While tahis is not a class that will hinder you if you want to learn German, if you don't go out of your way to improve is pretty easy just to coast through and get nothing out of it.
  8. I have quite literally never evaluated a teacher below 100% excellent, never regretted taking a class, and never hated a teacher before. Roger Russi is beyond the shadow of a doubt, the worse teacher I have ever had, at Midd, or anywhere. I didn't learn a shred of German from his class, and I think almost every one of my classmates would say the same--in fact, I probably know less German since I finished German 1 in summer school. But worse than that, I came into his class with a strong drive to learn German; now this professor has caused me to lose all motivation and enthusiasm for the German language. I really have no desire to study German ever again. And I have heard other people from other years voice the same--the department would have far more majors if he wasn't here. Before taking this class I would try to use German in my daily life because I loved speaking the language so much. Now, I wouldn't mind never hearing a single word of German again in my life. Don't get me wrong, Roger is really quite nice. He might seem sadistic and evil, but realize that he's not being sarcastic, he's being Swiss. He is quite unapproachable though. The text-book is also worthless in my opinion for anything other than listening comprehension. The busy work is more time consuming than Chinese or Arabic homework at this level, and you not only learn less, you learn almost nothing. The text-book is too progressive, if the department had it's act together, it would make it's own like other departments here. I regret taking his class, and his class made me regret taking any German in the first place. By the end of the course, we dreded going to every class. In class, we felt like we were suggering some biblical torment for 90 or 115 minutes, plus the 15 minutes he tended to go over every day. In conclusion: this class has lots of meaningless work, a terrible textbook, an unapproachable professor, will make you late to your next class every day, teach you no German. In short, this class is a waste of time. **If you truly desire to learn German at Midd, take German 2 in summer school.** That program is quite literally world-class; the semester program cannot compare.
  9. You will learn a lot of German grammar, but you will probably dread going to class. Roger is really intimidating, but is actually quite nice. He tells you exactly what is going to be on tests, and is not a very tough grader.

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