Sanae has been teaching Japanese for more than three decades and is currently a Professor of Japanese at East Los Angeles College, a community college in Southern California. About ten years ago, she discovered Comprehensible Input, which transformed her approach to teaching. Since then, she has continued exploring acquisition-driven approaches, including TPRS 2.0. She enjoys collaborating with
colleagues across countries and languages and continues to learn with and from an international community of educators.
One of the most meaningful experiences in her professional journey began when she became a language learner again through acquisition-driven language classes. Since then, she has studied Korean, Spanish, Chinese, and Russian, experiencing firsthand how joyful and effective learning can be. Through these experiences, she now believes that one of the best ways to grow as a language teacher is to remain a language learner herself.
She first attended the Agen Workshop in 2024 and was inspired by its community of educators and language learners who share her passion for language acquisition and lifelong learning. In 2022, she studied beginning Russian with Michele Whaley and is delighted to return this year as a facilitator for Michele's Russian Language Lab. She hopes that one day the Agen Workshop will also include a Japanese Language Lab. She is also a long time practitioner of Iyengar Yoga and sees many parallels between yoga and language acquisition. Both continue to remind her that there is always something new to learn—and always room to grow.