Mari Fujimoto is the Director of Japanese Studies at Queens College, City University of New York where she teaches and lectures in all aspects of Japanese language, linguistics and popular culture. She believes that learning a language is the first step towards understanding the values and beliefs of a culture. Born in Tokyo, she studied at Queens College for her bachelor’s degree and at the Graduate Centre of the City University of New York for her PhD in Linguistics. She now lives in New York with her husband, fun-loving twins and two dogs.