in the beginning, i thought he was nice, from the impression i received from his lectures. But, when i went to see him and when i saw him on campus he was very mean. Almost, felt like he was a hypocrite. his cold voice freaked me out. his attitude was like, "why are you here, dont bother me. didn't pay attention during my lecture?".
he gives wrong information and often he himself made corrections on the next lecture. furthermore, what his lectures conflicted with the TA. (very confusing.)
he gives out pop quizzes which are very hard and often time, most of the people, (not only with no Korean background) but people who had already taken other Korean courses failed. (yes, there were make ups. but they were harder!)
he was never ever on time. probably twice through out the whole quarter. you can grab anyone who took Korean 50 and ask about this. HE WAS VERY UNORGANIZED!
overall, i did all the required readings, handed in all my homework, i was never late or even missed any of the lectures and discussions. although the quizzes were very hard, all my scores were As and Bs(thanks to my other professors). midterm was a take home. so i dont understand why i have a grade that is lower than i deserve unless i failed the final, which i prepared ever more than other classes!
take him only if you would like to work really hard only to receive a low grade.
there are lots of readings. his lectures never make sense. i'm a pretty good note-taker but i was very frustrated to review my notes for this class. he jumps around the topics and time too much!!!!!!!!!! and most of the time, he writes down unnecessary names and things on the board. I dont understand why he even writes Chinese characters all the time when less than a 2% of the class understands them. rather than trying to show off his knowledge in Chinese characters, it would be better for him to spend extra time organizing his lecture and try to focus on one thing at a time.
lastly, professor duncan was a guest speaker once. all though his voice was kinda boring but his lecture was very organized! it was very informative, too. i am so regretting i didnt drop the course after finding out walter was going to be the lecturer instead of duncan. if you are thinking of taking any korean courses, id suggest to take it with other professors than Lew because there are others who are more knowledgable in EAS dept.

Professor Lew is very knowledgeable about Korean civilization and other east asian civilizations as well. He is very intelligent. In the beginning of the quarter his lectures were disorganized and confusing but later on it became much more interesting and easier to comprehend. I think that as long as you go to all his lectures you'll do fine in his class. He hates it when people leave early so if you are planning to leave early then sit in the way back and plan to run out before he tries to stop you.

i agree that his lectures were very disorganized, but i found the class interesting, despite him rushing everything. he showed websites, had several guest lecturers, and he allowed a lot of freedom (letting students do projects and such for final). just make sure you go to the lectures. he gives pop quizzes and a lot of the material on tests are from his lectures. it was a waste to buy the over priced readers since i got an a without reading anything and he covers most of what's going to be on the tests. and if you go to class, do not plan on leaving early. also, his take home midterm was a plus.

he is very knowledgeable about korean civilization... maybe too much..
because in his attempts to try to teach the course he tends to scatter a lot of information.
but if you do undestand the whole concept and isable to write your notes without no outline then you'll be fine. also he really cares that you do show up to his lectures.. (do go because it really helps if you don't want to the immense reading materials he gives) also note that he give pop quizzed which will make you study. when he said he wanted to get to know the students ..he seemed really sincere,, really caring that we understood what we were learning.

This professor was the most unorganized man i have ever taken. He is never prepared to teach and cant decide what material to explain. There is a lot of reading (200+ pages of reader per week for a ge and all of it is necessary). He was not a good professor but one can tell that he is a very intelligent man. He fails to communicate his knowlege to the students in an understandable way. His exams are difficult because there is too much material and he often will test on obscure topics not covered in class. I would not take him again.