"Hello! My name is Drew. I was born in California and raised in Maryland. I've always been drawn to other cultures, and especially the traditional art forms of East Asia. This is why I fell in love with Japan and the Japanese language. I taught myself basic Japanese during high school by translating song lyrics, which I still enjoy doing today. My other hobbies include singing, art and outdoors activities. I studied abroad in Nagoya, Japan and have also visited Tokyo, Kyoto and Nara.

I have a master's degree in Japanese Translation from Kent State University and two bachelor's degrees, one in Japanese Language & Culture and one in Asian Studies, from University of Maryland Baltimore County. I have 1 year of formal teaching experience in Elementary Japanese (101 and 102) at the college level, which I taught both in person and online. I've also been an online TA (Teaching Assistant) for Japanese at the same level. Although I don't have a teaching certificate, I received training in foreign language education during graduate school, which involved shadowing (observing) professors and receiving feedback on my own lessons. I also have tutoring experience which I did outside of class while I was a teacher. Additionally, I have experience with students on the neurodiversity spectrum such as autism and ADHD.

During my time as a teacher and tutor of elementary Japanese, I always tried to make lessons fun by incorporating the students' interests into the lesson. I also made it a point to teach students important cultural details that would give them an edge from the average learner of Japanese. Additionally, during my time as a TA, I wrote daily lesson notes with an overview of what was learned in class, extra information, examples and resources, and built a Discord server for students to access all of this. I also provided this kind of content to my classes and to students I tutored, but personalized to their needs and interests." less...