Eriko Sato received her Ph.D.in linguistic from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Japanese Linguistics and Pedagogy in the Department of Asian and Asian American Studies at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. She is also the Executive Director of the Japan Center as well as the Founding Director of the Pre-College Japanese Language Program at the State University of New York at Stony Brook and has written several educational books on the Japanese language.