Professor Tamanoi is very sweet and tries her best to help out her students. Like someone mentioned before she does have an accent. Her accent is thin but her grammar is somewhat bothersome. You will still be able to understand her points but she does have grammar mistakes in power points and when she lectures. Her lectures and required readings are somewhat interesting. You should go to all her lectures. She talks a lot about the readings and the main ideas she wants you to get from them during her lectures. Although she puts her power point slides online, it doesn't fully explain her points thoroughly like she does in lecture. One thing that really bothered me in her class however was how she kept talking about the Japanese culture when we were supposed to learn about "societies around the world." I understand that she is Japanese but I wished she had focused less on Japanese culture and diversified her class more.

Tamanoi is very strict about discussion sections. You are only allowed to miss one discussion without it affecting your grade. My discussion section was with Bradley Cardozo and he was very helpful and nice (a tough grader but he goes through all the points that Tamanoi wants us to know for the final). The discussion sections are very important since that's where you can get more information about the main ideas Tamanoi wants you to get from the readings. The TAs are also the ones grading your work so it's a good idea to get their main ideas too. PARTICIPATE in your discussion sections! My TA marked down people who participated and gave them points for it.

There was no midterm for this class but there were 2 essays and a final. The essays are very doable and easy. I did both of my essays on the night before they were due and still got A's on both. That being said, don't do the same thing because I didn't get any sleep on those nights. The first essay topic was to describe my culture and the second essay topic was for me to interview someone else about their culture and write an essay on the interview. The final was very difficult to study for. She had about 50 multiple choice questions and 2 two part short answer questions. Since it was very broad, this was hard to study for; I didn't know what to focus on for the final. When you study for this final make sure you go over the main ideas in lecture, in the films she shows in lecture, the power point slides, and the main ideas & authors of the readings. Basically review everything that she taught in class. I also found some random quizlet flashcards online that somewhat helped me so you guys could also try and look up her class on quizlet.

Overall, this class easy but you have to put in the effort. I got an A- in this course but if I did the readings, then I am sure that I would have gotten an A. Do the assigned readings and go to lecture if you want an A!

DO NOT TAKE HER.

Unfortunately I did not listen to the other reviews and decided to try taking her class. It was the first time she taught Anthro 9. She SUCKED. She was so disorganized, had a very strong accent, focused on Japan, didn't care about her students, and just rambled. Lectures were stupid and my TA was even worse. She spoke MINIMAL english. I got A-s on both the papers and a B+ on the final, somehow I got a B in the class. I have never had a teacher who needed to email the entire class about them requesting grade changes HA. I spoke with many students in her class who said they got lower grades than what they deserved. She is ridiculous and is an AWFUL teacher if you want a good grade or if you want to learn.

I wish I had listened to the other reviews on here warning me that Professor Tamanoi was a horribly disorganized professor and poor lecturer and not to take her class. Hopefully you will be turned away!

I admit, I fell victim to the syllabus too because I thought taking a class with two papers was better than a midterm. However, our first paper wasn't due til week 6 (which the prompt, I might add, made no sense that even the TA's were confused), so by that time, after the harsh grades were revealed, it was way too late to drop the class without any fees or change your grade to pass/no pass.

There are infinite reasons why I regret taking Professor Tamanoi's class but to sum it up, here are some cons that really irked me:
- She is not concerned with student learning. She provides a study guide for the final but refuses to answer any questions you may have concerning the study guide, and even goes to the extent of telling her TA's they are not allowed to answer questions either.
- Her lecture slides do not make sense. Her grammar not being on point only makes matters worse. i.e. "Why care their culture?"
- She once told the class, "I got this information off Wikipedia, so if you miss anything I say, just google it and you should find it on the Wikipedia link." This goes to show how much effort she puts into her lectures. The sad thing is, Wikipedia breaks down the material better than Professor Tamanoi does.
- She assigns readings to the class that she says "are dry, but just suffer through it." I do not understand why a professor would assign readings even she does not enjoy...
- She may come off having a sweet personality but she is pure evil! She constructed a final exam with questions she admitted were confusing to herself even but still proceeded to make us take it. The final exam alone dropped my A average in the class to a B-.

Overall, do not take this class unless you want to suffer with major confusion of the material, frustration from the lack of professor feedback, and see a plummet in your GPA.