Hello everyone! My name is Johnny Chu and I started working at Tokyo Seitoku University this spring. I was born and grew up in America, but my parents are from China. My family is from the southern Chinese province of Guangdong. The capital of this province is Guangzhou (広州), which is known for dim sum (飲茶), and the Canton Fair, which is the oldest and largest trade fair in China.

Before coming to Japan, I studied how to teach English to non-native English speakers. I became interested in teaching English to non-native speakers because I grew up in an environment where many people don’t speak English as their first language. Helping other people learn English, the lingua franca, is something I enjoy since it gives the opportunity to people to forge new connections.

My research interests include second language acquisition, pedagogy, error correction, etc. I like to find ways to improve English education in the classroom since I am both a teacher and a researcher. To achieve this, I like to try different learning tools in the classroom to see their effectiveness, and to collect student feedback. Recently, I’m interested in distance learning tools and techniques because remote learning has become extremely popular during the COVID-19 pandemic.

I hope I can help you improve your English skills during your time at this university. In addition, Chinese classes are not available at this university, but if you are interested in learning or practicing Chinese, please feel free to talk to me. I look forward to seeing you in the classroom! 如果你對中文有興趣的話，你可以找我聊天。