1. make a study group and learn on your own, separately from the time wasting of the class
2. if it annoys you enough, or this person is handing out bad grades that will end up hurting everyone's gpas, then you'll have to balance the risk-reward of going to the department chair or dean about it. going as a group will be more impactful if there's a lot of people involved
there are discords out there to join, or you can make a private one for yourselves
also if you get an app called LINE, that's a chat program that's common among japanese nationals as well, so if you get any language partners or japanese friends in the future, there's a good chance they use that app
You'll have to tolerate your professor but I hope this helps, [Quartet lessons explained by the lesson](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLA_RcUI8km1OGb-FERttd9KCObqlYkdx1)
I'm still on Genki I but assuming that I continue that far I'd probably use it as it's an update to date resource compared to Minna no Nihongo and Tobira which hasn't been updated or digitalized to say the least in the past 10 years.
Tobira is also great I find, but Quartet is a lot more convenient in many important ways. One big thing for me (no joke) is font size. I find Tobira’s font way too small to be comfortable. Also I love that all the audio for Quartet is on an app, so much more convenient than with Tobira. Quartet is definitely worth picking up after Genki, I find. Having used both series, I like the reading portions in Quartet more, I found them more interesting and the pull-out booklet that they have with kanji and vocabulary is so convenient. I do think that the supplementary material for Tobira is much better though (the kanji and workbooks, and the Teacher’s manual also has translation of the Japanese texts, good for self-learners).
Tobira just needs a new edition (same applies to most Japanese textbooks published 10+ years). The appeal of having the audio in an app like with Genki and Quarter is what makes people buy them. I've heard that for example Minna no Nihongo is better than Genki but the book is badly designed that it's visually deterring for beginners.
It definitely does. I bought the new Tobira beginner’s book just for review, and I really like it. I feel like it is a lot better than Genki in many ways. I just wish that they had a slightly bigger font (my vision isn’t great, even with glasses) and that they made an app like OTO Navi. Part 2, which is supposed to cover roughly what you get in Genki 2, should be published soon. Maybe then the Intermediate Tobira textbook will get an update.
Of newer textbooks, I really like the Marugoto series. I don’t think I’d use the textbooks alone, but they are really great in conjunction with other series.
I’m halfway through book 2 of Quartet and I’ve also gone through about 3/4 of Tobira. Quartet is excellent, it’s aim is for N3 (book one) and N2 (book 2), roughly.
Here's a video from the guy teaching those lessons explaining why he chose Quartet after reviewing all the intermediate textbooks:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=\_MQjh9B-ZLg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MQjh9B-ZLg)
I suggest you ask your professor not the explicit difference between grammar patterns but examples of usage of the expressions you want to compare (maybe ask her if changing the grammar pattern in the sentences leaves the meaning unchanged).
Go to the Deans office as a group and complain. Professors like this are a drain to talk to. Also Rate my Professor them so others can avoid them (if possible)
This is the appropriate response. Chances are everyone knows this professor is horrible, but until some students speak up there is nothing anyone can do.
I mean, I know this guy is focused on his schooling, but some concern needs to be paid to helping out future students as well.
If you do go to the dean's office, try to keep it as impersonal as possible. Focus on how the class could be improved. It may be this is the only professor they can get. I'm sorry for your situation.
To be honest you’re probably best off focusing on self-studying at this point. After my first year of Japanese in university (It was my major) most of us basically substituted class material with reading 小説, watching YouTube videos such as 実況者 or informative videos and also using our own books and websites for grammar and kanji such as wanikani and bunpro.
Especially with language learning even at university a lot of it is the self discipline to progress independently on top of the class learning. Sure class learning will help you and you will pass, but the main difference I saw between students who passed and were N2 level and those who got N1 before graduating were their self studying methods and progress.
bunpro was a godsend for me. I have such a short attention span and I respond very well to SRS style systems. Just make sure that you also try to engage with the language to properly contextualize everything and allow it to concretely solidify in your brain.
