Our Language Instructors

Yuki Gokita

Yuki Gokita was born and raised in Kyoto, Japan. After graduating from the conservatory in Tokyo with a major in Music Education, she came to Boston to study music. Since then, she has been a teacher at the Japanese Language School of Greater Boston in Medford for more than 30 years. Currently, she is the Elementary Department Chair at the Japanese Language School of Greater Boston. She has also been working in the public school in Brookline since 2007 as a paraprofessional for the English Learners program. She likes music and sports, and she's a big Celtics fan!

Kaoru Minagawa

Kaoru Minagawa was born and raised in Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture Japan. After graduating from Sophia University, she worked for the Japanese Airline Company ANA until she went to Moscow to study Russian at Moscow State University. She has lived in Russia, UK, New Zealand, and now America for many years. She taught Japanese at Towson University and currently teaches at the Washington Japanese Language School in DC.

Emiko Takai

Emiko Takai was born in Hokkaido and raised in Kanagawa, Japan. After graduating from Keio University, she worked for a local newspaper in Japan for a few years. She then attended the University at Buffalo in Buffalo, NY and obtained an MA in Political Science. She taught Japanese at several universities in the Rochester, NY area. Nowadays, she teaches Japanese classes for adults in New Jersey. She also has experience working as a translator/interpreter.

Nikki

Nikki is from Kagoshima, Southwest Japan and earned her English teacher certification in Yokohama. After graduating from Sophia University, she taught English to Japanese people of a wide range of ages, from preschoolers to adults, in Japan. Now she has been teaching Japanese at the Japanese Language School of Greater Boston.

Her teaching motto is “楽習” which means “fun learning.” She believes that learning should be fun and exciting, not boring or a pain. So have fun with her and you’ll learn a lot without realizing it!