This is one of the most interesting and easiest GEs that I've taken at ucla. Professor Duthie is incredibly knowledgeable and understanding about student stress, especially during online learning. There were no exams, just weekly writing assignments (500-700 words). The TAs help you with what to include in the weekly assignments, and you have a chance to rewrite all of them for a better grade.

I took this class during remote learning so the structure could be different from the class in real time. All I have to say is please take this GE!! It's literally amazing. Professor Duthie is a great lecturer with good humor and clear presentation structure. He expanded the content on the textbook and I've learned so much about Japan and its history in this class. The assignments are fairly graded, and you will get a good score as long as you write them carefully and integrate the class materials. Huge shoutout to my TA Kristin for teaching us how to write effective responses!!

As an incoming freshman to UCLA, I can say that this class with Professor Duthie was both interesting and a very good introductory to GE's. He is compassionate and displays clear care for his students mental wellbeing and academic success. If you take this course, I highly recommend TA Julia Clark as she was extremely helpful in writing the papers and overall very kind!

This class was a really nice GE to take during COVID since there were no tests just an assignment once a week. I pretty much waited until after the discussion to write the paper since my TA went through the prompt and what we should write about. I would say the class took me around 2 hours a week (minus the lectures) so I would def recommend if you are looking for an easy class. The content itself was also pretty interesting and lectures were a little long but prof duthie made it go by pretty fast :)

This was a pretty easy and straightforward class. An essay (500-700 words) each week over the lecture material. The professor seems to have a genuine interest in the content and is a decent lecturer. Would definitely take to satisfy the GE requirement.

I took this class for a GE and overall it was very very easy. There were no exams and all we had to do each week was write a long response answer to a prompt every week with 500-700 words. They weren't essays and the prompts were always very straightforward (basically just summarize that weeks lectures) and only took a few hours to complete give or take depending on how fast you write.

That being said, your grade/experience in this class depends entirely on the TA you have. My TA, Victoria, was amazing and every week our discussion sections were basically summing up the main points of that weeks lectures. She gave us a blank note sheet/diagram to fill out as we went over each point and then on top of that at the end of every discussion she gave us the same exact note sheet with all the notes pre-typed just in case we missed anything while writing...which we never did because it was all written on the board. This meant that I never had to attend lecture and I would just write my responses based purely off the notes from discussion and I pretty much always got 94+ on the writing assignments. However I know some of the other TAs graded harder and people were still able to get A's they just had to work a little more for it. Also, even if you score bad on an assignment you can rewrite it so overall very very low stress class and highly recommend to anyone.

If you are contemplating taking this class with Duthie let me put it short for you TAKE THIS CLASS.
As an incoming STEM freshman having no clue what they are doing and having absolutely zero writing skills, this class was the only thing keeping my GPA and my sanity together. If this class was in person I would have made sure to buckle up on the drive to school and use my turn signals all the time.
Homework wise the class only has a weekly 500-700 word essay based on the content of the week. Personally I never once opened the textbook, the class lectures and slides proved sufficient. But i will strongly advise that you attend the discussion where the TAs will give you practically an outline of how to write your essays. With this if you at least give yourself two hours and some knowledge of the topic you can get a A on every essay.
Most important part, NO MIDTERM AND FINAL. Instead of tests the Professor uses these weeks to allow for revision and regrading of the weekly essays.
If I had to take any class at ucla ever again it most definitely will be this one hands down. Shout out to TA Yueying.

Great GE especially if you're interested in Japanese history! Super interesting. Even if you're not interested in Japanese history, still one of the easiest GE I took. No midterm, no final, just an essay every week that you can rewrite for better grades.

The professor’s lectures were really engaging, you can tell that he enjoys teaching. I wish we could’ve gone deeper into the material, but there just wasn’t enough time to do so. I had TA Suong and she was the best, super nice, encouraged participation in a way that didn’t make things awkward, and very understanding about everything going on. Definitely recommend this class, it’s super easy and fun.

This class is an easy and interesting GE!
Professor Duthie is GOAT. I don't know how his class will be like during normal time, but during covid time, we only have 10 weekly assignments to write about the topic discussed in that week. No quiz or exam. We can also revise the assignments and resubmit. TA's discussions are really helpful, since your TA grades your assignment. TA goes over the topic and explains how to write the assignment for each week. Since I got other tough classes, this class literally saves my life. I didn't have time to read the textbook and just watched recorded lectures and attended discussions, but this didn't affect the grade of my assignments at all. So if no time to go over the textbook, lecture + discussion is enough.