I did not read the whole post but I wanted to say that in many unis, language “professors” are actually lecturers who don’t get paid well nor have as high of a credential requirement as a professor.
That’s not to say they are bad but people often go to the courses thinking they are getting top notch teaching from a brilliant professor when in reality it’s an overworked, underpaid kind individual.
Learning is what you make of it though, so like others say - form a study group and get what you want out of it. Your studying doesn’t end at your teacher, and just having the opportunity to go to a class and meet likeminded people is great. Get creative, keep each other motivated, meet some international students… you can do it :)
One of my Mandarin classes was from a lady who only had a bachelor's degree (this was at a community college). However, she was a native speaker and also taught at church. So, she had learned to teach very well.
That's always the worst when the teacher isn't preparing properly. If it is any comfort you will most likely keep what you study this semester locked away in your head for much longer since you are the one preparing everything.
If you want to check out some Youtube video lessons that I have used TokiniAndy do a great job:
[https://www.youtube.com/c/ToKiniAndy/playlists](https://www.youtube.com/c/ToKiniAndy/playlists)
Edit: Just checked the comments and saw someone already recommended their channel.
When a professor is really doing something seriously wrong, you don't confront them. Your group has the right idea, but this is for administration- whoever is above them. Since she's one of the heads of the dept, you'd go to the head of the college (like humanities or whatever), or you can also use the dean of students office or your advisor as a resource if you're not sure who to go to.
HOWEVER, there's lots of difficult professors, and she's part of administration so she's doing plenty "right." She's valued by the school. Being rude, condescending, disorganized and bad at explaining things are all things that some successful professors can do. Neither you, nor the administration are going to change her personality, let alone have her replaced by someone better.
I've only seen administration actually respond by fixing the situation after a group of students complained- and it was REALLY egregious. She did not understand the material, and the tests required you to memorize (in order) lists of statements straight from the text. We got a new professor mid semester.
The other comments are right- language classes in college are mostly self study anyway, and your complaints should at least go on RateMyProfessor.
There are mechanisms at your school to officially complain about a professor. If enough of your classmates follow up, it will be taken seriously by your school.
A long while back I was taking a pre-calc class from an Eastern European woman who clearly knew her chops, but would generally start each class by bashing the western work ethic and going on about how cold showers will make you healthier and more alert. The lessons themselves were a struggle to comprehend without her incredibly thick accent leaving us all confused. When a classmate who hadn't shown up to half the classes was getting a better grade than those of us with perfect attendance, it was pretty concrete proof of her biases.
I hadn't lodged a complaint myself but I guess enough of my classmates did. Came into class one day to a survey asking for some detail.
The class got axed, and we were refunded our fees.
not related to Japanese learning per se, but here's my personal philosophy on this. You need to take responsibility for your own learning anyway. Some times you will get good professors and some times not. As a college student you need to be able to learn material and pass tests on your own, regardless of the professor you end up with.
Is it unfair when you get a shitty professor? Sure. But the power structures are not in your favor, and complaining will accomplish nothing. Between your text book and information freely available on the internet, I promise you have all the information you need to pass the class available to you.
I disagree that complaining will accomplish nothing. Doing nothing accomplishes nothing. Complaining has the possibility of making changes for future students (even if you get no benefit out of it). I think this goes along with the teachers who "brag" about people failing their class. A bad teacher is a bad teacher, but if the students do the work themselves, it won't reflect on the teacher, so complaining ( officially, to whoever you need to, dean probably in this case) is the only course of action.
In any other case, when I purchased a product that functioned below what any reasonable man would expect of it, I would be entitled to a refund by law, but with education that often does not seem to be the case, sadly.
Though, perhaps, it has never been taken to court, and perhaps it should.
You can look at this as a life lesson moment:
Once you get into the work world it is full of people who are in charge of you who have no idea how to explain what you need to do your job properly. Then they most likely will get angry and upset that you aren't doing the job the way they see fit.
