10 years teaching Japanese — from basics to business. Let’s reach your goals together!

Find out more about Tomo

• Do you speak this language fluently because of your origins or because a teacher inspired you to learn?

  I speak Japanese because I grew up in Japan. Today, I use Japanese to communicate with my Japanese clients and to write novels.

• Can you name a living, historical or fictional character that you think is the emblematic representative of the language’s culture?

  Miyamoto Musashi.
  
  His approach to being curious and pursuing many different disciplines in order to perfect one thing—primarily swordsmanship—resonates with me.
  
  I believe that going through different life experiences gives you many examples and ideas about how things work.
  
  For instance, learning English and Chinese helped me understand how the order of information differs from Japanese. This can give you hints about how different cultures prioritize information.
  
  Ultimately, it can be something as simple as “I love you” versus “I you love.” In Japanese, you often have to wait until the end of the sentence to know the action.
  
  When I explain this to my students, they often become more interested and gain a meaningful foundation for understanding a new language structure.

• Is there a typical word, phrase, tradition or behavior in the language that you particularly like?

  I like how Japanese has both honorific and casual forms. This gives speakers a wide range of subtle ways to express humor, sarcasm, excessive politeness, or extreme casualness.
  
  It is very cultural and niche, and it can even be self-deprecating at times, which I find quite amusing.

• Why does speaking this language matter to you?

  I enjoy teaching, and it also helps me discover new aspects of the language that feel completely normal to me as a native speaker.
  
  I would like to keep my vocabulary polished and my sentence structures clear.

• What is the main difficulty in learning this language and what can help the process of learning?

  It depends on a student’s goals and learning style, but I think there are three main challenges.
  
  
  
  1. Multiple writing systems
  
  Japanese uses three writing systems: Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji.
  
  The distinction between them is relatively simple, but it can feel overwhelming at first.
  
  Kanji is somewhat like an emoji in that it visually represents meaning, and each character may have multiple readings.
  
  Hiragana and Katakana function more like an alphabet.
  
  
  
  2. Making mistakes, especially with honorific forms
  
  Many students have the impression that they cannot be impolite when speaking Japanese.
  
  To some extent, I understand this. Even I feel a certain pressure to remain polite when speaking Japanese, especially in business settings.
  
  However, students often confuse politeness with never making mistakes.
  
  I encourage students to make plenty of mistakes with me, especially at the beginning, so they can build the muscle memory needed to think and speak in Japanese.
  
  
  
  3. Verb conjugations
  
  Japanese verbs conjugate according to specific patterns, and the rules can initially seem confusing.
  
  This is an area I am constantly working to teach more effectively.
  
  I tell students to think of conjugation rules as guidance when they feel lost, rather than something they must follow perfectly at all times.
  
  As with the previous point, it is important not to become trapped by the fear of making mistakes.

• Provide a valuable anecdote related to your language learning or your days at school.

  When I studied English at school, we learned the concept of the “5W1H”: What, Who, When, Where, Why, and How (and I usually add Which).
  
  I have found this concept very useful when teaching students how to think and form sentences in Japanese once they have learned some basic phrases.
  
  Many students want practical but also deeper conversations. Once you know how to ask “Why?” and explain “Why?”, conversations become much broader and more meaningful.
  
  I also believe that vocabulary is extremely important.
  
  It took me about six months in New Zealand before I felt reasonably comfortable speaking English.
  
  When I travel to China to visit my family-in-law, it is frustrating not being able to communicate as well as I would like. That frustration can be a powerful source of motivation.
  
  Language learning never truly ends. Keep learning new vocabulary and grammar at your own pace, and give yourself at least six months to see meaningful improvement—especially if you are immersed in the language.
  
  Of course, it also depends on your ability to hear and reproduce sounds. Personally, I am not particularly gifted in that area either.

• How has travel or a specific trip helped you to increase your skill and knowledge of the language?

  I have worked in Canada, traveled throughout Asia, and met many people from Europe and South America.
  
  Everyone has a different accent, including me.
  
  There is nothing wrong with having an accent. What matters is whether you can communicate your ideas and understand others.
  
  Standard American and British accents are widely understood because they are commonly heard through media and education.
  
  However, as soon as you travel to rural areas—or even to New Zealand and Australia—you encounter accents that can be difficult for everyone, including native English speakers, simply because they are unfamiliar.
  
  Realizing this made me much less self-conscious about my own accent.
  
  Instead, I focus on expressing and organizing my ideas in a clear, direct, concise, and engaging way. The exact approach changes depending on the listener and the environment.

• What makes you a Superprof in language?

  I love teaching, and I love learning alongside my students.
  
  Every time I teach, I discover something new, and my own Japanese becomes a little better.
  
  If I can continue growing while helping others grow as well, that is an incredibly rewarding process.