Yuko Kipnis is a native of Japan with over 25 years of experience teaching Japanese to all ages, both in the U.S.A and in Japan. Yuko earned her M.A. in Intercultural Communication from San Diego State University and a B.A. in literature from Aoyama Gakuin University, Tokyo, Japan. Yuko holds a certificate of Teaching Japanese as a Foreign Language, from the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. She also works as a cross cultural communication consultant for business people and their families moving to/from Japan. In addition to teaching Japanese, Yuko has a deep knowledge of traditional Japanese culture and has attained her teaching certificate in Japanese flower arrangement from the Sogetsu school of Ikebana.