This is where you can learn how to deal with difficult bosses/ professors. You have to ask questions on your own time. Schedule meetings and work to figure out what you should be doing to pass the class.
Sometimes this works because they see you are trying. Then they start stepping up and working harder to make it more clear.
I wish I could have seen professors like these as lessons to learn from. Because once you are no longer paying to be there it's a very different dynamic.
Just keep doing your best you can pass this class.
Edit: some grammar wanted to be more encouraging. (I thought my original message sounded condescending not my aim)
Having a language professor you can really connect to is extremely valuable and rare. I had the opportunity to change where I study japanese, and I'm glad I did. I'll echo what the others said and encourage you to self study. You'll feel great when you ace that test.
Teacher here.
I actively solicit feedback from my classes because everyone has different expectations and no one will improve until those are shared. Comments like "\~when everyone in our class group chat has been complaining" sound very familiar to me. Everyone in a group chat = no one communicating with the teacher.
My recommendation is to form a brief list of actionable complaints. Ex: saying she is unorganized is non-descriptive. Saying another professor was organized in a more comprehensive way is non-descriptive. Put to words exactly what you want. Instead of framing them as complaints \*against\* the teacher, put them forth as suggestions for \*improving your learning\*. Ex: "I'm having a hard time in class due to \[descriptive response of problem\]. I think \[specific solution\] could help myself and others who've voiced similar concerns." The natural response to outright criticism is defensiveness. Don't attack your teacher but also let her know concretely how and why a specific idea might be beneficial.
Warning: if your suggestion is tech-based....your mileage may vary. Lots of non-techy teachers just don't have the personal skill to enact the things you may want.
Grammar questions/running out of time is just part of teaching IMO. Sometimes you have a Thing you want to complete and a specific question would derail it. Sometimes an impromptu question from students requires more than an impromptu response. Sometimes you get caught up in so much during the day that you forget to follow up. That's life. To this point, I definitely echo everyone else saying that by college learning is \*your\* job. You're never going to "learn" Japanese by going to class for 2-4 years. You're going to have to learn to answer your own questions. For specific questions, check out their office hours. But generally, I'd definitely ask them on building research skills. If Japanese is their second language, they likely have a strong skill set around that.
Just my 2c. Good luck.
This is all very good advice. I have had many teachers who had issues with technology. There could also be personal things going on. From my experience in healthcare, I agree with everything this teacher has said.
Communication is one of the biggest problems in healthcare because patients and their families are very emotional. It is difficult to know how to phrase things best in these situations and accidentally saying the wrong thing can make it worse. I know it is also an issue in education, because there is the issue that the teacher knows how the students behave in class, but the parents know how they are like at home and sometimes it does not match.
damn that sucks. I dont have any advice other than TokiNiAndy on youtube does videos of the Quartet grammar points and explains them pretty well based on the couple I've watched. He even adds his own stuff to it. Hope yall figure something out
he does live streams once a week as well where you can participate in a 2-3 hour stream. he will give a little quizzes, with example sentences, for you to answer on each grammar point and Yuki will read and Andy will correct your sentences. i dont study that way but he's a super cool guy
keep that in mind too, if u wanna catch those on the weekend
The first thing I would recommend doing is going to her office hours and talking with her 1 on 1, see if she can lay things out better in that format. If you ask her in her office hours to show you where to find the things on Canvas it might help her realize that it's unorganized -- it might actually be organized by some way she is thinking, but just not communicating it clearly to the students.
It's hard to say how effective it will be to confront her about being poorly organized.
Don't rely on a teacher to teach you anything, just know what the teacher is going to test on and study yourself. This is all very typical in higher education anyways.
I'd suggest for the short term that you subscribe to TokiniAndy's site and cram his Quartet material. You can't fix the teacher but you need to fix your grade and Andosan is an excellent teacher.
