Kayoko Imagawa
Kayoko Imagawa received her M.A. in Teaching Japanese as a Second Language from San Francisco State University and
has taught Japanese to students of all ages from elementary school children through adults. She has taught at
Castilleja School (middile and high school) in Palo Alto and at several language schools in San Francisco prior to
coming to UC Berkeley in 2006. She is interested in effective uses of technology in the classroom as well as
Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL). In her spare time, she enjoys yoga, hiking, and travel.
Jing Liu
Jing Liu earned her Master’s degree in International Public Policy from Osaka University, Japan. Prior to joining the University of California, Berkeley in 2023, she taught Japanese at the college-level for the past 8 years. Jing incorporates technology and interactive methods into her teaching philosophy to create a dynamic classroom environment. She is committed to empowering students with language acquisition skills while fostering an understanding of Japanese culture.
Yuriko Miyamoto Caltabiano
Yuriko Miyamoto Caltabiano was born in Tokyo. She earned her B.A. degree in Japanese Linguistics, and her M.A. degree in Applied
Linguistics from Sophia University in Tokyo. She received her Ph.D. in Linguistics (Second Language Acquisition and Development) from
University of California at Davis. Her publications are: "Gaikoku
ni tsunagaru kodomo ni taisuru kateikyoshi borantia no yakuwari",
Sophia Junior College Faculty Journal, 2009; "Children's negotiation of
multicultural identities and multiple languages in Japan: An ethnographic study of a Cambodian boy", Japan Journal of
Multilingualism and Multiculturalism, 2009; "Consequences of
shifting styles in Japanese: L1 listeners' attitudes towards L2 speakers' politeness", Second Language Research Forum
Proceedings, 2008.
Hayato Saito
Hayato Saito joined the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures at UC Berkeley in 2019. He received his M.A. and Ph.D. degree in Linguistics at Kyoto University, Japan. Prior to coming to UC Berkeley, he was a visiting scholar at National Taiwan University. His research interests include cognitive linguistics, pragmatics, and modern Japanese culture. He has also served as a lecturer of Japanese language and literature at Ryazan State University in Russia, and as a language teacher in Japan and Taiwan. He has published:
"Teaching
Japanese literature to Russian students" in Foreign Languages in Higher Education, pp. 55-59, Ryazan: Ryazan State University,
2012; 「形態論」 (Morphology) in 『语言学-理论与应用』 (Linguistics: Theory and Application), pp. 81-95, Tianjin: Nankai University Publishing,
2013; and 「日本語の敬語」 (Politeness in Japanese language) in 『日语语言学和日语教育-研究与实践』 (Japanese Linguistics and Japanese Language
Education), pp. 292-312, Tianjin: Nankai University Publishing, 2014; and “Political cartoons portraying the Musha Uprising in Taiwan under Japanese rule” in Metaphor and the Social World, pp. 76-99, Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2020.
Chika Shibahara
Chika Shibahara has more than 25 years of classroom experience teaching languages. She was born in Osaka, and graduated from Kyoto
Women's University with a B.A. and Master's degree in English. She also holds a Master's degree in the teaching of Japanese
as a foreign language from San Francisco State University. Ms. Shibahara's early language-related experience includes translating and
writing for magazines. She has been a lecturer at UC Berkeley since 1993. Previously, she taught at colleges in the Bay Area as well as in
Hawaii and Washington. Her research interest includes teaching language and developing students' symbolic competence through films
and literature. Her publications include
Elementary Japanese Volume 1,
2, Teacher's Guide (with Y. Hasegawa et al.), and she co-authored
"Film as Source Material in Advanced Foreign Language Classes"
(L2 Journal, vol 6.1). She served as the Coordinator for Academic Outreach at the Berkeley Language Center from 2013 to 2016.
Kyoko Takahara Ahn
Kyoko Takahara joined the department at UC Berkeley in 2018. Born and raised in Kobe, she earned her M.A. degree in
Japanese pedagogy from Columbia University. Prior to arriving at UC Berkeley, she taught Japanese at Wellesley College and
San Francisco State University. She also taught Japanese heritage language to Japanese children. Her research interests are Japanese pedagogy, blended/online language instruction, and the learner-centered approach to language teaching. She values 21st-century skills to be creative and to solve real-world problems. She enjoys spending time with family and friends, reading, meditating, walking in nature and traveling.
Maki Takata
Maki Takata earned her B.A. in Spanish at Kansai University of Foreign Languages (Kansai Gaidai University) in Osaka.
She also earned a second B.A. in Liberal Studies and an M.A. in Teaching Japanese as a Second Language at San
Francisco State University. She has been teaching Japanese in the San Francisco Bay Area since 2001.
