CCAE Spotlight on Tomoko Takagi, CCAE Japanese Instructor

CCAE Spotlight on Tomoko Takagi, CCAE Japanese Instructor

What do you love about the Japanese language?

Varieties of honorific expressions. Traditional values and virtues of Japanese people, such as respect to others, modesty, thoughtfulness are reflected in vocabularies and wordings in the language. Also, the flexibility of written expressions. In Japanese language, there are three different writing systems (hiragana, katakana, and kanji), and in some cases you have flexibility to choose the style of your preference and each style provides a different impression.

What are some challenges students face when learning Japanese?

At the beginning stage, students may feel overwhelmed by the idea that they need to learn the three writing systems that are very different from English. However, no worries! From my experiences, even if you are an absolute beginner, it will not take that long to achieve the level to enjoy simple communications with others.

Do you have a favorite place in Japan to visit? Or a place that you suggest others visit while traveling to Japan?

It is very hard to choose one! For a place of historic interest, Matsumoto is an old, pretty castle town in Nagano prefecture, and has the beautiful Matsumoto Castle. It is fun to walk around the town that has the scenery reminiscent of old days! For nature: Yakushima, a world heritage-listed site. It is a small mountainous island with wonderful nature! Amazing virgin forests in Yakushima are noted for the highly-acclaimed animator Hayao Miyazaki’s film, Princess Mononoke.

Do you speak any other languages besides Japanese and English? Is there another language you would like to learn one day?

I only speak Japanese and English, and I am interested in many languages since my students are from various countries! It is hard to pick one language, but I would love to study French one day since I have some nice French friends and my husband is studying the language now.

Register for Tomoko Takagi's Fall 2019 classes!
Japanese: Beginner Level 1
Japanese: Beginner Level 2
Yokoso: Visiting Japan *NEW*