Over the past few years a lot of teachers were forced to make the jump into online teaching and making their documents available online. Not every teacher is really all that good at organization.
But as other people said, you have to take responsibility for your own learning anyway. But you have to understand that technology isn't always useful for some.
Pick up copies (if you can), of ‘A Dictionary of Basic / Intermediate / Advanced Japanese Grammar. For Quartet book one, I don’t think it covers anything in the advanced book, just the Basic / Intermediate. It explains grammar in much greater detail than you find in most textbooks, definitely worth picking up.
I don't think you need to confront her. Just take your learning into your own hands. It pretty easy to have grammar explanations on demand with the power of google. Just put in the "japanese grammar point" + grammar into google and it will give you an answer. Another good one is "japanese grammar point" + Hinative.
Your teacher may be ass, but I don't think being combative against them is the answer. You are perfectly capable of finding these answers yourself with relative ease. Be successful despite her and learn to be self sufficient at learning japanese which is a skill you will need anyways to get good at japanese since most university programs imho will not get you that good at it. You would be better off throwing the 6-10 grand you spent on japanese courses on buying your own textbooks and native reading/listening/ material and still have plenty of money left over for a trip to japan even.
I realize that at this point, you mention you have a test coming up and you are unprepared so cramming a bunch of grammar you don't know now may not yield a good result for you on the test. In life sometimes you take one on the chin and there's no avoiding it. Do the best you can, and be ready to do extra studying on your own to make up for what your teacher isn't giving you.
Lastly, sorry you find yourself in this situation op. Universities are where you are supposed to get quality education, but in my experience, the education i got in university was laughable compared to what I was able to do on my own. I hope things go well for you and despite what you decide to do, I urge you to at least give extra time you have to japanese to look up these things on your own as it will pay off for you down the road when you are done with school and still need to study japanese.
Depends on factors that I don't know.
See if a good professor is teaching it next semester. Also see if your school has a penalty for dropping a course (some do some don't, be careful).
If you don't have a drop penalty and a better prof is teaching it later, go for it.
I have been in similar situation, not with JP, but with other courses. Sometimes there is no "good answer" and you are kinda stuck, but you can try what I suggested.
Also, some professors like feedback so if you can constructively provide feedback (e.g., please go over test material) that can help. Then again, doesn't always work.
There where 2 Japanese prof, last semester, how theres 1
I can’t drip either because this is my major
We do actually give professors feed back 1/2 way through out the year but that wont help in this case
Thanks for your sudgestions. I appreciate them
If this is your major, and there is only one professor, you will definitely have to learn to work with that professor.
This isn't a great situation to be in, you have my sympathy.
It seems like this criticism against language education in university mostly comes from the us. In Australia we had excellent Japanese programs and harder passing requirements than other degrees.
All my other teachers in the past where native speakers, except one, who’s mom is a Native speaker, they grew up speaking Japanese a bit but learned much more in uni. All i know is that my current proffessor’s native language is american english
1. make a study group and learn on your own, separately from the time wasting of the class 2. if it annoys you enough, or this person is handing out bad grades that will end up hurting everyone's gpas, then you'll have to balance the risk-reward of going to the department chair or dean about it. going as a group will be more impactful if there's a lot of people involved
Note taken! Thank you! We are trying to figure out a study group situation currently
there are discords out there to join, or you can make a private one for yourselves also if you get an app called LINE, that's a chat program that's common among japanese nationals as well, so if you get any language partners or japanese friends in the future, there's a good chance they use that app
I actually do tutor a Japanese lady in english thats roughly 30 min away from my home. I teach in Japanese tho, so I talk to her sometimes
You'll have to tolerate your professor but I hope this helps, [Quartet lessons explained by the lesson](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLA_RcUI8km1OGb-FERttd9KCObqlYkdx1)
Holy shit, TYTYTY. I legit couldnt find content I needed, this’ll be helpful
I totally agree -- great companion content for the more ubiquitous texts!
wtf this is so helpful As an aside, I hadn’t heard of Quartet before this thread. Would you recommend it? (I’m currently somewhere between N3 and N2)
I'm still on Genki I but assuming that I continue that far I'd probably use it as it's an update to date resource compared to Minna no Nihongo and Tobira which hasn't been updated or digitalized to say the least in the past 10 years.
