Ninh, Thien-Huong  

Honestly, avoid this professor. She is seriously unorganized and her lectures very unhelpful. She goes into detail on very simple topics and glazes over more challenging things, saying "look this stuff up in the book". I attended class about 90% of the time and each lecture was more useless than the last. This teacher is seriously subpar and her lack of communication skills is astounding.

Am I right? Am I correct? Well I don't know professor Ninh, you are the teacher how about you tell us the right answer. If you take her class you will here those two phrases over 100 times a class. I'm not lying. She wastes an entire hour with an activity that tries to prove sexism or racism or some other ism that is bad. If you are on the conservative end of the political spectrum good luck in this class. Ninh is a megaphone for the liberal agenda although she really doesn't help them much taking in the fact how bad she teaches. Stay away from Thien-Huong Ninh.

I have tallied the times that she has said the word "right" in class on several occasions and it has ranged as low as 100 and as high as 120times in class. She is a pretty nice lady when you talk to her one on one but overall she is a terrible professor and i would not recommend having her. And if you are fortunate or unfortunate enough to have her...well, Good luck.

Professor Ninh likes to grade people with participation points - so if you're not into that, don't expect to finish this class with an A. She's a nice lady who's passionate about making students aware of sexism, racism, etc., but is horrible when it comes to preparing students for tests. For example, she'll spend half of class time doing in-class activities on why discrimination is bad and will BRIEFLY go over readings from the textbook (which is outrageously expensive btw). She finishes every sentence with "right?" or "am i right?" and often doesn't know the answer to student's questions. One time we did an in-class practice exam and she didn't know the answers to 30% of the questions. Overall, she's a very caring lady with good intentions, but her teaching style lacks experience and organization.

She is probably the worst teacher I have ever had as far as presenting the material to the students and preparing them for the test. She probably discussed about 25% of the material in class that was on the test. I would not be surprised if she gets fired soon. Not only is she horrible at teaching, she is obnoxious and VERY annoying. She says the phrases "Am I right?" or "Am I correct?" probably 50 times each class. She also is not intelligent whatsoever. It seems like she doesn't even know what she was teaching; our class was going over the practice exam and she didn't even know the answers to some of the questions. She answered a couple of them incorrectly. If you can avoid her in the future, I would!

She is a nice lady; however, she is probably the worst teacher I have had in my entire life. She is very bad at presenting materials in a clear way. She does not discuss anything in the book and it is very hard to evaluate what you will need to know for midterms aside from just, well, everything. She is also not very intelligent. I firmly believe I could teach the course material more effectively, and I'm an engineering major. She is also very biased and does not address the different sides of an issue with equal merit and attention. Bottom line, don't take her. And yes, the other ratings are correct, she says, "Am I right?" and, "Am I correct?" a ridiculous amount of time

She is really not that bad. She is kind of annoying but very nice and if you go into her office hours she will help you out with anything you need. Probably not the best teacher but not as bad as everyone says.

she really isn't as bad as people make her seem. all you have to do to do well in this class is take notes on her discussions, video presentations, and book. she isn't the best at explaining your questions but the course load isn't hard to manage. plus she provided us with a lottos of extra credit. if you get her, you'll be fine

Oh boy where to start. First, this teacher does not have any business instructing anyone with an IQ above the freezing point of water. Yes, she does mean well and has a good heart, but is that the only quality we care about in our education? Warning: if you are: white, straight, conservative, or middle or upper class you will be grouped as racists, bigots, and close minded (yes, I learned it's completely okay to stereotype the "privileged" as so in this class). Bottom line, my family's money and the taxpayers money of CA is flat out wasted on this course and teacher. Administration should thoroughly review this 'instructors' purpose at Cal Poly. I won't even get into her unorganized and conflicting pointless lectures.

I have no clue if the Social Science Department at Cal Poly ever looks at Polyratings but if any of you do, please for the sake of this institution drop what you are doing and fire her immediately. I have never sat through a more biased class EVER. Professor Ninh is racist towards whites, sexist towards men, makes fun of those who are politically conservative and talks down to us students like we are the dumbest people in the world. I don't know where she earned her degree or if she even has a degree but her teaching is awful. She is unintelligent. Her lectures consist of activities that always end up degrading people who are not a minority. If you are a Cal Poly student, do not take this class. It would be better if you took an online class at Cuesta instead of sitting through the joking matter that Professor Ninh refers to as her lecture. A good professor is able to spark discussion without pushing their political views on the class. Professor Ninh is NOT a good professor. She is NOT an average professor. She cannot even be classified as a below average professor. She is the WORST professor to step foot on the campus of Cal Poly. She is a disgrace to this institution. She is a disgrace to countless alum who have walked the steps of our beloved campus. She is a disgrace to every student who applies to Cal Poly with dreams and goals that they believe Cal Poly can help them achieve. My dear Mustangs, do your self a favor and do anything in your power to not take a class taught by Thien-Huong Ninh. Ride High and Hoof Em Mustangs!

