JPN-102
ELEMENTARY JAPANESE
Not in Fall 2026
Term
Overview
Feedback is mostly positive. The strongest signal is that students generally rate the course well. Best for students who are genuinely interested in the topic and willing to engage with the course on its own terms.
DepartmentAMES
Terms offeredSpring
Typical enrollment8–12
Semesters of data2
5.8
Hrs / week
37
Responses
41
Enrollment
90%
Response Rate
Evaluation Scores
Overall quality
Teaching, content, and experience combined.
4.5
Intellectually stimulating
Challenges students to think deeply.
4.6
Instructor effectiveness
Explains concepts and facilitates learning.
4.6
Difficulty
Higher means harder.
3.5
Feedback Analysis
Feedback Analysismedium
Analysis based on student evaluations
Based on 132 comments across 4 sections
Feedback is mostly positive. The strongest signal is that students generally rate the course well. Best for students who are genuinely interested in the topic and willing to engage with the course on its own terms.
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
Lighter lecture burden
Student comments describe this as more discussion-, seminar-, or workshop-driven than lecture-dependent. The lecture burden itself does not sound like the main source of friction.
Strengths
• Instructor ratings are strong even when the comments do not cluster around one obvious positive theme.
Tradeoffs
• There is no single dominant complaint theme, but the feedback is not uniformly glowing either.
Best fit for
Best for students who are genuinely interested in the topic and willing to engage with the course on its own terms.
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
1. Japanese grammar patterns 2. Japanese vocabulary 3. Kanji (Japanese characters)
Spring 2024 · Kurokawa, Naoko
Japanese language and culture
Spring 2024 · Kurokawa, Naoko
Japanese grammar. New vocabulary. Japanese Culture.
Spring 2024 · Kurokawa, Naoko
More Japanese.
Spring 2024 · Kurokawa, Naoko
Writing and speaking in japanese as well as japanese culture.
Spring 2024 · Kurokawa, Naoko
Rating History
Rating history
Error bars show \u00B11 std dev
| Term | Instructor | Overall | Difficulty | Hrs/wk | Enrolled |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spring 2025 | Kurokawa, Naoko 4.9Rate My ProfessorsQuality4.9Difficulty2.9Would retake100%Based on 20 ratingsClick to view on RMP → | 4.3 | 3.4 | 6.0 | 21 |
| Spring 2024 | Kurokawa, Naoko 4.9Rate My ProfessorsQuality4.9Difficulty2.9Would retake100%Based on 20 ratingsClick to view on RMP → | 4.7 | 3.6 | 5.7 | 20 |
Instructor
Kurokawa, NaokoAMES
Also teaches
JPN-101 ELEMENTARY JAPANESE4.6