<p>Language classes are a bit special because many of those departments believe that there are too many students trying to take a lower level of the language than their expertise warrants, often their native tongue as well, as a strategy to get an easy A and boost GPAs. </p>
<p>To forestall that as much as possible, they want to speak with and perhaps test each new student, to place them in the appropriate level. In the case of Japanese, I have heard they mainly want to discuss your prior knowledge and background to get a sense of which level is best, given the strong reliance the courses have on a specific set of kanji characters they expect the student to read and write. Someone who speaks the language at home but has not learned any kanji, for example, would probably be placed in the entry level class but if the student had a decent beginners vocabulary including the kanji, they might place the student into a more advanced class. </p>
<p>To implement this goal of aligning students with the right course level, the classes from the language departments use the ‘instructor approval, CEC’ method, with the CEC handed out by whoever speaks with the student to assess level. Since the language departments are based in L&S and L&S does not require an advisor code for each registration until a major is declared, generally the first two years are advisor code free. The two categories allow for those L&S underclassmen students who want to take the class to register directly, while everyone else will presumably have been sent by their advisor to the language department to get in via the CEC. At least, that is how I interpret the list of categories for registration - all we know for sure is that L&S frosh and sophs have a certain number of seats set aside for immediate enrollment, with everyone else, including fresh/sophs when their category is full, will need to get a CEC from the instructor/department. </p>
<p>It is usually best to look up the instructor on the directory and email him/her, as this may be enough to get you a CEC without even a phone call. Explain your background and reason for interest in Japanese. </p>
<p>For language classes, it is best to find the departmental web site and look for their rules and practices for selecting the appropriate level of class. For Japanese, that is here [UC</a> Berkeley Japanese Program](<a href=“http://japanese.berkeley.edu/]UC”>http://japanese.berkeley.edu/) and it does seem that they might just have you waitlisted until the first week when the instructor can assess your fit with the class. </p>
<p>The directory is at [University</a> of California, Berkeley](<a href=“http://www.berkeley.edu/]University”>http://www.berkeley.edu/) upper right, the search box, but you click the radio button “directory” below it before firing off the search. For your class, the instructor is M Takata and a search of the directory for ‘takata’ came up with four people, two of which match - michi and maki - so you then go to the department and look through their list of people or do a google search to come up with the correct choice. The ‘staff’ entry for the department lists Maki Takata; now you have email and phone information. </p>
<p>For those who are not familiar with it, a Class Entry Code is a unique numeric code that is assigned to a single person at a time. The instructor gets a batch of CECs and hands them out to the specific students they wish enrolled. The student enters that CEC into telebears and registers for the class. The code is now used and it has no value for any other student.</p>