Tachibana, Yoshiko  

The grading system is very unclear. A big part of your grade is "participation" but you're never told how many points this is worth or what you got. There is a ton of homework for this course...watch out! And, again, no point values are given on papers, just a letter grade, so it's hard to tell where you stand in the class. And be PREPARED for the first quiz on the characters...you only get one minute to write like 20 of them, which she doesn't tell you ahead of time, so nearly everybody flunks it. She is difficult to understand and doesn't translate a lot of things well. If you ask a question, be prepared for an indirect answer. She is a nice lady, but this class is really hard for being just an elective-type course with soooooo much homework, many quizzes, etc. Be prepared to put in over an hour each night, and make study groups!

Considering she's the only Japanese teacher Cal Poly has to offer, if you want to take Japanese, you're stuck with Tachibana-sensei. The first week or two of the course is spent teaching you the writing system, which you absolutely need to learn to survive the course. It's about 42 characters, and pretty soon, she wants you to know it in a snap. If you work at it, it's not so hard. Then the class turns into reading conversations. If you enjoy memorizing dialogues, the class is fun, but otherwise, you'll just get annoyed. The homework load can get pretty intense too. The tests weren't very hard though, as long as you studied. I'd only suggest taking this course if you really want to learn Japanese. If you take it thinking "Oh, that might be fun", you'll be in for a real surprise.

Tachibana-sensei is a good teacher for many reasons. She presents the material in a fun way. This is not a cake class. Japanese is not as hard as one might think, but Tachibana-sensei brings out the difficulty by being extremely demanding. I had previously studied Japanese before, and even though it had been a long time, I still had difficulty keeping up with the speed at which she demanded. Learn the hiragana characters by heart, and right away too. Know them so well, so that you do not delay for a second in being able to recognize or write them, as it is essential to your understanding later on. Her tests are challenging. She has a very good study guide available, and she makes you rip the pages from it, so when you get the study guide, take the time to take it apart, put hole punches in the pages, and stick it in your binder, or you will be miserably disorganized like I was with papers sticking out every which way. The study guide is great because it has exercises for the text, and supplementary material, plus it makes you have to read more in Japanese characters whereas the regular text weans you on "romanji" or Roman characters until you get comfortable. I would recommend not asking too many questions in class, as she doesn't seem to respond well to questions. Never ask why, just accept things the way that she teaches them. It is better to just memorize, than to ask why, as she is very old-fashioned about student-teacher relationships, and questions can be considered a bit disrespectful. All in all, I highly recommend taking her class, but know that it is difficult, not impossible, just difficult, and the best thing is that she really loves her job, and really loves teaching, as she struggled with learning English when she was younger, so she knows how it is. Sayoonara!!!

This isn't necessarily in terms of the class as it is Japanese in general. I haven't taken the classes here at Poly, but I figure this should be here as information for any prospective Japanese student. Allow me to warn you, conversational Japanese isn't too difficult but reading/writing is VERY difficult if your native language is based on Roman letters (ie, English, Spanish, French, German, etc.). In fact, Japanese will be difficult unless you can read Chinese fluently. Basically there are three types of "alphabets" in Japanese, and you'll need to know two of them (hiragana & katagana, 46 letters each, 46 pronounciations total) as well as you know the English alphabet. The third is Kanji, which is the Chinese characters. There are literally hundreds of thousands of Kanji characters and one could spend their entire life studying them. Most are ancient and even the modern Japanese (or Chinese) don't know them. Only about 3000 or so are used regularly though. By the end of JPNS103 you'll probably only learn 100-200 'basic' kanjis, which is probably enough to guestimate your way through the rest (often kanjis are made up of 2 or more 'basic' kanjis....). So if you intend on actually knowing enough Japanese to survive in Japan, then it will require a lot of work (as with any foreign language I should say). I think Chinese is the only language harder to learn than Japanese simply because it is ALL kanji.

Holy crap. Have you ever had a teacher who can stand in front of the class everyday, and yet never convey one single bit of meaningful information? Have you ever had a teacher of whom you could ask a very straight-forward and easy-to-answer question who would then stare at you like you were from another planet, and proceed to either a) answer and entirely unlreated question or b) ignore you completely and stare at someone else like they asked the question. If you haven't yet had a professor like this, well then by golly you're missing out. Take Tachibana-san: you'll be amazed at the absolute level of sheer incompetence displayed everytime she gets up to lecture. Note that this review says nothing about her as a person: she actually seems to be a pretty nice person, but my blinding hatred for her as a professor made it kinda hard to see that.

Ok, for the record, I am not ragging on Tachibana because I didn't pass. I would have passed easily had I attended regularly. But to the point. She's a really nice woman but a poor instructor. She assigns absurd amounts of homework (mostly busywork, but some of it is meaningful) and does not lecture well. She also tends to single out students to make a point. The class has 1 midterm, 1 final, and a ton of homework between them. On more than one occasion she lectured on the prior day's material and in the final 5 minutes introduced a new concept. We were then expected to know the new material for the homework that evening. I recommend not taking Japanese with Tachibana. Nice woman, horrid teacher.

Tachibana is a good teacher who understands that japanese is a difficult language to learn, and if you don't study your ass off, you won't get anything out of it after ten weeks. I would say that you should only take this class if you are really interested in the subject and are willing to put in two hours of homework/study for every one hour in class.

