Northern Illinois University
World Languages and Cultures
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

My life long research interest is multiculturalism, which I focused on during my post-secondary and graduate education. Through conducting fieldwork for my research in Canada and in Hawaii, I learned the importance of the ability to communicate via various methods. Soon after that, I started my teaching career as an EFL teacher in Japan. Seeing students smile after having a successful communication became a joy for me. Hence after I left Japan, I started teaching Japanese in Canada, France and now in the USA.

I love to learn anything new, and that passion has always helped me in getting well-adjusted to any new environment wherever life takes me. I hope I can convey to students the beauty of learning whether it is new, foreign, scary, or weird. You can live without learning anything outside of your radar, but I would rather know what is out there with my own eyes. In Japanese, we say "Hyakubun wa ikken ni shikazu," which means "Seeing once is better than listening 100 times." I believe my task is to better prepare my students with more communication tools, such as a new language so that their journey of learning will be smooth and joyful.

Teaching Experience

• Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, IL
• L’association franco-japonaise de Grenoble et de l’Isère, France
• L’école complémentaire de japonais à Grenoble, France
• Renison University College, University of Waterloo, Canada