About Yumiko

I’ve been teaching Japanese to university undergraduates in the UK for over 10 years. Before that I worked teaching English in schools in Japan. I also have worked in a Japanese company in Japan and have studied lingustics to Masters level in the UK. These experiences have led me to understand what truly matters in learning a language and where students struggle and why a real tutor can make a huge difference.

Students can easily master a few phrases by themselves but struggle when it comes to choosing which grammar, structure or vocabulary to use. Japanese is also heavily driven by social context and culture. For example typical word choices can vary based on gender, age and context such as social vs business settings. Most translation tools do not get this right as they do not take account of these aspects.

Many students who are learning from inexperienced teachers or a self-learning platform often encounter confusion or overwhelm and give up easily. They can also lack confidence and feel embarressed to speak to native speakers.

To address these issues I have developed a teaching approach based on:

• A step by step approach to learning
• Giving students small successes in every session, to build confidence
• Creating a fun, supportive and comfortable learning environment
• Explaining the culture of Japan to deepen students knowledge
• Giving clear context as to where to use a particular vocabulary or phrase etc and compare and contrast this to the same context in English