Bio

I became deeply interested in teaching Japanese as a foreign language as I was taking courses for a certificate at my university in Japan. This led me to teach Japanese at a vocational school in China, after which I became a Japanese TA at Middlebury College for a couple of years. These experiences fueled my desire to learn more about the Japanese language and pedagogy, which led me to pursue a Master's degree in Japanese linguistics at the University of Wisconsin - Madison. I then became the coordinator of the Japanese Studies Program at West Virginia University, where I worked for 8 years building the program. I have always had a strong interest in Kanji (Chinese characters used in Japanese) and how best to teach them to students. During my time at WVU, I noticed the importance of being able to infer the meaning of novel Kanji compounds in authentic texts and decided to come to CMU to do research along these lines.

Department Member Since 2023