No experience necessary! We'll get a fun introduction to Japanese language and culture. We'll start with greetings and introductions in Roman characters and go from there.As we learn to speak and understand, we'll also learn hiragana and begin applying our writing to our conversations.  My teaching strategy is to create a starting point for the first lesson that helps me assess who I have in the class, their strengths, weaknesses, learning styles and interests. I then customize the session to the people I am teaching. Each session will cover slightly different content as I develop the next logical lesson plan based on what we just did. In fact, I often write my next lesson plan directly after teaching. My technique uses dramatic play and games to make repetition fun. I also weave information and skills studied throughout the session to keep the first lesson fresh while we add to it. I will provide printable writing practice sheets and cards with which you can play "memory" and "go fish" to practice reading. I also assess based on watching and listening to what my students are doing and saying during class and hearing from them about their experience with the homework. So it is important that each student at least try to do the writing homework. If they are not able to finish it, knowing how long they worked, what was difficult about it for them, and why they were not able to finish, helps me understand how to adjust my strategy so that it works for them. This is how I took my Absolute Beginner Spanish for Teens class from not knowing any Spanish to being able to hold short conversations with each other in just 8 weeks.

A little about me: I have a Bachelor's degree in Japanese Language and Culture from Indiana University. Upon graduation, I lived in Japan for almost 4 years. The first year and a half, I spent in a large English conversation school teaching and learning about teaching method and curriculum. The second two years I served as the Head Teacher/Coordinator for a privately owned 2-branch English conversation school that also contracted with Yomiuri Culture Centers. I created curriculum, recruited teachers, trained teacher, evaluated teachers and students, in addition to teaching my own class schedule of 3-94 year olds. The President often took me to business meetings and events where I learned about more Japanese business cultureWhile there, I immersed myself in Japanese life. I have many Japanese friends. I studied dance, and voice in Japanese. Since then, I have privately tutored students learning Japanese, including having taught Hayden Christensen to speak Japanese for his role int he feature film "Awake". I have more than 25 years experience teaching various languages to various ages and levels. I currently run a popular program at my local community center where I develop and teach infant/toddler enrichment classes and homeschool classes.