If Professor Nogami likes you, she will be the nicest person in the world. If she doesn't, then, well, you're in a world of trouble. Unfortunately for me, I have been on both ends of the stick. Below is a lengthy review of this person, and I wish you read every word before taking her class.
If you want to take this class, you have obviously taken her 100A, as it is apparent that she is the only lecturer for 100A and 100B. You know her workload, it is tough, it is demanding, and it is soul killing. She requires you to study the materials to at least 80% proficiency before every class, and if you have failed to do that, she will give you the “I’m disappointed” look and ask you to self study next time. She will ask you questions based on the textbook, broad or specific questions alike. If you cannot answer, your best bet is to apologize to her for not being able to answer and she’ll move on. Yes, you really have to apologize to her.
Her grading is tough, but it has became clear that she expects you to be better compared to when you were in 100A. That is why she has been grading tougher in 100B. This is not just me, everyone I have talked to said so. I gave in my work in a quality consistent with 100A, and it almost destroyed my grade. I had to divert all my energy away from my major classes and just devote all of them onto Japanese, which I am just taking out of interest of the subject. For the final, the Japanese final was the first one I did because I needed to focus everything onto that one class, and had to brush off all the other awaiting finals. Lucky for me I have maintained A’s in all other classes, but it is still a horrible and traumatizing experience.
She also has a policy of don’t contact her through email unless it’s something of an emergency. She replies to emails extremely fast, always within an hour of you sending yours, provided that you are sending it in normal hours. She will ignore your email completely if she doesn’t like you personally. You cannot contact her for anything else through email, and you can only do so in office hours. In 100A, you cannot do talking exercises with her, because office hour is only for questions. However, she changed her policy in 100B, where you need to provide specific topics so she’ll do talking practices with you. Now, back to my case.
Even though this might seem as I have a problem with her class, I really don’t. She gives really good lectures. Some students find it boring, but I find it engaging. She also notices when someone strays from the lecture. It is true that her class is as difficult as… nothing to compare it to, but if you really want to be good in Japanese, her challenging ways might help you.
For some reason, she has made the learning environment extremely toxic for me, and I will report her to the proper departments. However, her personal relationship against me is not making me biased against her teaching methods. She is a super nice and helpful person if she likes you, and she is just the absolute worst if she hates you personally. Last words? Yes. If she is the only lecturer available for this class, take her, you don’t have a choice and she is not half bad if she is neutral against you. If there are other lecturers available, definitely take the other lecturer. For your life.