I became enamored with Japan at a very young age through a family friendship that grew out of a sister city exchange between Everett, WA and Iwakuni City in Yamaguchi Prefecture. I took three years of Japanese during high school and majored in Cross-Cultural Studies at Whitworth University. After teaching for two years in Tokyo on the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Program, I earned an MA in Teaching Foreign Languages from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey. I have been teaching Japanese for over 20 years now. As a non-native speaker myself, I find Japanese grammar fascinating and keenly understand the struggles that adult learners face. In my free time, I enjoy watching Japanese dramas, traveling, and learning to make various traditional Japanese handicrafts.