Mika was raised in Japan where she stayed through her undergraduate studies. She earned her BA in Primary Education at a university in Tokyo where she also secured teaching certification for Primary School and Kindergarten. She then worked in a primary school in Tokyo for five years before coming to the UK to continue her studies. She enrolled at the Institute of Education, University of London, to earn an MA in Primary Education, and then did a Japanese Tutor’s Course certification at the Alpha International Institution in London – a programme designed by the Japanese Agency for Cultural Affairs for teaching Japanese as a foreign language. Mika then embarked on an MA in Educational Studies at Canterbury Christchurch University, Canterbury, and most recently she has earned a CELTA (Certificate in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) awarded by University of Cambridge Local Examiners Syndicate.
During many of these years she has taught Japanese literacy to Japanese speaking children at a London Saturday School. For over 10 years she worked as a teacher of IB Japanese Language A to MYP and DP students at Dwight School, London, an IB World School. As an IB Educator Mika has attended IBDP Japanese Language A workshops and has been pro-actively networking with other IB Japanese teachers in greater London. Mika has also supervised a dozen Japanese Extended Essays on a wide range of topics with her students consistently earning As and Bs for these papers – subjects have ranged from What is the meaning of the title of “Kinshu”(colourful embroidery), and Teru Miyamoto’s message behind it? to What is Mishima Yukio’s concept of beauty indicated in “Shiosai” (the sound of sea)?
Mika is currently working for programme supporting Japanese study abroad students in London and is very pleased to continue her work as an IB Japanese teacher with our students.