Background: Hiroko Yoshii has been devoted to language teaching for over 15 years. Born and raised in Japan, she started her career as an English teacher at secondary schools in Japan. She completed her master’s degree in Teaching English as a Second Language through the department of Language and Literacy Education at the University of British Columbia in Canada. After arriving in the States, she completed the WUSTL-ALLEX (Alliance for Language Learning & Education Exchange) intensive teacher training program and served as an adjunct Japanese instructor at UMSL and Webster University. She is now an Assistant Teaching Professor of Japanese at UMSL, where she enjoys participating in the growing learning community.
Teaching: Hiroko’s expertise is the practice and mastery of spoken Japanese language. She teaches the Japanese language as part of Japanese culture, rather than treating the language and culture as separate entities. She teaches Japanese-language courses at all levels from beginning to advanced, as well as electives such as East Asian Calligraphy.
Other Activities: Hiroko has worked for St. Louis Japanese Language School as a teacher, and the WUSTL-ALLEX program as a part time administrative staff. She is an avid member of St. Louis -Suwa Sister City Committee. She is particularly responsible for both inbound and outbound High School Exchange Programs, and the Lantern Festival at the Japanese festival at the Missouri Botanical Garden. She has practiced and taught Japanese calligraphy, occasionally demonstrated in the local schools and the local events.
