Ikuya Takahashi was born in 1983. When he was 20, he went abroad to England for the first time as an exchange student and stayed there for 10 months. There, he found intercultural communication both fascinating and difficult, and he strongly felt that he needed to know more about the culture and history of his own country. For this reason, he decided to become a tour guide interpreter. Subsequently, he worked as an interpreter for JICE, a government-affiliated organization for several years. When he was 27, he decided to go to Paris, one of his dream cities, and stayed there for one year. The following year, he did his master’s degree in International Studies and Diplomacy at SOAS, University of London. Since coming back to Japan, he has been working as an English instructor, teaching classes for various corporate clients as well as interpretation courses and classes in preparation for exams such as IELTS or TOEFL iBT. In addition, he has taught numerous private lessons for professionals and students alike who were preparing to study abroad in order to obtain advanced degrees. He has also been in charge of managing teams of instructors with different nationalities and backgrounds as well as developing curricula for Academic English classes at several prestigious universities in Japan. To date, he has taught about 5,300 hours. His passion is travelling, and so far he has been to 35 countries, the most recent of which was Cuba.