Waste of $328 a week.

I honestly believe I could teach the course better than she does. When someone asks her a question and she doesn't know the answer (which happens often), she simply ignores it. She does not prepare you for the midterms and final at all, and the lectures are a complete joke. If you are white and male she will simply not like you. A majority of the "culture" she teaches us is about asian-americans which is obviously extremely biased because she is Asian. I would avoid her at all costs. She should be a disgrace to all cal poly professors.

At the beginning of the course she didn't seem as bad as she turned out to be. However, it quickly became apparent that she is a very biased teacher who relies heavily on you teaching yourself from the readings she provides. She mistakingly believes she is organized and intelligent, which from one class you will understand she is not. The majority of the time, she doesn't know what she's teaching (especially when it comes to her in-class activities, all of which teach the same thing) and will ignore any question she doesn't know the answer to or does not understand. She often asks students to answer her own questions simply because she doesn't know them, not even her own study guide questions. She does not explain abstract concepts or the difference between similar concepts well at all, and the entire 2 hours is spent listening to students debate with each other on the same topic. If you can help it, do NOT take her class. Each class becomes more and more useless. It is a complete waste of your time.

This professor has absolutely no business teaching at the college level. I not only found her lectures to be extremely disorganized, uninformative, and borderline idiotic - but also thought that she had an overwhelming ability to discuss issues in the most politically incorrect way possible. It was not appropriate, and offended many students in the class frequently. She had a tendency to demonize any side that wasn't a minority. Although I understand the importance of understanding minority struggles as an element of sociological curriculum, she took it to a level that was ridiculous, unnecessary, and achieved the nearly impossible task of visibly upsetting a lecture hall of over 100 students. The goal of education is to look at all sides of an argument fairly, and this is where professor Ninh struggles. Overall, her class was boring, frequently upsetting, and I took away nothing of value from it. Every hour was a waste of time, and I highly recommend taking any other professor for this subject for the sake of your sanity and actually learning something.

Dr. Ninh is knowledgable in her field and has done some interesting research, however she will take forever to answer questions and confuse the entire class. I'm very liberal and interested in feminism, but all of her lessons went back to gender which got really repetitive. She facilitates interesting debates, and she has a there's no right answer philosophy. However, her lessons don't reflect the test. I am a first year sociology major and this class made me want to switch majors, but if you're taking it as a GE it's not that bad because she gives a lot of extra credit.

If you are a man you should not take this class because she will basically be insulting you the whole quarter. If you are white you should not take this class for the same reason. She is an unbelievably biased teacher and has no idea how to make sociology make sense. Not only is she unbelievably annoying but her participation grading is completely unfair. Part of your participation is whether or not you went to office hours which shouldn't be required especially if you have a class during that time period. She lacks all forms of common sense and will spend an entire class on one simple question that should take 5 minutes to answer. If you are conservative or have any non-liberal/feminist views she will not only talk down to you but hate you. Please for the love of God stay away.

Flat out worst professor I've ever had and most likely will ever have. Disgrace to Cal Poly. The comments below couldn't have said it any better so I'll just leave it at that. AVOID AT ALL COSTS.

I'd like to start off by saying this class is fairly easy if you complete the extra credit. That being said, it's probably the most pointless class I have ever taken in my life. Professor Ninh doesn't know how to teach or answer questions well, and the fact that she heavily weighs participation in a class of 120 people is just beyond me. It's difficult to get your name known when there are 119 other students among you. What a joke.

If you have a fear of public speaking, do not take this class. she grades participation, which I was fine with until I reviewed a 1 out of 8 for credit when I went to office hours and spoke up in class multiple times. her tests are poorly written. she spent almost an entire lecturing on the definition of the class material being "liberal" and talking about hate messages she received instead of focusing on the class material.

