<p>Okay okay…last question. Anyways…has anyone taken Japanese language classes here? I would love to know how the teachers are and things. I already know people are going to say Japanese in typical is hard and ask me if I have studied it and so on. So before you ask those questions. I have studied Japanese and I already know how difficult it can be. However, since my major is in International Relations…I have to have a fluency in another language. Honestly, Spanish does not interest me, I already took it for three years…and it’s not a critical language in the U.S. I like studying the characters and even if the teachers are hard, I don’t mind… I like a challenge. So, if anyone can help me…thanks!!!</p>
<p>My sister took Japanese 3 last quarter (when she took the placement test, she was told she was eligible to start with Japanese 4, but since she wanted to take a Japanese class that same quarter, she was put into Japanese 3 since 4 wasn’t offered then) and it was a breeze for her because she had already seen the material (although with a different textbook. Our community college used Genki, UCD’s Japanese courses use Nakama). Basically class sizes are small, especially once you get into the higher levels. I think my sister said her class was only 18-20 students or so.</p>
<p>Hi, I just finished taking Japanese 3 last quarter. The teacher I had was Professor Shigeyama-Heath (the Heath part is her marriage surname, but we all call her Shigeyama-sensei) and she was a really nice and soft-spoken teacher who cared for her students. I don’t know about the other professors though since I’ve never had a class with them, but you can read reviews about them on RateMyProfessor to get a general sense of what their past students think about them. As sopranokitty said, the book we use is Nakama. Now I normally advise to buy the book from places like Amazon, but the class relies on a website that requires a registration code in order to log in and do the workbook activities. </p>
<p>Also, since you’ve taken Japanese before, you’ll need to take the placement exam so they’ll know which level to place you at. First you’ll be testing on grammar, then listening, and finally, writing. I strongly recommend that you prep yourself up for the writing portion–that is, reviewing all the grammar, kanji, and vocabulary that you know–before you take the exam. I pretty much waltzed in there with pretty much no preparation and so while I did fine on the first two part of the exam, I did horribly on the writing because I blanked out.</p>