Linda White

Taking Japanese 101 was an experience! Did my GPA suffer, yes, BUT, I would love taking this class again. White sensei, Takahashi sensei, and the Saigo sense (TA at the time) were all so enthusiastic and made the course material understandable. Although I did not continue Japanese, the experience and learning I gained from it was worth it.

Professor White is clearly very passionate about the topic taught in class. The readings that she assigned were all very interesting and insightful, although I personally found that they take a while to grasp. She also requires us to write a lot of one-page responses and discussion questions, but these do not take too long. The course covers exactly what the description says, and you definitely get a better understanding of Japan's inner workings of gender, sexuality, and the household system. It was very enjoyable, and the final project is also pretty open, allowing us to explore anything we have learned or want to know more about in greater detail regarding gender in Japan.

Professor White is clearly very passionate about the topic taught in class. The readings that she assigned were all very interesting and insightful, although I personally found that they take a while to grasp. She also requires us to write a lot of one-page responses and discussion questions, but these do not take too long. The cours …Read more

A bit of a strange course. In the first half, we were introduced to anthropological frameworks, concepts such as Orientalism, and a brief overview of Japanese history (focusing on the Meiji period). This culminated with a fairly easy exam where you had to prove your understanding of these concepts by writing about them. In the second half of the course, we applied the ideas we learned to topics we were interested in via a group project. For some reason, though, we spent about 3 weeks preparing these 10-minute presentations. My group worked no more than 5 hours outside of class on this project and got an A, so I have no idea why Linda devoted several weeks to nothing but the project. At the end of the term, you have to write a ~10 page research paper on a topic of your choosing. Overall, there's not that much work, and the class is a breeze as long as you do the readings (which, depending on the week, could be a bit dense). Linda is a good (but probably not great) professor, and this is a good, but not great, class.

A bit of a strange course. In the first half, we were introduced to anthropological frameworks, concepts such as Orientalism, and a brief overview of Japanese history (focusing on the Meiji period). This culminated with a fairly easy exam where you had to prove your understanding of these concepts by writing about them. In the second …Read more