ANYONE WHO WANTS TO GET A FREE A, TAKE THIS CLASS. She hands out extra credit like it's nothing, the class is out of 100 points and there were approximately 15 points of extra credit. That being said, she is a boring teacher and after a whole quarter in her class I didn't learn much. Tips for her class, come to class (her midterms and finals are heavily based on discussions in class), do all the extra credit you can, and finally, do not take anything she says to heart.

Her lectures and the material are poorly related. There are usually biased discussions occurring throughout the 2 hour lecture. The only reason I still went was because the videos and a few presentations were represented on the midterms and finals with a few questions for each. Her participation grading is complete bullshit. And I'm saying this even though I got a decent grade on it. It's completely based off of whether she remembers you and recognizes your face. It has nothing to do with how many times you participate. My advice to you if you get stuck in this class is to email her weekly about anything at all and then ask her about the same thing after class so that she knows your face. DO ALL THE EXTRA CREDIT because her tests are completely biased and make no sense. Her lectures consist of contradicting comments and an inability to answer/understand what students are trying to ask/say. Avoid this class especially if you are trying to have an "easy A" GE.

While Professor Ninh is genuinely a really nice lady and means well, her teaching style is very unorganized and makes very little sense. She will spend an entire 2 hour lecture on a pointless activity that is often either common sense or takes just a couple minutes to explain. Many of her test questions are very poorly worded as well. Her participation grading is completely arbitrary and unfair, as she basically expects every single person in a 120 student class to participate everyday. Attend class, as a majority of the questions on her tests will be centered around class discussions and videos in class. She does give out A LOT of opportunities for extra credit which helps, but overall I found her lectures and class itself to be very confusing and unhelpful.

The worst teacher I have ever had in my life. I just can't comprehend how someone could give so many students 1/8 on participation in a class with 100 points total. Participation is supposed to help you, not hurt you. Genuinely not a good teacher either. Stay 100 feet away from Ninh.

Lol good luck

She made the class worth 100 points in total, and made participation worth 8 of those points, so 8%. I got a 1/8 although I spoke often in class, volunteered for in-class activities, and did all outside of class activities. Her lectures were okay, but it was often confusing to figure out exactly what the tests would cover. She puts a lot of emphasis on application over memorization, but the tests ask for a lot of things we never applied in lecture or the book briefly covered. Avoid her.

She is the worst teacher I've ever had in my life. I question her credibility and have yet to understand how she got any of her degrees from UCLA. She is the most biased and unfit person to teach Sociology.I came out upset after every lecture because I was surprised that someone could have such gross ideas. Every week, she gave us a survey that we were required to fill out. One week she gave us a survey entitled "Black IQ". A few of the questions on the survey were: "what is a cuddy Buddy", "what is gwap", "what is the most common curtain substitute", or "what is the most popular dance that is done at almost every black family function". The next day in class she explained that we should have all answered the "Black IQ" survey questions incorrectly because none of us are black. She then said that black people do not do well on the SAT because it is written by white people and they don't write questions such as the ones in her "black IQ" so black people cannot do well. Another time, this very brave student in my class stood up and explained to our class that her dad was transgender. This professor decided to respond with "ever since Caitlyn Jenner transitioned, a lot of people have been following". This professor totally dismissed and belittled the girl's father. These are one of many incidents that have happened in the class. If I could sum this teacher up in one word it would be ignorant. She had a lack of respect for everyone except her. She would require us to be silent when she was talking but would easily interrupt you or not pay attention to you if you were speaking. All her lectures were a waste of my time. I do not appreciate the fact that I had to pay hundreds of dollars a week to sit and listen to her ignorant rants. I'm disappointed in Cal Poly's choice to hire such a person and disappointed in her for spreading these ideas.

Professor Ninh constantly repeats herself throughout the lecture. She also always asks students for answers, so basically you have to know the material before you show up to lecture to learn that same material.

