WAKAE KAMBARA (Japanese Language Program)
Wakae Kambara graduated from Tokyo Women’s Christian University with a B.A. in psychology and earned an M.A. in Educational Psychology from Tokyo University of Education and an M.A. in Teaching Japanese from San Francisco State University. She also holds a licentiated diploma for TESOL from Trinity College in London, U.K. She has been teaching at UC Berkeley since 1994. She had taught Japanese to students at various levels at the University of San Francisco and at language schools in California as well as in the U.K. before coming to UC Berkeley. She is an ACTFL certified OPI tester.

MINSOOK KIM (Korean Language Program)
Minsook Kim received her Ph.D. in English from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, specializing in Second Language acquisition. Her reseach interests include second language phonology espeically, Korean as a second language; crosslinguistic typology; and  content-based foreign language education.

KIJOO KO (Korean Language Program Co-Ordinator)
Kijoo Ko received a Ph.D in Linguistics from the University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign) in 1997, specializing in bilingual language processing. She then taught Elementary and Advanced Korean at the University of Chicago as a senior lecturer during 1999-2001. In 2002, she joined UC Berkeley and has been teaching Elementary and Intermediate Korean ever since. Her research interests include bilingual language organization, second language acquisition, teaching Korean as a foreign language, and CALL (Computer-aided language learning).

NORIKO KOMATSU WALLACE (Japanese Language Program)
Noriko Komatsu is a lecturer of the Japanese language. She graduated from Gakushuin University with a major in Japanese literature, completed a research course at the University of Tokyo and received training as a Japanese language specialist at the National Language Research Institute, Tokyo. Her publications include co-authorship of An Introduction to Advanced Spoken Japanese and contributions to Formal Expressions for Japanese Interaction and Writing Letters in Japanese, textbooks published by the Inter-University Center in Yokohama, entries in A Japanese Language Education Handbook, Taishukan Press and numerous articles in Nihongo Journal, etc. She has also published her own poetry. Besides the Inter-University Center where she was Program Coordinator, she has taught at several national universities in Japan and at American universities, including Ochanomizu University, Middlebury College and Stanford University.

YUMI KONISHI (Japanese Language Program)
Yumi Konishi is a native Japanese speaker. She received her MA in English from Loras College (Iowa), as well as an MA in Japanese from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She has taught English and Japanese as foreign languages in Canada, Japan, and the United States.

YASUKO KONNO BAKER (Japanese Language Program)
Yasuko Konno Baker was born and grew up in Tokyo. She received a Master’s Degree in Linguistics from University of South Carolina, and another in Japanese from San Francisco State University. She has taught Japanese and English in Japan, and has been teaching Japanese at UC Berkeley since August 1992. Her classes are lively and fun. She believes that it is crucial to have good communication with her students as well as among students in order to facilitate their learning, so she encourages students to cooperate and get to know each other well. She has had many presentations on in-class activities and reading-writing projects using the Internet. Her current interests are effective use of the Internet for teachers, and reading activities for advanced students. Her hobbies include exercise, listening to music (The Beatles, Elvis Presley and classical), gardening, and watching football and baseball.

MEEHYEI LEE (Korean Language Program)
Meehyei Lee received a Master of Arts degree in Linguistics from Cornell University in August 2003. She also received a Master of Arts degree in ESL (English as a Second Language) from the State University of New York at Stony Brook in December 1997. Her research interests are Korean mimetic expressions, comparative analysis of sound-symbolic systems of mimetic expressions in Korean and Japanese, and teaching Korean as a foreign language.

KAREN I HAO LI (Chinese Language Program)
I-Hao Li has been a Lecturer at U.C. Berkeley in the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures since 1985. Before 1985, she was a senior lecturer and educational director of Stanford Center's Inter-University Program in Taiwan. She has taught all levels of Chinese and trained many university-level teachers in Taiwan and Mainland China. She has also developed intermediate Chinese teaching materials along with advanced curriculum that include conversation and reading. Ms. Li has received several grants to develop Web exercises to enhance classroom technology.

