JPN-305
ADVANCED JAPANESE
Offered Fall 2026
Term
Overview
Feedback is mostly positive. The strongest signal is that discussion is a clear strength. Best for students who will actually talk in class instead of sitting silent.
DepartmentAMES
Terms offeredFall
Typical enrollment6–8
Semesters of data3
4.9
Hrs / week
18
Responses
20
Enrollment
90%
Response Rate
Evaluation Scores
Overall quality
Teaching, content, and experience combined.
4.8
Intellectually stimulating
Challenges students to think deeply.
5.0
Instructor effectiveness
Explains concepts and facilitates learning.
5.0
Difficulty
Higher means harder.
3.5
Feedback Analysis
Feedback Analysishigh
Analysis based on student evaluations
Based on 47 comments across 3 sections
Feedback is mostly positive. The strongest signal is that discussion is a clear strength. Best for students who will actually talk in class instead of sitting silent.
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
Moderate homework load
Homework load looks moderate. The recurring signal is steady weekly work, but not a course that turns every assignment into a grind.
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
• Discussion is a clear strength; students repeatedly describe the class conversation as engaging and useful.
• Students repeatedly say the course teaches something concrete, whether that is content mastery, research skill, or a strong foundation.
• Readings, films, or outside materials come up repeatedly as a real strength rather than filler.
Tradeoffs
• There is no single dominant complaint theme, but the feedback is not uniformly glowing either.
Best fit for
Best for students who will actually talk in class instead of sitting silent.
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
I was able to do improve my conversation skills and become more confident using japanse as a language.
Fall 2023 · Chen, Yunchuan
Japanese speaking skills improved greatly. Become better at listening critically at Japanese as well, can understand some news reports now. Expressing complex thoughts and ideas through speaking and writing.
Fall 2023 · Chen, Yunchuan
I greatly improved my speaking ability and learned how to respond in a variety of situations. Three things I learned was how to tell a story, how to request help, and how to order in a restaurant.
Fall 2023 · Chen, Yunchuan
I developed my reading, writing, listening and speaking japanese language skills. I also learned about japanese culture and society. I’ve become more comfortable in my language abilities.
Fall 2023 · Chen, Yunchuan
Developed further discussion and presentation skills in Japanese, learned about various topics such as religion, education system, traditional performing arts, and pop culture in Japan, learned new grammar and vocab in Japanese.
Fall 2023 · Chen, Yunchuan
Rating History
Rating history
Error bars show \u00B11 std dev
| Term | Instructor | Overall | Difficulty | Hrs/wk | Enrolled |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fall 2025 | Chen, Yunchuan 5.0Rate My ProfessorsQuality5.0Difficulty2.0Would retake100%Based on 5 ratingsClick to view on RMP → | — | — | 4.5 | 6 |
| Fall 2024 | Chen, Yunchuan 5.0Rate My ProfessorsQuality5.0Difficulty2.0Would retake100%Based on 5 ratingsClick to view on RMP → | 4.8 | 3.5 | 4.3 | 8 |
| Fall 2023 | Chen, Yunchuan 5.0Rate My ProfessorsQuality5.0Difficulty2.0Would retake100%Based on 5 ratingsClick to view on RMP → | 4.8 | 3.5 | 6.0 | 6 |
Instructor
Chen, YunchuanAMES
Also teaches
AMES-334S JPN LANGUAGE & SOCIETY4.6AMES-353S EAST ASIAN LANGUAGES AS L2S4.0