This class is super work heavy. You have homework everyday, plus you have pre-lecture work to do as well. The schedule is pretty consistent, every lesson spanning 2 weeks, but it's still a lot and can easily become overwhelming if you're not on top of it. If you have a lot of other workload-heavy courses and can't dedicate at least an hour to homework and another hour to studying everyday, I wouldn't really recommend this course. It's still a fun course despite all that, and Sato-Sensei definitely cares and tries to help as much as she can. This course is very hard, but has a good pay off for all the hard work you put into it, just be wary about the workload and be prepared to dedicate a lot of time.

Don't take this course if you are interested in Japanese. This course is worse than learning by yourself for 3 reasons.

1) class is discussion based. You talk to people who actually have no clue about the language. You won't improve when everyone knows nothing about the language but are speaking in incomplete Japanese.
2) class has insane workload. You get two homeworks everyday and 3 quizzes every two weeks and 3 test a semester AND a final exam except for the quizzes everything is graded harshly.
3) Every course material are meant for you to study by yourself which means there are no lessons and if you can do that just study on your own don't take this course.
4) grades aren't transparent. You don't get to know what you got wrong on tests and you can't negotiate with the instructor.

I got an A- for this course but at the cost of losing interest in Japanese and being frustrated about grading.

Sato Sensei is great if you have never taken Japanese before. She is slightly easier than Marshall Sensei, but Marshall Sensei really makes you know your stuff. Don't be afraid to make mistakes in her class. She is also very helpful in office hours.

Sato sensei is an amazing professor! She focuses heavily on dialogue practice in class to make sure her students can truly use japanese. she's also very approachable and will help you if you are struggling in any way. The tests are fairly hard, and the course requires a lot of collaboration with your peers. There's a lot of work that goes into this course, so it definitely is not an easy A. Japanese 1010 comes with a very rigorous schedule that is planned out from the very beginning so there should be no surprises. There are about 2 quizzes per week and a test every 2 chapters. Take it if you are willing to put in a lot of time and effort into learning the language.

Sato-sensei gives a lot of work - mainly homework. You HAVE to do it all, otherwise you'll fall behind in class since what you do in class basically revolves on what you did for homework. Otherwise, Sato-sensei is extremely fair and helpful. She highly encourages her students to go see her during office hours. I know I have - she's very nice about everything, and don't be afraid to ask questions. You learn a lot in this course, especially since there's a strong emphasis on all three elements (speaking, reading, and writing). Towards the end of class, Sato-sensei will even discourage you from speaking English during class. Highly recommended.

Love Sato-sensei! People have told me that she's intimidating but Sato-sensei is anything but scary. She does get upset when people don't get their work done, but that's reasonable and even then she's not mean towards her students. Her syllabus lays out the entire semester's schedule and she sticks to it, so you know what kind of workload to expect from the beginning. Not a ton of emphasis is placed on kanji since this is only 1010, but you really have to know your katakanas and your hiraganas well within the first couple weeks of class. Also, read your material ahead of time; she doesn't merely repeat the stuff in the book during lectures but instead builds upon the lessons in the book, so if you don't do the readings and expect to get away with it you'll fall behind very quickly. She also grades fairly and is a very pleasant teacher to learn from. It's a busy class, but it's not a hard class. Sato-sensei is awesome! :)

Sato-sensei is the bomb! Much more fun than the other 1010 teacher. Taking this class was one of my best decisions. It is a lot of work, mostly studying and preparing for the next day's class (it is everyday! Prepare for non-stop Japanese for your semester if you choose this!). Conversational skills are strengthened every single day in class. Very intense, sometimes (especially towards the end of the semester) my classmates and I doubted our abilities to continue with this class...BUT in the end we all pulled through with a strong grasp of the language and strong ties with our fellow classmates. Based on other language classes my classmates and I have taken, Japanese was one of the most work-intensive, but one of the most rewarding. You will not regret this! All your work will be worth it.

Took this class my first year and hated it. Nothing personal against Sato-sensei. She's an excellent teacher and wants to see you succeed. But the expectations for this class are, in my opinion, unreasonable. If you haven't had prior experience with the language or aren't good with languages, you better be able to devote most of your study time to this class.

Sato is a strict teacher and she demands a lot from her students but she works just as hard as you will. I don't know a professor who works as hard as she does to help her students learn. Only take this class if you have a strong desire to learn Japanese and enough time to commit, as the work sometimes gets overwhelming.

She's very strict - doesn't let you get away with much. There is a ton of work, you really have to be devoted to learning Japanese. I've heard that other sensei's are better, but Satoo Sensei is not bad at all.