Language Center Instructors

All instructors have extensive teaching experience in their particular fields.

• Ms. Yuko Aizawa has taught at the Sendagaya Japanese Institute in Tokyo, Japan and at the Royal Hawaiian Academy in the United States. She has been an instructor at the Toyota Language Center since 1994.

• Ms. Reiko Akai has a Bachelor’s Degree in Linguistics, and has worked in the private sector in Japan. She has taught English and Japanese in Japan, and has been a private tutor of Japanese in the United States for five years.
  
• Ms. Yoko Fukui has worked for Credit Suisse and other businesses in Japan, and more recently has given private language instructions.  She is currently teaching Japanese at Rutgers University.

• Ms. Keiko Hama has taught Japanese in Germany and the US for over ten years. She received her MA in Japanese Sociology and Linguistics at the University of Heidelberg. Since then, she has been an interpreter, translator and Japanese teacher in the private and public sectors.

• Ms. Eiko Ishioka has a Master’s Degree in Foreign Language and Literature from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She has been teaching Japanese at several institutions in the United States for five years, most recently at University of Wisconsin at Madison.

• Ms. Tomoyo Kamimura holds Bachelor’s degree from Waseda University, MA in Linguistics from the University of Oregon and an MBA from Columbia University. She has been teaching Japanese at colleges and universities both in the US and Japan for over ten years. Currently she serves as Fulltime Faculty member at The New School's Foreign Language Department.

• Ms. Mami Miyashita earned a Japanese Teaching License in Japan, a certificate of Teaching Japanese as a Foreign Language from Ohio State University and a Master’s Degree from West Chester University. She has been involved with foreign language education for more than nineteen years, most recently at the University of Delaware from 1999 to 2005.

• Ms. Hiromi Noguchi has a Master’s Degree in Teaching a Foreign Language, Japanese, from the Monterey Institute of International Studies in California, and is seeking a Doctor’s degree in Applied Linguistics from the Teacher’s College, Columbia University. She has taught Japanese at Columbia and at the Monterey Institute of International Studies.
  

English as a Second Language Instructor

• Katherine Major graduated from Vassar College, has a Masters Degree in Special Education from Butler and Purdue Universities and an ESL Certification from The New School. Major has taught English for over seven years at several locations, including LaGuardia Community College and Cabrini Immigrant Services. She previously worked as an executive for Citigroup and IBM Corporation.

Shodō Instructor

• Masako Inkyo has a university degree in Japanese Calligraphy. She holds the highest rank in the three largest shodō professional associations in Japan. Inkyo has received many awards, including first prizes in both shodō and pen calligraphy in national competitions sponsored by the Ministry of Education. For more information, visit www.masako-inkyo.com.