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.