The Language House's instructors are native Japanese with extensive teaching experience at university or high school levels. All insteructors have master's degrees in Linguistics, Japanese Language Pedagogy, Teaching of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) or related field.
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Ms. Mayumi Nishida, the founder of Language House, has extensive experience in Japanese language education. Ms. Nishida was the Senior Instructor at the Japan Society Language Center for ten years, where she originated and developed several courses for advanced students and teachers training courses. She has also taught Japanese at Columbia University, Baruch College of the City University of New York and the Japan Foundation New York Office. In addition, she has provided private and group instruction to executives and professionals of Citibank, the New York Times, Rockefeller & Co., JP Morgan and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP, among others. Ms. Nishida holds her dual master's degrees (M.A. and M.Ed.) in Applied Linguistics and TESOL from Columbia University. |
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Ms. Mariko Aratani received her M.A in Teaching Japanese as a Foreign Language from University of Wisconsin, Madison. Ms. Aratani has extensive experiences in teaching Japanese at various levels, middle school through college as well as private students. In addition to the current work at Language House, she has been an adjunct professor in Japanese at Fordham University and Pace University. She previously taught at Madison Country Day School where she developed a Japanese course for middle and high schools. Ms. Aratani is interested in eclectic teaching methods in order to accommodate different learning styles of students as well as to make lessons as clear and enjoyable as possible. |
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Ms. Nobuko Hasegawa has extensive experience in teaching Japanese language at the secondary level in the U.S. Having received her M.Ed. in Second Language Acquisition from Boston University, Ms. Hasegawa's interests have revolved around teaching learners with various learning styles, making use of meta-linguistic awareness and teaching grammar. She enjoys learning languages herself and likes to make connections between her experience as a language learner with that as a language teacher. Ms. Hasegawa currently teaches Japanese at Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts in New York City.
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Ms. Kazue Kurahara received her M.A. in Teaching Japanese as a Foreign Language and TESOL from New York University, and holds teaching certificates in both Japanese and English as a Second Langauge from New York State. In addition to current work at Langauge House, Ms. Kurahara teaches beginning and advanced Japanese courses at Hunter College, the City University of New York. Previously she has taught Japanese at Horace Mann High School and the United Nations International School. She is well versed in the latest methodologies, and is constantly exploring various approaches to make her lessons clear, practical and fun. Ms. Kurahara also worked for many years as part of educational non-profit organization based in Japan.
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Ms. Sae Okihara has taught Japanese at several institutions in the U.S., including the East Asian Study Department of New York University and Individual U., a private school in Manhattan that provides special education for children with language disabilities. Ms. Okihara is an expert at teaching Japanese to young students between the ages of six and eighteen, developing various innovative approaches using audio-vidual teaching materials. She has also been providing individual and small-group Japanese instruction to executives and professionals at Oppenheimer Capital, Cantillon Capital Management and Marubeni America Corporation. Ms. Okihara received her M.A. in Teaching Japanese as a Foreign Language and TESOL from New York University. |
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Ms. Ritsuko Yokota has taught for several years at Okayama Japanese Center after receiving her M.A. in Japanese Studies from Kobe College in Japan. She has an extensive range of experience in teaching adults, particularly with exchange trainees, who needed to study Japanese before serving the local government or companies. She has special skills in developing the direct method of teaching in which English is not used in class and learners handle the Japanese language directly. She currently teaches 5th-12th grade students utilizing the immersion method at a private college preparatory school in New Jersey. Ms. Yokota is also actively involved in a project developing Japanese textbooks in the U.S., using her extensive experience in editing textbooks in Japan throughout her career. |
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