Please introduce yourself briefly

I've been curious about foreign countries since I can remember, and when I was in junior high school, I exchanged a letter with a Philippino penpal. I majored in English and American literature at university, but I ended up without making any particular use of it. I started learning English again after my children grew up. I met many types of teachers and saw them standing at the student's eye level. Since one of my favorite teachers recommended me, I started teaching Japanese online about eight years ago. After that, I've realized that this is what I really want to do, enjoying meeting people from various countries. My favorite word: "人間万事塞翁が馬 (Ningen Banji Saio ga Uma) A joyful evening may follow a sorrowful morning."

What are the characteristics of your lessons?

1. I try to use easy words and phrases so that students can understand easily.
2. I try to design my lesson content to meet the needs of students. For example, if students want to improve their conversation skills, I will ask them many questions.
3. As for those who aim for JLPT, I will tell them the recommendable books. For students at the level of N3 or higher, I basically recommend to do by themselves and ask questions in the class. That would be desirable because they are required ability to read the explanation in the textbook and understand it. Don't worry, if it's difficult, we can proceed together from the beginning.
There is no choice for students to memorize vocabulary and kanji by themselves. I will check them in the class.
4. When it is needed, for example, when I explain grammar or when students cannot understand my question, I will write it on WordPad and share my screen to explain it. It is desirable for students to have a screen sharing function.

What do you value in your lessons?

1.Students First.
2. Even if words do not come out right away, I try to wait and it'd be a great joy to share the satisfaction of remembering.
3.It would be the best pleasure if we could create a fun atmosphere.

What do you think is the key to improving Japanese?

1. I think that the key factor to achieve the JLPT is Kanji and vocabulary. I often see people from counties using Kanji characters have the advantage of understanding the meaning easily, even if they can't read Kanji. It seems faster for them to achieve JLPT compared to people from other countries.
2. Those who want to improve their speaking ability are encouraged to memorize typical sentences.
3. In addition to textbooks, learning from TV dramas, manga, anime, and other things that interest you is also a good way to improve.
4. The more opportunities to talk in Japanese, the better.

What's your favorite thing to do?

1. One of my pleasures is going to lunch with friends (there have been fewer opportunities these days, though).
2. I like to listen to classical music. Lately, I've been into the piano music by Nobuyuki Tsujii.

What makes you happy in your lessons?

1. Students' improvement is my greatest pleasure.
2. Having a good time.
3. It's exciting to get lively information directly from students about their culture, tradition and the social issues.
4. I feel happy to be helpful to students regarding not only language matters but also other cases.

What would you like to say to the students of JapaTalk?

Continuity is power.

Non-sensei's page