About Kotoba + Culture
"Kotoba" is a Japanese word that means "language" or "words". The mission of Kotoba + Culture is to help people in the Bay Area improve their knowledge of Japanese language and culture. We are a group of teachers, translators, and interpreters with extensive experience in Japanese language, culture, and education. We try to provide "fun" educational lessons for a variety of needs, as well as accurate and fast professional translation and interpretation services.
Learning a language is one of the first steps in truly understanding a culture. Learning a second language leads to learning a second culture. We believe this leads to appreciation for different customs and different points of view, and as a result, it makes you a broad-minded person. True language learning cannot be done alone. If the only goal of learning a language is to get a good grade in your language class, that is a waste. We believe the true goal of learning a language is to use it, to use it to communicate with others. In order to put this into practice, the more people around you speak or learn the language, the better. That is why our goal is to help people in the bay area improve their Japanese. The confidence that you gain through learning a second language and culture will lead to the confidence in learning even more languages and cultures. We believe our ultimate goal is to raise global citizens by teaching different languages and
cultures.
"Kotoba" is a Japanese word that means "language" or "words". The mission of Kotoba + Culture is to help people in the Bay Area improve their knowledge of Japanese language and culture. We are a group of teachers, translators, and interpreters with extensive experience in Japanese language, culture, and education. We try to provide "fun" educational lessons for a variety of needs, as well as accurate and fast professional translation and interpretation services.
Learning a language is one of the first steps in truly understanding a culture. Learning a second language leads to learning a second culture. We believe this leads to appreciation for different customs and different points of view, and as a result, it makes you a broad-minded person. True language learning cannot be done alone. If the only goal of learning a language is to get a good grade in your language class, that is a waste. We believe the true goal of learning a language is to use it, to use it to communicate with others. In order to put this into practice, the more people around you speak or learn the language, the better. That is why our goal is to help people in the bay area improve their Japanese. The confidence that you gain through learning a second language and culture will lead to the confidence in learning even more languages and cultures. We believe our ultimate goal is to raise global citizens by teaching different languages and
cultures.
Kotoba + Culture Founders
Naoko Miyazaki
Born and raised in Mie, Japan, Naoko studied English literature and education at prestigious Tsuda College. She further studied linguistics and Japanese language education at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and holds an M.A. degree. While at college, Naoko taught English and Japanese to many students. Upon graduation, Naoko worked in software development, marketing, software localization, translation, and interpretation at various computer software companies, both large and small, in Japan and in the US. She has been involved in several successful start-ups in Silicon Valley. Naoko teaches mommy & me classes at Kotoba + Culture. She also teaches at Nihongo Hoshuko, a Japanese school supported by the Japanese government. She writes a monthly essay on tips on raising bilingual children on J Weekly, one of the largest Japanese papers in the SF bay area. Naoko is a proud mom, with a passion for raising bilingual children.