JPN-101
ELEMENTARY JAPANESE
Offered Fall 2026
Term
Overview
Feedback is mostly positive. The strongest signal is that students say they actually learn something useful. Best for students who want substance, not a disposable elective.
DepartmentAMES
Terms offeredFall
Typical enrollment9–21
Semesters of data3
5.7
Hrs / week
96
Responses
110
Enrollment
87%
Response Rate
Evaluation Scores
Overall quality
Teaching, content, and experience combined.
4.6
Intellectually stimulating
Challenges students to think deeply.
4.6
Instructor effectiveness
Explains concepts and facilitates learning.
4.7
Difficulty
Higher means harder.
3.6
Feedback Analysis
Feedback Analysishigh
Analysis based on student evaluations
Based on 279 comments across 7 sections
Feedback is mostly positive. The strongest signal is that students say they actually learn something useful. Best for students who want substance, not a disposable elective.
Student Reports
How hard is the A?
A is doable but not automatic
The signal here is more do-the-work-and-you-should-be-fine than easy-A chatter. Students do not describe the A as automatic, but the evidence also does not paint grading as punishing.
Homework Load
Heavy homework load
Homework load is one of the clearest friction points. Students repeatedly describe assignments, readings, or problem sets as time-consuming.
Lecture Load
Regular lecture load
Lectures matter here, but the evidence points to a fairly standard lecture burden rather than a course dominated by long or exceptionally dense lectures.
Strengths
• Students repeatedly say the course teaches something concrete, whether that is content mastery, research skill, or a strong foundation.
Tradeoffs
• There is no single dominant complaint theme, but the feedback is not uniformly glowing either.
Best fit for
Best for students who want substance, not a disposable elective.
Watch out for
• A large share of the evidence comes from one instructor's version of the course, so this may not generalize cleanly.
Student Responses
Formal speaking, casual speaking, and how to think about grammar structure
Fall 2023 · Kurokawa, Naoko
Japanese grammars Japanese vocabulary Japanese communication skills
Fall 2023 · Kurokawa, Naoko
I learned Japanese from the ground up: alphabets, grammar, getting comfortable with reading/writing/speaking, etc.
Fall 2023 · Kurokawa, Naoko
Basic Vocab and grammar of japanese. Learned how to communicate with other people in simple japanese.
Fall 2023 · Kurokawa, Naoko
I learned a basic level of Japanese which allows me to have simple conversations with others in Japanese.
Fall 2023 · Kurokawa, Naoko
Rating History
Rating history
Error bars show \u00B11 std dev
| Term | Instructor | Overall | Difficulty | Hrs/wk | Enrolled |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fall 2025 | Kurokawa, Naoko 4.9Rate My ProfessorsQuality4.9Difficulty2.9Would retake100%Based on 20 ratingsClick to view on RMP → | 4.8 | 3.6 | 5.0 | 33 |
| Fall 2024 | Kurokawa, Naoko 4.9Rate My ProfessorsQuality4.9Difficulty2.9Would retake100%Based on 20 ratingsClick to view on RMP → | 4.6 | 3.6 | 5.3 | 32 |
| Fall 2023 | Kurokawa, Naoko 4.9Rate My ProfessorsQuality4.9Difficulty2.9Would retake100%Based on 20 ratingsClick to view on RMP → | 4.6 | 3.5 | 6.4 | 45 |
Instructor
Kurokawa, NaokoAMES
Also teaches
JPN-102 ELEMENTARY JAPANESE4.5