Leader’s Profile

Mie Kawasaki
English and French
language consultant

After graduating from university
with a degree in the faculty of art,
she worked as a hospital volunteer in England and then studied French at Lyon Second University in France.

After returning in Japan, she worked for an education agency, coodinating the assignment of Assistant Language Teachers and programming English curriculems for the Kanto district.

In the process, Ms. Kawasaki created the TEE method of English language learning, then trained many high quality Assistant Language Teachers.

This year, she founded the non-profit organization, Lingua Akademeia, to educate and spread the word about the benefits of the TEE method.

Background and Theory

Japanese speakers study English for many years starting in junior high school, but most of us have no fluency with speaking or listening.

“If I could only speak English fluently…” I often hear this comment. Many of us have the longing to be able to speak freely with all our foreign visitors.

In addition, we feel resigned to not having the capability of improving our English. It is our typical Japanese inferiority complex.

However, the problem is not us, but rather the usual methodology of learning English. Learning only reading and writing, we lack total communicating skills.

Therefore, it is important to learn English in English, so I want to recommend the TEE method, which teaches all aspects of the language in a natural manner.

There is one important prerequisite before starting to practice the TEE method. You must stop thinking there is standard spoken English. American, Australian, Great British, Irish, and so on, much be thought of as "World Englishes".

In Japan, since the Meiji period, we’ve had about a 120 year long history of foreign language education. To learn about western cultures, it was necessary to translate the literature as exact as possible, so the basis for English education in Japan became that of grammar, reading and translating.

Even today, we still continue the same traditional
English education from the Meiji period. Introducing the TEE method is like casting a stone into traditional English education.

“Using most of ones senses and sub-conscious mind, one learns to transmit meaning to words”. The TEE method can bring out everyone’s potential for language naturally.

We took the ideas from the pioneers who created the basis for foreign language education and improved upon their theories.

Our goal is to overcome cultural and language barriers in order to facilitate real two-way communication. Ultimately, this will contribute to a better global society.

April  2006

The Non-Profit Organization, Lingua Akademeia

Leader  Mie Kawasaki