Where to start... This class felt like it was being taught by a high school student who forgot that his or her presentation was due, everyday. If you don't feel like reading further, do yourself a favor and get a different professor. To start I will give you an example of a typical day in professor Ninh's class. She asked people for things on campus that reflect society (not a bad idea to engage students). But then she wrote those things on the board (about 5 items) and gave the class 45 min to go find them around campus. Once we returned to class she didn't even check anything. We just sat down and started taking notes on a hastily created power point. Now this wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for the fact that your whole grade is based off of exams. On these exams she will ask you questions from class, so you are forced to sit through an agonizing lecture where she will make a claim, cite no facts to back it up, and when you question her she will just use circular logic and scribble illegibly on the board. Professor Ninh will also offer extra-credit if you arrange for a guest speaker to come to class, so she doesn't have to teach. Now this could be beneficial given a good guest speaker, but in my experience she just took the speaker's opinion on the death penalty and wrote questions on an exam according to his views. At the time when this was written Professor Ninh has written and published many papers in the field of sociology, only 1 of which has been cited. After all that, her exams are mostly fact memorizing or common sense application making the class easily manageable. She also gives no homework which is nice for a GE. I can rant forever on how bad SOC 110 was due to her horrible teaching but I'm just going to end by saying that if you are looking for a good laugh sit in on a class and see for yourself. If you have her this quarter, buckle up.

She was incredibly condescending. Easily the worst professor I've ever had, and I'm a first year, but I'm positive this was the worst class. I'm switching into Sociology as a major and I was incredibly dissatisfied by the lacking nature of the course with her as the professor. I'm sure Soc 110 is not as shitty with another professor, but man Ninh was terrible. The concepts were presented in such a rudimentary, illogical manner that I couldn't bare sitting through this class twice a week. Did they just hand her a degree? Probably.

NO! Do not take Ninh. She is biased, rude, egotistical. The worst part is that the students all realize early on how horrible she is and it makes sitting in the class unbearable because everyone is talking over her and asking her ridiculous questions. Goes over the same thing in multiple classes and things we never talked about showed up on the midterm and final.

As a Sociology major, I was really excited to take Ninh's class, and I enjoyed it for about a week. As the quarter went on, she continued to talk about the same thing every single class. As a woman and a feminist, I love talking about gender inequality, but Ninh only focused on gender and completely ignored other aspects of Sociology. Instead of teaching, she allowed for debates on things that shouldn't be debated on. She would allow people to say horribly offensive things and not correct them. She said some ignorant things such as "I turned a man gay once." And seemed generally uninformed on LGBT issues. By the end of the quarter, she made me want to change my major. Yes, she's nice and has good intentions, but please avoid this class.

Professor Ninh is absolutely unqualified to teach sociology. She regularly exemplified her lack of knowledge in various concepts integral to sociology (for example, doing gender). Often, she presented material in a way that did not appropriately or deeply reflect the intent of the author. Further, she was one dimensional in her understanding of sociologic concepts and demonstrated an inability for intersectional reference to concepts in sociology not explicitly lined out in what she prepared for lecture (not to mention sometimes an inability to understand the authors from lecture themselves). This is extremely problematic because to appropriately teach the subject, form constructive dialogue, and foster learning a professor must be able to refer to literature and Ninh was unable to do so. This probably why her lectures were unorganized, filled with inappropriate dialogue usually just between her and another student that wasted class time and did not allow for comprehensive participation from the whole class. This is problematic because participation is a huge part of her grading system, and she herself contributes to her student not being able to participate which causes their grade to suffer. Further, Ninh's teaching style inherently does not create an environment where students are inspired to participate because she can't, to any degree, build on on work with student's ideas (even if they are totally congruent with course material). This is because Ninh can only (badly) explain her subpar understanding of the material, not build on student's ideas or let students build on her's in constructive ways. Ninh's grading style shows at worst, she doesn't care about student success or learning and at best, is severely incompetent and doesn't know how to create a grading system that appropriate reflects learning/ success. For example (in SOC 421) there are 5 pop quizzes (handed out in the first 5 minutes of class) worth a whopping 30 percentage points of one's grade (6 each). The 1-3 questions on them are barely reflexive of the readings (intensive, but as an upper division sociology student, totally manageable and often relevant to being well versed in the discipline) due for the day, and you cannot make the quizzes up. So, if you happen to show up a few minutes late even twice, even if for legitimate reasons, you can't get better than a B in the course. How is that reflexive of learning and the meeting of legitimate course objectives? It is not. I think I've gone into enough detail about the atrocious quality of education we are receiving from this professor. If Cal Poly doesn't want their social science program/ department to be a joke, they need to stop hiring incompetent lecturers. Especially for a university like Cal Poly who purports to be more teaching oriented and not as much research oriented.

Missed the first day, went to the second day. Went to the midterm. Went to the Final. Three days of class total. I got a B, easy. This kind of shit gives our school a bad name.