Natalie sensei grew up in Japan and is a native speaker of Japanese. She has a Bachelor's degree in Linguistics and a Master's degree in Japanese Linguistics. She also holds a 7-12th grade teaching license. She has been teaching beginner to advanced level Japanese at various institutions in the U.S. since 2009. She has taught at middle schools, high schools, universities, language schools and adult language courses. She developed Japanese course curriculum in various institutions and created many lessons tailored to the learners. Natalie sensei focuses on speaking skills, which is best motivated and fostered through person-to-person connections. Given her bilingual and bi-cultural background and expertise, she can give an in-depth explanation and practices of the language in context-specific use.