About Yuko

こんにちは！Konnichiwa – Hello!

I am a native Japanese speaker, and have been giving both Japanese and piano lessons since 2007 in Portland, Oregon, where I live with my husband and two kids. I teach Japanese language and about the Japanese culture, as well as piano, in both English and Japanese. The time I spend with my students is one of my greatest joys in life.

Since I was a young child, I have loved to be with people and share experiences with them. I grew up without any siblings, so the times when all my extended family members gathered at my grandmother’s house in the Kyushu countryside, surrounded by rice fields and the river where my father used to catch eel, are some of the fondest memories of my childhood. Some things that we celebrated there were Obon and Oshogatsu (New Year’s, the biggest holiday of the year in Japan). It is all the foods, the activities, and the people together that form the core of the memories I wish to share with others through my teaching.

After earning a Bachelor’s degree in English literature with a minor in French at Ochanomizu Women’s University in Tokyo, I worked as an interpreter/translator for the Japanese Maritime Agency, and as an executive assistant to the American vice president of a language service company. I completed training to be a Montessori guide for young children, then finished my Master’s in education at Loyola University in 2014, where I wrote my thesis on the advantages of second language learning and its positive effects on young children’s cognitive development.

When I am not teaching, I enjoy my son’s art, my daughter’s cooking and baking, playing the piano and practicing my French and German. Being very Portlandish, I also love to forage in nature, pick blackberries and swim in rivers and lakes.  

I completely understand how hard my students have to work to become fluent in a foreign language, as I recently passed the DALF-C1, and advanced French proficiency exam. We all have to work hard to achieve these milestones. I will help you toward your own milestones.

Recent Student Award

One of my students of 5 years recently received the Max E. Bickford Award for being the strongest student in her Japanese immersion program, thanks to her leadership and her showing the initiative to improve her Japanese skills even outside of school. My students who go above and beyond by also participating in things like AP Japanese/ the Japanese Proficiency Test N1-N5, and/or the yearly Japanese speech contest hosted by the Japanese consulate and Japanese Chamber of Commerce, constantly impress me and motivate me to keep the standards high in my teaching.