About us
At Iroha Sha, our instructors come from diverse cultural backgrounds and share a common love for teaching and cultural exchange.
Many have experience as language teachers, as educators in their home countries, or are active contributors to their local communities.
Together, they create welcoming spaces where children and families can enjoy learning through hands-on cultural and language experiences.
Instructors & Collaborators
Ayumi Yoshida
Manager
I have always loved Japan and the depth and richness of its culture, and I am excited to share these experiences with the Kirkland community through language and cultural learning.
I am a certified teacher from Japan with seven years of experience as an elementary school teacher, and I also hold teaching licenses for Japanese language education at the junior high and high school levels.
Since moving to the United States in 2018, I have been teaching Japanese to children in a warm and supportive environment where they feel comfortable, confident, and motivated to learn. I believe that language learning should be joyful, meaningful, and engaging—especially for young learners.
In my classes, I respect each child’s pace and interests while creating lessons that blend language learning with Japanese culture, including songs, stories, seasonal traditions, and hands-on activities. I look forward to learning, experiencing, and growing together with you.
Ayumi Sensei is a wonderful teacher! Both of my daughters adore her and love attending her class! I appreciate how thoughtful and encouraging she is to all of her students. She leads her classes with patience and kindness which is so important when learning a new language. I can't sing Ayumi Sensei's praises enough and highly recommend her as both a teacher and a tutor!
Amanda V
Testimonials Voices from Our Learning Community
Our daughter has been taking Japanese lessons with Ayumi for over a year and we are so happy with the progress she has made. She has really advanced in her writing and reading skills, even starting on her second alphabet. We are especially happy about her speaking skills--Ayumi makes sure that speaking in the class is in Japanese as much as possible. The classes are also planned in a way that makes them fun for the kids (not just sitting at a desk working on sheets by themselves) and really shares Japanese culture--my daughter is especially interested in everything food-related! We are so happy we found Ayumi's classes!
D. Hanson
My daughter absolutely loves her Japanese class with Sensei Ayumi! The classes are engaging and fun! Sensei Ayumi provides reasonable homework for my daughter to practice what she learned in class that week. I highly recommend this language class to students of all ages!
Robin MacDonald
Learning Japanese’s with Ayumi has been an amazing experience. She is kind , knowledgeable and makes every lesson engaging and easy to follow. Her supportive teaching style helped me build confidence and genuinely enjoy learning the language. I couldn’t recommend her more highly.
SM