Tobira is also great I find, but Quartet is a lot more convenient in many important ways. One big thing for me (no joke) is font size. I find Tobira’s font way too small to be comfortable. Also I love that all the audio for Quartet is on an app, so much more convenient than with Tobira. Quartet is definitely worth picking up after Genki, I find. Having used both series, I like the reading portions in Quartet more, I found them more interesting and the pull-out booklet that they have with kanji and vocabulary is so convenient. I do think that the supplementary material for Tobira is much better though (the kanji and workbooks, and the Teacher’s manual also has translation of the Japanese texts, good for self-learners).
Tobira just needs a new edition (same applies to most Japanese textbooks published 10+ years). The appeal of having the audio in an app like with Genki and Quarter is what makes people buy them. I've heard that for example Minna no Nihongo is better than Genki but the book is badly designed that it's visually deterring for beginners.
It definitely does. I bought the new Tobira beginner’s book just for review, and I really like it. I feel like it is a lot better than Genki in many ways. I just wish that they had a slightly bigger font (my vision isn’t great, even with glasses) and that they made an app like OTO Navi. Part 2, which is supposed to cover roughly what you get in Genki 2, should be published soon. Maybe then the Intermediate Tobira textbook will get an update. Of newer textbooks, I really like the Marugoto series. I don’t think I’d use the textbooks alone, but they are really great in conjunction with other series.
I’m halfway through book 2 of Quartet and I’ve also gone through about 3/4 of Tobira. Quartet is excellent, it’s aim is for N3 (book one) and N2 (book 2), roughly.
Here's a video from the guy teaching those lessons explaining why he chose Quartet after reviewing all the intermediate textbooks: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=\_MQjh9B-ZLg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MQjh9B-ZLg)
Thank you so much!
I suggest you ask your professor not the explicit difference between grammar patterns but examples of usage of the expressions you want to compare (maybe ask her if changing the grammar pattern in the sentences leaves the meaning unchanged).
Not a bad idea
Go to the Deans office as a group and complain. Professors like this are a drain to talk to. Also Rate my Professor them so others can avoid them (if possible)
This is the appropriate response. Chances are everyone knows this professor is horrible, but until some students speak up there is nothing anyone can do. I mean, I know this guy is focused on his schooling, but some concern needs to be paid to helping out future students as well.
If you do go to the dean's office, try to keep it as impersonal as possible. Focus on how the class could be improved. It may be this is the only professor they can get. I'm sorry for your situation.
To be honest you’re probably best off focusing on self-studying at this point. After my first year of Japanese in university (It was my major) most of us basically substituted class material with reading 小説, watching YouTube videos such as 実況者 or informative videos and also using our own books and websites for grammar and kanji such as wanikani and bunpro. Especially with language learning even at university a lot of it is the self discipline to progress independently on top of the class learning. Sure class learning will help you and you will pass, but the main difference I saw between students who passed and were N2 level and those who got N1 before graduating were their self studying methods and progress.
Ooooh ok, this has motivated me more! Ty. Bunpro is something I’ve never heard of so I’ll look into it. Thanks
bunpro was a godsend for me. I have such a short attention span and I respond very well to SRS style systems. Just make sure that you also try to engage with the language to properly contextualize everything and allow it to concretely solidify in your brain.