LI JOANNA LIU (Chinese Language Program)
Li Joanna Liu received her B.A. in Chinese language and literature from Beijing Normal University in China in 1986 and Ph.D. in Chinese linguistics from the University of California, Berkeley in 1999.  Since 1997, as a lecturer she has taught Mandarin for heritage and non-heritage students, Chinese Literature in Translation, and the Structure of Chinese Language.  Her research interests include historical Chinese phonology, Chinese word formation and Chinese philology.  Her projects in Chinese language pedagogy include developing web-based teaching materials for first year students; On-line Pinyin Exercises; and placement tests for all levels of students.  Dr. Liu's experience teaching Chinese heritage students has resulted in several papers and publications include "Designing a Content-based Module for First-Year Mandarin Chinese Heritage Students"(2007) and “My Experience and Practice in Teaching Chinese Heritage Students: The Design and Use of Supplementary Reading Material for IC” (2005).  She has served as a judge (2004-2006) and Chair for the Chinese Mandarin Speech Contest (1999-2001), organized annually by Chinese Language Teachers Association of California.  Since 2007, she has interviewed the Regents' and Chancellor's Scholars and the CAL Opportunity Scholars for UC Berkeley.

KARMA THINLEY NGODUP (Tibetan Language Program)
Karma was born in Tibet and grew up in India. He studied Tibetan language, history, and Tibetan Buddhism all through High School. He taught Tibetan language and history at Dehradun. He received a Master's Degree in History and Geography. He came to the United States on a Fulbright Scholarship and received his third Master's Degree in Education from the University of Northern Iowa. He returned to India where he became the Director of the Tibetan Education Development and Resource Center in Dharamsala. He published many school textbooks and storybooks for primary-level Tibetan language education, and trained teachers in the use of these materials. He came to Berkeley in 2002 and has been teaching Tibetan language in the area since that time. He has also worked on the transliteration of many rare Tibetan Buddhist commentaries and has been the Tibetan Research Consultant for the Electronic and Cultural Atlas Initiatives (ECAI) at CAL. He worked on the Tibetan gazetteer project, recording information such as names, etymology, and history from the biography of great Buddhist scholar Je Tsongkhapa called Yellow Beryl [baid'urya ser po]. His focus in the Tibetan Program at CAL has been to incorporate modern language learning technology.

YASUE OGURO (Japanese Language Program)
Yasue Oguro received her Ed.D. in Curriculum and Instruction from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. She has taught Japanese at Roanoke College in Salem, Virginia and at the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center for eleven years. Her interests are in reading and culture. Her hobbies are karate, travel, and films.

JUNGHEE PARK (Korean Language Program)
Junghee Park earned her Ph.D. in Applied Linguistics in 2007 at UCLA.  She received her M.A. in Applied Linguistics and TESL in 2002 from UCLA.  Prior to that she obtained an M.Ed from the Department of Foreign Language Education at Seoul National University in Korea.  She has taught English as a second language in Korea at various levels from elementary school to college.  She also has extensive experience teaching Korean to beginning and intermediate level students at UCLA and has been involved in editing SAT II Korean teaching materials.  Her research interests include grammar and interaction, discourse analysis, technology-mediated (Internet and TV) communication, and communicative, task-based teaching methodologies for Korean as a second language.

CHIKA SHIBAHARA (Japanese Language Program)
Chika Shibahara has more than 20 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. Before that she taught at colleges in the Bay Area as well as in Hawaii and Washington. She is currently in charge of 4th year Japanese.

MAKI TAKATA (Japanese Language Program)
Maki Takata earned her B.A. in Spanish at Kansai University of Foreign Languages (Kansai Gaidai Univ.)  in Osaka, Japan. 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 at UC Berkeley since 2006.

YING LAURA YANG (Chinese Language Program)
Ying Yang received her M.A. in Teaching from the University of Washington in 1982, and has taught Chinese as a lecturer since 1984. She came to UC Berkeley in 1993 after teaching first through third year Chinese at Harvard for nine years. She has taught Elementary Chinese (including the course for non-heritage students, the course for Mandarin speakers, and the course for dialect speakers), as well as Intermediate Chinese and Advanced Chinese during summer. Currently she is in charge of Chinese 1A and 1B.