Prof Duthie is totally awesome! He's super chill and wants people to learn for the sake of learning and not for GPA's. So like, his class isnt hard, but it isnt easy. Basically, if you put in the work for your grade, you'll get the one you deserve. You wont study hard and then get a crappy grade.

As said below, Duthie builds his class around learning rather than grading. You could reasonably skip the lectures and just use the study guide he emails out. It has all the possible questions. The midterm and final are basically the same format and length, not cumulative. The TAs determine your grade so either hope you get a nice one or talk a lot in discussion (attendance and participation in discussions count towards your grade). He assigns a good amount of reading (20-50 pages per week + textbook) so if you don't particularly care for Japanese history it will bog you down and you do need to read for the tests as well as discussion.

Duthie has a British accent and talks fast but he's usually easy to understand and has a good sense of humor. He likes to show pictures and short video clips, which helped keep me awake. It should be an easy A if you do most of the work. I give him an 8/10 overall.

Even though I did not have much interest in Japanese Civilizations, I found that his lectures were very well prepared, filled with videos, sounds, and images to make them informative and entertaining. The readings for the discussion sections as well as the suggested reading from the textbook amounted to a lot of reading, although the readings for the sections were fairly entertaining. Pretty easy GE, although there is quite a bit of information to memorize for the midterm and final (non-cumulative).

The structure of this course is like a typical translation course except here you alternate days where you're the translator or the reader. There's a mid-term and final that aren't comprehensive and a final paper.

This course was a disaster, Duthie steamrolled too many texts and didn't ease students through the work at all. He'll start the class off talking about how he wants you to "just dive in" and "ease you into" the text, but he fails on so many levels.

First off, he'll never discuss grammar or any relevant aspects of the stories, you just get PDFs of Japanese textbook scans (with the original in the middle, footnotes at the top, and if you're lucky the modern version at the bottom), but these texts are usually out of date and contain numerous out of use kanji and 1930s spelling, not to mention that if you aren't a native Japanese most of the supplemental text that appears in the textbook will be a pain to decipher.

Second, he'll start you off with English translations for the readings, and make an effort to give you passages with no English translations later on. While I get the whole trying to make us better at Japanese idea, it fails because we never utilize the grammatical analysis you work so hard on for J110. As a result, homework usually comes out being a copyfest with a couple of students doing the actual work and the rest mindlessly regurgitating translations.

Third, the tests are either too easy or too hard. There's 3 sections, 2 passages from previous readings and a third, brand new section. The third section he said he'd give us supplemental vocabulary for but the midterm was a disaster and only 1 person could actually understand the passage. He compensates for the difficulty by grading generously. Overall you don't utilize any Japanese skills, just memorize all the translations from class and you'll ace the tests.

On a final note about the English translations he gives you, I don't know if he intentionally chose to use the WORST English translations or what, but the English translations are very unfaithful and thus, make the readings that much more painful. If you're smart you'll research the stories beforehand and check to see if its translated by more than one author, usually the more modern versions are faithful.

I got an A, but this class wasted too much time and I don't feel like I learned anything at all.

This class is basically memorization of time periods and participation in discussion. I showed up to every single lecture and I think that the information from lecture was the only thing really needed to do well in the class. The textbook reading isn't very necessary if you show up to class. Lectures sometimes have videos and music which makes them interesting. Professor Duthie brings up some discussion points in the lecture that are insightful. He could get a little boring now and then, but I enjoyed his class and I thought it was an okay GE.

Class format:
30% Discussion (involves weekly response papers around 300 words each)
35% Midterm
35% Final (not cumulative)

Exam format:
5 short response questions (around 10 sentences each) about certain time periods or important concepts (40% of the test)
10 identifications (2-3 sentences each) of people or important concepts (40% of the test)
5 passage identifications (from the discussion and lecture readings). You need to include the title of the article, author, time period it’s from, and 1-2 sentences about the article (20% of the test).

Thoughts overall:
One of the easier GEs with a manageable workload. The readings for discussion sections were very interesting. I definitely recommend this class if you don’t mind the weekly response papers and exams that are all writing. When you’re preparing for the exams, go to the test bank. Seriously, I found it quite helpful. It gives you an idea of the format of the exam and the amount of detail the graders are looking for. The study guide professor Duthie provides is kind of not very helpful…so go to the test bank lol.

The rest of this post is going to be more of my opinions about the class, so you can stop reading if you’re not interested lol.

I honestly had very low interest in Japanese history because I just have a low interest in all history lol. But the class turned out to be quite interesting and I’ve developed a much greater appreciation for the concepts covered in class.

The readings required for discussion section were really thought-provoking/enjoyable to read and helped create a more personal tie to the time periods. Discussions about the readings for weekly sections were quite enjoyable as well, but that may have been because my TA was super nice.