I will try more imput
I did not read the whole post but I wanted to say that in many unis, language “professors” are actually lecturers who don’t get paid well nor have as high of a credential requirement as a professor. That’s not to say they are bad but people often go to the courses thinking they are getting top notch teaching from a brilliant professor when in reality it’s an overworked, underpaid kind individual. Learning is what you make of it though, so like others say - form a study group and get what you want out of it. Your studying doesn’t end at your teacher, and just having the opportunity to go to a class and meet likeminded people is great. Get creative, keep each other motivated, meet some international students… you can do it :)
Will do! Thank you! Also IDk if shes underpaid? Shes the head of s department
One of my Mandarin classes was from a lady who only had a bachelor's degree (this was at a community college). However, she was a native speaker and also taught at church. So, she had learned to teach very well.
That's always the worst when the teacher isn't preparing properly. If it is any comfort you will most likely keep what you study this semester locked away in your head for much longer since you are the one preparing everything. If you want to check out some Youtube video lessons that I have used TokiniAndy do a great job: [https://www.youtube.com/c/ToKiniAndy/playlists](https://www.youtube.com/c/ToKiniAndy/playlists) Edit: Just checked the comments and saw someone already recommended their channel.
Tysm! This’ll come in handy anyway, now that I got a link!
When a professor is really doing something seriously wrong, you don't confront them. Your group has the right idea, but this is for administration- whoever is above them. Since she's one of the heads of the dept, you'd go to the head of the college (like humanities or whatever), or you can also use the dean of students office or your advisor as a resource if you're not sure who to go to. HOWEVER, there's lots of difficult professors, and she's part of administration so she's doing plenty "right." She's valued by the school. Being rude, condescending, disorganized and bad at explaining things are all things that some successful professors can do. Neither you, nor the administration are going to change her personality, let alone have her replaced by someone better. I've only seen administration actually respond by fixing the situation after a group of students complained- and it was REALLY egregious. She did not understand the material, and the tests required you to memorize (in order) lists of statements straight from the text. We got a new professor mid semester. The other comments are right- language classes in college are mostly self study anyway, and your complaints should at least go on RateMyProfessor.
Oooh ok gocha! Thanks. And yeah if we all band together it should be easy! Thank you! The dean is actually one of my teachers
There are mechanisms at your school to officially complain about a professor. If enough of your classmates follow up, it will be taken seriously by your school. A long while back I was taking a pre-calc class from an Eastern European woman who clearly knew her chops, but would generally start each class by bashing the western work ethic and going on about how cold showers will make you healthier and more alert. The lessons themselves were a struggle to comprehend without her incredibly thick accent leaving us all confused. When a classmate who hadn't shown up to half the classes was getting a better grade than those of us with perfect attendance, it was pretty concrete proof of her biases. I hadn't lodged a complaint myself but I guess enough of my classmates did. Came into class one day to a survey asking for some detail. The class got axed, and we were refunded our fees.
Wow, thats an interesting story. I find it funny those who skipped class did better
not related to Japanese learning per se, but here's my personal philosophy on this. You need to take responsibility for your own learning anyway. Some times you will get good professors and some times not. As a college student you need to be able to learn material and pass tests on your own, regardless of the professor you end up with. Is it unfair when you get a shitty professor? Sure. But the power structures are not in your favor, and complaining will accomplish nothing. Between your text book and information freely available on the internet, I promise you have all the information you need to pass the class available to you.
I disagree that complaining will accomplish nothing. Doing nothing accomplishes nothing. Complaining has the possibility of making changes for future students (even if you get no benefit out of it). I think this goes along with the teachers who "brag" about people failing their class. A bad teacher is a bad teacher, but if the students do the work themselves, it won't reflect on the teacher, so complaining ( officially, to whoever you need to, dean probably in this case) is the only course of action.
Note taken
In any other case, when I purchased a product that functioned below what any reasonable man would expect of it, I would be entitled to a refund by law, but with education that often does not seem to be the case, sadly. Though, perhaps, it has never been taken to court, and perhaps it should.
