Experience Summary
I am native Japanese and graduated from a Japanese university. I was dispatched as a newspaper correspondent to the US, and later began to work a interpreter after I obtained a green card.
Since the arrival of the US, I have a burning desire to teach Japanese and her culture to people abroad. I have been a home tutor for students of various ages, ranging from college students through grade school to business person, though I had been much involved in the IT industry last fifteen years.
Because of my career as a software engineer, I had to spend more time for linguistic research of Japanese. To learn a language of Japanese, however, the linguistic theory or educational methods is less important.
Through my tutor experience, I have come to the conclusion that a purpose driven method is the best. If a student wants to speak Japanese, he should speak Japanese a lot, while to read Japanese, students should read it a lot. It is very simple but
So, I seek to satisfy the desire of the learner first, and then, I will do OPI-like (Oral Proficiency Interview) interview in a natural manner to understand the student. With the result of these two approach will take me to the study plan which is designed specifically for you.
My methods, however, require students to read aloud the same text more than hundred times to develop the quality and quantity of verbal and reading Japanese. This will become the basis on which you can build your good command of Japanese.
For Kanji learning, I will help or assist the method the students are taking, Heisig method, Kanji ABC, or any methods that you Kanji text book recommends. If you do not have peculiarity, I would like to use the expand-method from 101 basic Kanji to two thousands.