
Professor
Satoko Shimazaki
Most Helpful Review
Winter 2025 - Took this class during winter quarter & it has been one of the easiest classes I've taken so far. There's only one midterm paper, one final paper & you have to do 5 postings for the whole quarter which are short, one page papers that are based on the readings/films. She would post two postings per week and you get to choose which ones you will do. I will say that she does assign multiple readings/films that you should read/watch previous to attending lecture but she does discuss them & lowkey you don't have to read all of them. I would recommend reading enough of them/ watching the movies because the papers will require you to use some of your choice. Attendance isn't mandatory for lecture & they're recorded.
Winter 2025 - Took this class during winter quarter & it has been one of the easiest classes I've taken so far. There's only one midterm paper, one final paper & you have to do 5 postings for the whole quarter which are short, one page papers that are based on the readings/films. She would post two postings per week and you get to choose which ones you will do. I will say that she does assign multiple readings/films that you should read/watch previous to attending lecture but she does discuss them & lowkey you don't have to read all of them. I would recommend reading enough of them/ watching the movies because the papers will require you to use some of your choice. Attendance isn't mandatory for lecture & they're recorded.
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Most Helpful Review
Fall 2024 - I loved this class. Shimazaki sensei is super nice and bubbly. Reminds me of a mom. She's always like, "You can do it!" and then smiles and laughs. Very cute. While this is a class about classical Japanese, there's no memorization involved. All exams are open note, and if you ever forget what a word means, you can just ask her for its definition during the exam. She just won't help you with the grammar, since that's what you're being tested on. Just make sure you take good, organized notes on the grammar so that when you take the final exam, you can do well. There's readings for every week. For the first couple weeks, the readings are just chapters from the textbook that go over whatever grammar she wants to teach that week. Then for the latter half of the quarter, you have to read excerpts from actual texts written in classical Japanese. At the start of every class, there's a short 5-10 minute quiz that asks questions about the grammar from the previous lecture. Very easy if you went to lecture and took notes. These quizzes are also open note.
Fall 2024 - I loved this class. Shimazaki sensei is super nice and bubbly. Reminds me of a mom. She's always like, "You can do it!" and then smiles and laughs. Very cute. While this is a class about classical Japanese, there's no memorization involved. All exams are open note, and if you ever forget what a word means, you can just ask her for its definition during the exam. She just won't help you with the grammar, since that's what you're being tested on. Just make sure you take good, organized notes on the grammar so that when you take the final exam, you can do well. There's readings for every week. For the first couple weeks, the readings are just chapters from the textbook that go over whatever grammar she wants to teach that week. Then for the latter half of the quarter, you have to read excerpts from actual texts written in classical Japanese. At the start of every class, there's a short 5-10 minute quiz that asks questions about the grammar from the previous lecture. Very easy if you went to lecture and took notes. These quizzes are also open note.