This is a review for K172, Christianity in Korea.

There were so many times I would catch myself almost calling him “Pastor” instead of “Professor”... He really does give off this pastorly vibe. I can’t explain it.

Professor Oak (what a rad name, right) is a meh-level lecturer. His powerpoint slides make no sense and are riddled with tons of tiny and unimportant details. If you miss class and look at his slides later, you won’t understand much of it. If you go to class, try to write notes, and look at the slides later, you probably still won’t get it. His lectures don’t wander or go off on tangents, but 75% of what he talks about seems to have no real practical importance, especially since you won’t get tested on anything until the final (no midterm!), and quizzes are based on the readings and thankfully not his lectures. Which is not to say that the readings make much sense, either. Some of them were clearly written with a target audience, one that has much more background knowledge of the material than you do, and so you'll slog through it without getting much out of it. And Prof Oak won't always explain those obscure terms during class, nor will Google always be of much help. I think the quizzes seemed to have gotten more difficult over time - they went from more general to “list the five main points of the 1988 doctrine,” and I think a few times he tested us on secondary readings rather than the primary ones (which are the ones we’re supposed to be tested on).

He does mumble a lot, and sometimes his accent gets in the way. (Once, he said that “Christians will be ruptured” -- he meant “Christians will be raptured.”) He emphasizes a lot of the theological points, which won’t make that much sense to you unless you’ve studied Christian apologetics or Biblical hermeneutics in depth, and like I said before, the more historical points are just full of unnecessary, complicated details. He seems to prefer these over broad themes and general points. He also has a lot of slides of scans of Korean documents, so if you can't read it, it goes completely over your head.

There was no midterm, but there were three reflection papers, and you could opt out of the final by writing a 10-12 page research paper. The reflection papers are easy because they come with such a strict, elementary format. The intro HAS to start with your thesis, you have to have sections marked off as “summary” and “reflection/comparison,” and your conclusion HAS to start with a thesis, summarize your main arguments in the body, and then again end with the thesis. Honestly, you’d be better off cutting out the summaries and just doing straight analysis, but whatever, it’s simple enough even though it’s a pain. As for the regular final, though, he supplies you with a bunch of questions beforehand, and he picks a few that you have to write on for the test. Not too bad. It’s clear that he really wants you to do well by dumbing things down for everyone.

I do get the sense that he does have favorites, like the other reviewers mentioned below. Toward the end I stopped caring, and my quiz grades dipped because I was always studying for another class and only skimmed the readings the night before, and I was constantly on my phone ignoring lecture. But I made efforts to write my paper early and went in to get his feedback often in office hours, and I got an A in the class.

He also spams you with emails to complete the instructor evaluation at the of the quarter, which is pretty unusual for a professor. It means he cares about improving the class, but who knows if he's completely aware of how best to actually do that.

I took Korea 172 with him. The topic was very interesting, and he did an excellent job of delivering the information to the class. The class can be boring if you're not interested in the subject, but Prof. Oak tries his best to make the class entertaining and interactive. He's a VERY generous grader.

I took KOREAN 177 with him. WORST lecturer EVER- he mumbles in his thick accent (not a good combo). Class is very boring. Worst part is that I think he's a subjective grader based on whether or not he likes you or not. I got a hundred or higher in each Reflection Paper and did well on the final paper. I didn't really participate in class but no one did except for maybe 2 students. My grades on those assignments were higher than my friend's and he still got a higher grade than me. (that friend also did not participate and was on AIM all day every day!)

I took Korea 177 with him and it was a disaster. He kept on telling everyone that if we went to his Office hours that we would get A's. Naturally, I went to ask him questions and even participated in class. He grades so easy on the RPs but then when the final paper comes he takes off points for everything. Not objective grading at all. Who says you should get a 7/9 for participation when no one in the class ever even spoke up and went to his office? He's inconsistent and has a very thick Korean accent that is hard to understand. A nice guy though but still the reading he assigned was super long and you didn't even have to read it if you weren't doing your RP on it. I'd skip this class if possible, unless you are and understand Korean. Randomly he'll bust out Korea jokes leaving all the non-Koreans clueless.