Dogen

About

Best known for his comedic skits in Japanese and his courses on the phonetics of speaking Japanese. He has earned respect and adulation among both English and Japanese speakers for his knowledge, his teaching style, and his light-hearted approach to Japanese language and culture. He has a hefty 170,000 followers on Twitter to go along with his 550,000 YouTube subscribers. 

Before Fame

He grew up in Washington state. He spent his high school years studying martial arts videos on YouTube, particularly videos of kids "tricking," which involves lots of kicks, flips, and moves. His name Dogen was inspired by a 13th century Zen master and the founder of the Buddhist sect Soto. He focused on creative writing and Japanese at the University of Washington before moving to Japan. 

Trivia

After college, he joined the JET (Japanese Exchange and Teaching) Program as an assistant language teacher and worked between Japan and South Korea.

Family Life

He has twin daughters with his wife, Kumiko.

Associated With

He has featured fellow YouTube star CDawgVA in one of his language videos on YouTube.