Wow, hard class for what it's worth. Only take this class if you want to really learn Japanese and get suffocated for a quarter. Almost everyone seems to have prior experience with the language, definitely intimidating and those were the ones with As. However, best recommendation, is get a study group for this class, and do your homework together, because it took long if you did it by yourself. She grades the homework hard, every detail matters, so check your work over and go to class everyday.

Tachibana is as of yet the best professor I've had. Some of what the others have said is true, but of course Japanese is going to be hard. Duh. It's not extremely difficult, especially for those who want to pursue Japanese even further. Don't take this class just to be taking it. You'll complain your ass off like the others did. She IS a bit hard on the homework and a little demanding SOMETIMES, but it's better to learn it right the first time then get to Japan or something and look like a total idiot (even Tachibana gives you funny looks when you do something wrong). If you don't want to learn it the right way, DON'T TAKE JAPANESE. Otherwise, Tachibana is a great teacher. The material is very clear, although when you take 101 (I'm in 102) her quizzes, etc might be a little surprising. Get over it. She answers your questions and helps you clarify errors in your work...if you just ASK her. Most of the time she looks over your shoulder while you're working and will tell you what you're doing wrong, but she's not going to spoon-feed you and give you ALL the answers ALL the time. She wants you to find some things out on your own. Other than that, her nostalgic stories are a bit amusing. She's a very nice instructor. Take this class!!!!!!

most people in this class are anime nerds. they take japanese and work hard in the class, and raise the bar for the professor's expectations. If you are not an anime nerd, DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS!!!

I found Tachibana-sensei to be a welcome change to the standard professor. Some of the other reviews were correct, she doesn't answer questions well if you don't ask it clearly. People have to understand that English is a hard language to get and keep up with, so people who don't formulate their questions well won't get a clear response. Overall, she was very clear in what she wanted, and critical about the homework. You need that if you actually want to learn the material. Homework isn't that tough, timeconsuming, but not tough if you actually sit down and do it. If you participate and make yourself known, she is fair on the grading. If you sit in the back, she'll never know you and will likely be more critical on your granding. I recommend her for Japanese (and considering she's the only Japanese teacher, she is what you get). The first quarter was rewarding, and I am looking forward to 102.

Tachibana-sensei is a very nice lady, and she honestly cares about the subject she's teaching. She's a little hard to understand at first, but therein lies a hidden benefit to her teaching: the ability to better understand people with Japanese accents. Just a warning, though: don't take this class unless you're seriously willing to commit yourself to it. Don't just come in thinking, "Oh, I could take Japanese. I like anime kinda. It's just a language. It'll be easy." You will be proven wrong very quickly. Japanese is in no way easy, and I had to work really, really hard for my grade. Sensei is fond of giving you and a partner three minutes to memorize a ten-line (or more) conversation, then perform it in front of the class. Also, sensei is very...fluid in her grading. If she thinks you should be able to do better than the rest of the class, she will grade you harder. My suggestions: do the work, do the reading, and memorize the book conversations before you even come into class. You'll be a lot happier, and she'll be more likely to like you.

If you're stuck at Cal Poly and you want to learn Japanese you have to take Prof. Tachibana. She teaches fairly well and you will learn a lot but her lesson plan isn't organized very well (this coming from an engineering student so take it with a grain of salt if you like) and sometimes she isn't very clear when assigning homework (so if you aren't clear ALWAYS ask questions because its her way or the highway). Also on tests she doesn't say specifically how you will be tested but as long as you have a fairly good comprehension of the material you'll do fine (as I did). Basic Summary: If you want to learn Japanese you'll definitely learn it. However this class was a little too much work for an easy free elective. If you want that take weightlifting or bowling.

Tachibana-sensei is not an easy teacher to take a class from. I came into this course with some prior knowledge of the Japanese language and I still had a very hard time with this class. She's sometimes not completely clear about what she wants from her students. I would suggest trying to be at least a little bit familiar with the two main writting systems (Hiragana and Katakana) before comeing into this class. You'll find it a lot less stressful and difficult if you don't have to struggle for 3 minutes just to read one sentance (like I did).

I've never learned a foreign language as well as I did with Tachibana, but at the same time, it was the most painful process I've ever gone through. For whatever nerdish reason you're taking Japanese, be sure that you really want to learn it, otherwise you'll drop like the rest of the weak. Read what everyone says on here, it's all true from the unclear homework to the unclear tests. Do the work, you'll succeed. Miss a day and you'll wish you were dead.

what can i say? it was really hard to grade this teacher. When it comes to her being a person, i'd say she is very nice. As a teacher, she's a little hard. Be prepared to do lots of work. There is NO easy way to get through this class, unless you are semi-fluent already. My advice to people who are taking this class 1) know the 2 basic writing methods prior to entering (hiragana and katakana), it will help a LOT. 2)

Tachibana sensei is a mediocre teacher, which is more than can be said about most poly profs. But, she assigns more than absurd amounts of homework, which are COMPLETE busy work and don't help you learn in any way. If you are lookin gto a learn a very little japanese and willing to work your butt off for a low grade then take this class. But, be warned that she teaches over-polite and old japanese that many people under 30 would look at you funny for using, and many people under 20 would have to cocentrate to understand. The homework load is not worth the knowledge, bottom line.