Actually I took Japan 50

Professor Carter's Japanese 50 is a good GE. Not difficult to understand the exam are straightforward. Thought he does not post his class note online but as long as you go to the class and take the note the exam will not be a problem. 40% attendance+weekly response; 30%midterm and 30% final.

Prof Carter's Intro to Buddhism class is very enjoyable. However, you might not feel like you learn much, because every class is run like discussion where you have to participate with your thoughts and opinions (about the assigned readings). Any lecture he gives is super short and just serves as a gateway into that day's discussion. In any case, he is a good facilitator of discussion.

Writing II component was three papers, the last one being a 10-page research paper. No midterm, easy final (passage analysis). So you will be very busy with this class only at three times basically. Reading load is small for a GE. Lecture/section participation is 30% of the grade. Would highly recommend taking this if you need Writing II

I took ***Japanese 50*** with Carter as a requirement for my Japanese minor and I was surprised how much I enjoyed his class. When I took his class, I was a freshman and it was my first time taking a north campus class (I'm a south campus major), so I was afraid of things like writing papers, entirely free response exams, etc. Thankfully Professor Carter's class wasn't bad at all!

First thing's first Carter is a really cool guy. He is extremely laidback and friendly--not once did he come across as mean or intimidating. You can tell he really has a passion for what he teaches. But I also liked how you could tell that his world didn't just revolve around Japan and Japanese studies. There were a few times during class he'd make reference to rap music which surprised me and showed me that he really is a cool guy with lots of different interests. He shows lots of interesting videos during class and always has lots of cool stories to share about his experiences in Japan. He also did the JET program (teaching English in Japan), so if you have any questions about getting into the program he'd love to answer them.

As far as his class goes, I was extremely happy to find out that we never actually had to write any papers. We had 2 pop quizzes the entire quarter, and one of them he didn't count at all cause he felt bad that he caught so many people off guard. You have weekly selected articles that you must read and make a post about on CCLE. DO NOT SUMMARIZE--analyze. I managed to get a perfect score every single week for these but some students kept getting low scores because they kept summarizing and not putting any actual thoughts into the responses to the readings... The midterm and final were extremely fair and you were never expected to write more than a paragraph per question at most (most questions only required one line per answer). Here's how to get an A in his class: do the readings, go to lecture and copy down everything on the slides (he does not post slides online), and memorize what you wrote. You will literally only being asked questions whose answers come directly from his lecture slides--there are no surprises. A word of advice though is to always remember the pictures he shows during class and their significance, as the midterm and final have a portion on identifying pictures.

I got an A in his class and learned a lot about Japan. I went to Japan over the summer and it was cool to show my Japanese friend how much I knew about the country's history and the many temples and shrines we visited. If I have a chance to take a class of his again in the future, I will!

Professor Carter is a wonderful professor for this course and always has well-organized lecture slides. If you take this class you cannot expect to not do any reading and get an A. It is basically a history course so the textbook becomes your best friend. Carter's exams were not extremely difficult but there is no curve in the class so you just have to do your best. Participation is important in discussion and made up at least 20% of your grade. There were also weekly "write abouts" where students would have to answer a question about the weekly readings in a kind of brain storm way. Overall, not a hard course but don't slack off on reading

Professor Carter is a really nice and knowledgeable professor. After taking this class I'm planning to take Buddhism with him next quarter. Participation is important to the class because there're pop quizzes(short write-about) in lecture and weekly write-about in each discussion. T.A Raiyah is really awesome as well.

I always wanted to learn about Japanese history so I took this class and I really learned a lot! Professor Carter is super friendly and nice and his lectures are clear and organized.
To be honest, during the first few weeks I was quite bored because I only skimmed through the readings and did not really know what was going on. Right before the midterm I reread the book, actually understood the material and was quite fascinated by it.
After I took the midterm, I realized you actually only need your class notes to ace the test (He is an extremely fair guy, no surprises). But I was still glad I read the book because I learned so much about each period and their cultures. However, for the second part of the class (after midterm), I would recommend just focusing on his lecture notes, because the book provides a lot of unnecessary info and names that you don't need to worry about (and are not as interesting).
As for the discussion sections, they are mandatory because you need to do the write-abouts. Basically you do the assign readings and answer a question that the TA poses. As long as you show the TA you actually did the reading you get a point. I would recommend writing down the title, author, date, and a short description of the weekly assigned reading as you read them, to save you some time when it comes to midterms and finals (text identification). Some of the readings are actually super interesting, a few were quite boring.
On midterm and final there is also image identification. He gives you three, you pick two to identify (if I remember correctly). It's actually quite easy to predict which ones he would test on, so I wouldn't worry too much on this part.
Overall it was a really great class I hope I can take Prof. Carter's class again!

This class requires the student to read the material and be prepared to have an open group discussion during class. For me the reading material was relevant to the topics Professor Carter covered. The class discussions were fun because we all got to know each others perspectives on the readings and through the discussions we all got to know each other. Does that make sense?
It is nice to have a class that you can learn in depth without feeling a lot of pressure. I enjoyed Professor Carter's classes.

Easy to get an A. Tests are easy and he gives extra credit. I think he's moving though so no more of his as a teacher :( But shoutout to the TA Tommy Tran, he's pretty quirky/funny and makes sure you know what you need to know for the tests.