The last two posts said that you could only go to lecture or only read the book to do well. I went to all of the lectures and read every page in that book (because I’m a try-hard) and I think that they’re both kind of important. The lectures give you an idea of what’s important/what you need to memorize for the exams and the textbook gives you more detail/greater understanding about the concepts emphasized during lecture. I suppose to don’t have to read every word in the textbook though. I have to admit that I still had to Wiki a lot of concepts to better understand the relationships between time periods/concepts, but I don’t think it was entirely necessary. I found this website pretty useful if you're intersted: http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2126.html

I thought the lectures up to the midterm were pretty good. They emphasized a lot of important concepts and it was pretty easy to study for the midterm as a result. I did really well on the midterm because I had a pretty good idea of what to expect. But I didn’t think the lectures relating to the final were as thorough because there were quite a few things on the exam that I had no idea about. The lectures kind of just listed a bunch of stuff without elaborating much. There was a lot I studied for that wasn’t on the final and a lot of stuff I didn’t even know existed that was in the identification section. I definitely studied more for the final and did way worse than the midterm lol. People in the previous posts mentioned that the lectures were boring, but I really didn’t think this class was all that boring. I won’t go so far as to say that the class was fun, but the lectures weren’t bad and professor Duthie showed some videos, which were nice.

If you’re still reading this, I’ll give you some brownie point advice and mention that you should pay attention to the TA lectures (each TA lectures on a topic of their choice) because their topics are still covered in the exams (at least for the final they were – the identification portion). I really didn’t think they were that important, so I just listened to the TA lectures and enjoyed them without really taking the time to memorize to the important concepts in the lecture. So I ended getting owned on the final because I could only remember which topics were mentioned by which TA, but I had no idea what to write about the topics….heh.

Also, make sure you do all of the readings on the syllabus. Especially the additional readings for lecture. I don’t know if it was just me, but the formatting of the syllabus or the font threw me off. I would look at the readings and only see the textbook readings and totally glance over the additional readings for lecture. So I got owned again on the final because there were additional reading passages that I didn’t know I was supposed to read. Whatta tragedy.

Overall, I was a try-hard and spent way more time on this class than I should have. But I enjoyed it! Even if I didn’t do as well as I hoped lol. Meh.

Final grade: A

Woooo

I can't comment on Professor Duthie's ability as a professor since I stopped going to class the latter half of the quarter, and when I did go, all I did was sleep or do homework, but as a GE class, this class was fairly easy.

The grading scheme was 30% class participation, which was split into 15% for discussion responses that are due each week before section, and 15% participation. Participation is actually taken very seriously, as Duthie has a point system for it (but my TA never really showed any effort at taking down names for participation points, so it could have been just my section).

Then there's a 35% midterm and a 35% final. The final and the midterm were the exact same format. There was a short answer part, which was 5 questions that you answer with ~10 sentences, with topics that range from describing a certain time period, or describing important historical events. He has you choose from 3 "categories" and you pick 1-2 questions from each category. Then there was 15 "identities", of which you choose 10 and identify them in a few sentences (3-4). Then there was the primary text identification, where he puts a paragraph from the primary text you read for discussion, and you identify it with the name, author, date, and what its about. He gives a study guide of sorts telling you the format of the test and what can be on it.

As said before, it is completely unnecessary to go to lecture. Reading the textbook/primary texts will give you all of the information to do well on the exams. My class never got a writing assignment as mentioned in earlier posts, so maybe Duthie will change it around a bit next time.

All in all, as long as you don't mind reading alot and exams consisting entirely of writing, then take this class with Duthie.

Great teacher, easy class...
Honestly, lectures and reading the book is not necessary at all, but his lectures are interesting. At first I did all the readings, but after the midterm I realized I didn't have to. You do have to, however, read the outside readings. I got 100% on both my midterm and final. All you have to do is study the exam guides he provides you two days before the test. SERIOUSLY, EVERYTHING ON THE STUDY GUIDE IS ON THE EXAMS VERBATIM. There's only one writing assignment, but he reveals that it is only a grade booster and that everyone who does it receives an A. Discussions are the only mandatory component to this class and remember to participate a lot, because it's 20% of your grade. Overall great class and is very interesting, especially if you are interested in the Japanese culture.

Test Format:
-First section: Five short paragraphs on anything from cultural development to dynasty description
-Second section: Define 10 out of 15 terms/keywords
-Third section: Give/Identify the author, date, title, and short description of the outside readings.

As a GE course, I'd say this is the easiest I've taken with the exception of Korea 50 with Duncan. I took this course as my first GE two years ago in my first quarter and the class was fairly interesting for the most part. Just read the material he gives, participate in discussion, and do well on the assigned weekly essays, and you'll do well. Exams are not hard if you read the textbook, it's not that hard to review for it.

Awesome professor, awesome class.

Duthie is a good lecturer that is passionate about teaching. He supplements the lectures with videos and pictures. He gives powerpoint slides that are NOT posted online, so you need to attend lecture to do well on the tests. Sometimes he goes too fast so you need to take pictures of the slides. He'll occasionally say "this will be on the test", and he's telling the truth- so take note of that and make sure you memorize that topic.

I read all of the textbook chapters and I don't think it helped me very much.

Workload is 2 longish (~15-20 page) readings per week and 1-2 textbook chapters each week. The readings are actually pretty interesting, so they're not that hard to read. Then you have to write a 300-500 word response to the readings.

The tests are just a series of short essays, some identification questions, and excerpts from the readings that you have to identify. Not hard if you memorize the lecture notes.