About your teacher
Hi, I'm Luke.
From Pontefract — a small market town about an hour from Manchester — and these days, Tokyo. For more than a decade I've done exactly one thing: helped Japanese learners actually speak English. One person at a time, 15,000+ lessons and counting.
My job isn't teaching you English. It's getting you to the moment you stop translating in your head — and just talk.
How I got here
I grew up in Pontefract, a small market town about an hour from Manchester. In 2013 I traded it for Tokyo — and like a lot of teachers, I thought I'd stay a year. Then I taught my first one-on-one lesson, watched someone who 'couldn't speak English' hold a real conversation forty minutes later, and never looked back.
For thirteen years I taught one-on-one at one of Japan's biggest eikaiwa schools — thousands of students, from complete beginners to CEOs preparing board meetings and Olympic athletes preparing interviews. That's where I learned what actually moves the needle for Japanese learners: not more grammar, but real conversation with honest, specific feedback.
TutorLuke is everything I believe about teaching, with everything I disliked about the chain-school model removed. No enrollment fees, no sales counselors, no rotating teachers — just you and me, a clear goal, and lessons that leave a written record you can build on.
How I teach
Conversation first
You learn to speak by speaking. From minute one of lesson one, you're talking — the grammar and vocabulary get taught inside real conversation, where they stick.
Specific beats general
'Good job' teaches nothing. After every lesson you get written feedback naming exactly what improved and exactly what we fix next. Progress you can literally re-read.
No judgement, ever
Mistakes are the raw material of every lesson — the more you make with me, the fewer you'll make out there. My lessons are the one place you never need to feel embarrassed.
Beyond the classroom
Because your teacher is a person, not a textbook.
Business, for real
I also run a web-development company with clients around the world. The business English we practice in lessons is the same English I use in real meetings and real negotiations every week.
Classroom teacher too
I teach English at a private high school in Tokyo as well. Teenagers are the toughest audience in education — they keep my explanations sharp.
Weight training
Almost every morning before lessons. Deadlifts first, verb conjugations second.
Summer festivals
Matsuri season is my favourite season — festival stalls, fireworks, and a cold Hyoketsu in hand.
League darts
I play in a Japanese darts league — reigning Hachioji champion, March 2026. I am unreasonably proud of this and will absolutely tell you about it.
The journey so far
2013
Left Pontefract for Tokyo, started teaching English one-on-one — and discovered it was the only way I ever wanted to teach.
2013 – 2026
Thirteen years at one of Japan's largest one-on-one eikaiwa schools: daily conversation, business English and everything between, across thousands of students of every level.
15,000 lessons
Somewhere along the way the lesson counter passed fifteen thousand — with 12,000+ five-star reviews from learners across Japan.
Today
TutorLuke: my own school, fully online — same teaching, none of the chain-school overhead, and a written record of every lesson you take.