"Hi I’m Laura Ashe and I have 30 years of one-on-one and class experience teaching both English and Japanese as a second language. I have my TEFL certification and a BA in Japanese Language and Intercultural Communication from ICU in Tokyo, one of Japan’s premier bilingual language universities. I lived in Japan for many years, attending high school, college and working for some of Japan’s major companies where I taught English, translated and consulted on Intercultural Communication. . Those companies include Toshiba, Oki Electric and C. Itoh and Co. I have also been a licensed Financial Professional for 25 years in a cross border setting working for such companies as Daiwa Securities, Nippon Shinpan and Prudential. This experience helps me to significantly move my students to the next level in business English and Japanese. I am uniquely qualified to help businesspeople prepare business communications, presentations, marketing materials and documents. I will help you practice and perfect your second language presentation in a fun and effective way.

Most recently I have worked with a number of young people in high school and college who are native English speakers and are interested in learning Japanese because of their interest in anime, cosplay and manga. A number of my students went to Japan to experience it first hand after taking lessons with me. Free conversation and increasing vocabulary and number of mastered phrases as well as study through music and online are key parts of those Japanese courses. I am also licensed in Omotesenke Japanese Tea Ceremony and work in bilingual marketing and e-commerce in the Tea Industry.

I like to have fun, learn new things together and am devoted to my students success. I create custom classes to meet their interests and individual language level. As a bilingual I know the usual errors people make in both languages and will focus on correcting them until they are mastered. I look forward to assisting you in your journey to fluency and fully experiencing another cult" less...