WTMA Japanese Culture through Film

[Melissa B]

Did anyone have a student take this last summer that could provide thoughts?

I told my son he could take it this summer as we were out of town last year.  I had a bit of 'sticker shock' at the price. $360 (+$100 in fees) for seven hours of instruction/discussion? 

Is it worth that price? Are there any other Japanese film classes through other providers that I could consider?

(If we do take this class we would also take the Shakespeare class as well, assuming it fits into his schedule, so the fees would actually be $50 per class.)

 

[zoo_keeper]

My eldest did last summer. She loves anime and has been interested in learning the language.

Honestly, it was pretty  disappointing to her but that could have been an expectations issue on her end. She thought she’d learn some language and stuff about Japan when it turned out instead to only be a film critique class. Each week she’d have to submit a pretty in-depth essay on that week’s film. Now she loves, loves writing and had completed 2 of wtma’s expository writing classes by then but these essays were critiqued much more thoroughly than those class assignments were.
 

Just an FYI, like I said, we could have simply misunderstood what the class was about.

 

[Another Lynn]

My dd took the class last summer.  We didn't have a lot of experience with online classes, but I was willing to take the risk since it was through WTMA.  Though not cheap, I considered it totally worth it for us because we have nothing comparable locally and because I trust SWB to offer quality.  My dd really enjoyed the class and considers the instructor one of her favorites.  (She still feels that way in WTMA's Japanese 1 class this school year).  Our only negative is that dd doesn't really love online classes and wishes it could be local and in-person.    

[Caraway]

I thought it was "worth it" and my student generally liked it.  However, the films were not what I expected.  I would recommend reading the description of each film (or reviews) to see if it is what you're looking for.