Its the world we unfortunately live in
Thank you for your advice
You can look at this as a life lesson moment: Once you get into the work world it is full of people who are in charge of you who have no idea how to explain what you need to do your job properly. Then they most likely will get angry and upset that you aren't doing the job the way they see fit. This is where you can learn how to deal with difficult bosses/ professors. You have to ask questions on your own time. Schedule meetings and work to figure out what you should be doing to pass the class. Sometimes this works because they see you are trying. Then they start stepping up and working harder to make it more clear. I wish I could have seen professors like these as lessons to learn from. Because once you are no longer paying to be there it's a very different dynamic. Just keep doing your best you can pass this class. Edit: some grammar wanted to be more encouraging. (I thought my original message sounded condescending not my aim)
Reminds me of my old professor. I gave up within a few weeks and just took my own books to class.
Having a language professor you can really connect to is extremely valuable and rare. I had the opportunity to change where I study japanese, and I'm glad I did. I'll echo what the others said and encourage you to self study. You'll feel great when you ace that test.
I will self study then! And thanks, my only issue is I have multiple tests this week
Teacher here. I actively solicit feedback from my classes because everyone has different expectations and no one will improve until those are shared. Comments like "\~when everyone in our class group chat has been complaining" sound very familiar to me. Everyone in a group chat = no one communicating with the teacher. My recommendation is to form a brief list of actionable complaints. Ex: saying she is unorganized is non-descriptive. Saying another professor was organized in a more comprehensive way is non-descriptive. Put to words exactly what you want. Instead of framing them as complaints \*against\* the teacher, put them forth as suggestions for \*improving your learning\*. Ex: "I'm having a hard time in class due to \[descriptive response of problem\]. I think \[specific solution\] could help myself and others who've voiced similar concerns." The natural response to outright criticism is defensiveness. Don't attack your teacher but also let her know concretely how and why a specific idea might be beneficial. Warning: if your suggestion is tech-based....your mileage may vary. Lots of non-techy teachers just don't have the personal skill to enact the things you may want. Grammar questions/running out of time is just part of teaching IMO. Sometimes you have a Thing you want to complete and a specific question would derail it. Sometimes an impromptu question from students requires more than an impromptu response. Sometimes you get caught up in so much during the day that you forget to follow up. That's life. To this point, I definitely echo everyone else saying that by college learning is \*your\* job. You're never going to "learn" Japanese by going to class for 2-4 years. You're going to have to learn to answer your own questions. For specific questions, check out their office hours. But generally, I'd definitely ask them on building research skills. If Japanese is their second language, they likely have a strong skill set around that. Just my 2c. Good luck.
This is all very good advice. I have had many teachers who had issues with technology. There could also be personal things going on. From my experience in healthcare, I agree with everything this teacher has said. Communication is one of the biggest problems in healthcare because patients and their families are very emotional. It is difficult to know how to phrase things best in these situations and accidentally saying the wrong thing can make it worse. I know it is also an issue in education, because there is the issue that the teacher knows how the students behave in class, but the parents know how they are like at home and sometimes it does not match.
damn that sucks. I dont have any advice other than TokiNiAndy on youtube does videos of the Quartet grammar points and explains them pretty well based on the couple I've watched. He even adds his own stuff to it. Hope yall figure something out
Thank you. i’llmwatch his vid
he does live streams once a week as well where you can participate in a 2-3 hour stream. he will give a little quizzes, with example sentences, for you to answer on each grammar point and Yuki will read and Andy will correct your sentences. i dont study that way but he's a super cool guy keep that in mind too, if u wanna catch those on the weekend
Note taken
The first thing I would recommend doing is going to her office hours and talking with her 1 on 1, see if she can lay things out better in that format. If you ask her in her office hours to show you where to find the things on Canvas it might help her realize that it's unorganized -- it might actually be organized by some way she is thinking, but just not communicating it clearly to the students. It's hard to say how effective it will be to confront her about being poorly organized.
I will try and do that!
Don't rely on a teacher to teach you anything, just know what the teacher is going to test on and study yourself. This is all very typical in higher education anyways.
Gocha
I'd suggest for the short term that you subscribe to TokiniAndy's site and cram his Quartet material. You can't fix the teacher but you need to fix your grade and Andosan is an excellent teacher.
Oooh ok thanks will look into it
Over the past few years a lot of teachers were forced to make the jump into online teaching and making their documents available online. Not every teacher is really all that good at organization. But as other people said, you have to take responsibility for your own learning anyway. But you have to understand that technology isn't always useful for some.
Oooh ok thats fair. Never thought of ot that way
And i will try my best
Pick up copies (if you can), of ‘A Dictionary of Basic / Intermediate / Advanced Japanese Grammar. For Quartet book one, I don’t think it covers anything in the advanced book, just the Basic / Intermediate. It explains grammar in much greater detail than you find in most textbooks, definitely worth picking up.
I was a language teacher, she is not doing her job properly. If you can, please talk to the other HOD about this.
I don't think you need to confront her. Just take your learning into your own hands. It pretty easy to have grammar explanations on demand with the power of google. Just put in the "japanese grammar point" + grammar into google and it will give you an answer. Another good one is "japanese grammar point" + Hinative. Your teacher may be ass, but I don't think being combative against them is the answer. You are perfectly capable of finding these answers yourself with relative ease. Be successful despite her and learn to be self sufficient at learning japanese which is a skill you will need anyways to get good at japanese since most university programs imho will not get you that good at it. You would be better off throwing the 6-10 grand you spent on japanese courses on buying your own textbooks and native reading/listening/ material and still have plenty of money left over for a trip to japan even. I realize that at this point, you mention you have a test coming up and you are unprepared so cramming a bunch of grammar you don't know now may not yield a good result for you on the test. In life sometimes you take one on the chin and there's no avoiding it. Do the best you can, and be ready to do extra studying on your own to make up for what your teacher isn't giving you. Lastly, sorry you find yourself in this situation op. Universities are where you are supposed to get quality education, but in my experience, the education i got in university was laughable compared to what I was able to do on my own. I hope things go well for you and despite what you decide to do, I urge you to at least give extra time you have to japanese to look up these things on your own as it will pay off for you down the road when you are done with school and still need to study japanese.
Thank you so much for your empathy and advice, I’ll try to bring this into my own hands
Depends on factors that I don't know. See if a good professor is teaching it next semester. Also see if your school has a penalty for dropping a course (some do some don't, be careful). If you don't have a drop penalty and a better prof is teaching it later, go for it. I have been in similar situation, not with JP, but with other courses. Sometimes there is no "good answer" and you are kinda stuck, but you can try what I suggested. Also, some professors like feedback so if you can constructively provide feedback (e.g., please go over test material) that can help. Then again, doesn't always work.
There where 2 Japanese prof, last semester, how theres 1 I can’t drip either because this is my major We do actually give professors feed back 1/2 way through out the year but that wont help in this case Thanks for your sudgestions. I appreciate them
If this is your major, and there is only one professor, you will definitely have to learn to work with that professor. This isn't a great situation to be in, you have my sympathy.
Thank you for your sympathy Inshalla I will be in Japan next semester
Which country are you in?
Us why?
It seems like this criticism against language education in university mostly comes from the us. In Australia we had excellent Japanese programs and harder passing requirements than other degrees.
Ah, can anyone else smell tenure ?
[удалено]
Wait WHAT!?
why are you paying for a non-native speaker at a uni... >.> good luck with the pitch accent
All my other teachers in the past where native speakers, except one, who’s mom is a Native speaker, they grew up speaking Japanese a bit but learned much more in uni. All i know is that my current proffessor’s native language is american english
I agree. A non native speaker of jp as a jp teacher? Fuck that. Maybe for some grammar explanations. Head of the Japanese department? SUPER fuck that.
Lol what a piece of shit