Kon’nichiwa!

Hi, I’m Sayaka! I have a bachelor’s degree in international communication, and a certificate from the graduate program at Washington University in St. Louis – ALLEX Japanese teacher training. After teaching in a college in the US, I founded NihongoDekita to help more people with Japanese.

I have had two life turning points. The first one was when I was 20, I booked a ticket to California and got on a plane for the first time in my life. Growing up, I was always a shy person. I didn’t know much about the outside world but always knew that I loved languages and cultures. I encountered a lot of culture shocks in the US. “Strangers greeted each other!?” “Being natural is ok?” “Wait, you smile when you make eye contact?” “You can be a college student at 50?” and the list goes on… And all those new findings really opened a new path for my life. I started looking for what I really wanted to do.

After spending 7 months in the US, I came back to Japan to finish university. I still didn’t know what career I wanted to pursue and thought “I want to learn business English! In the states!” So I started looking for a scholarship program and found a program that lets me learn in a college and in return, teach Japanese there. That was the second turning point.

I instantly knew that I had to apply for this. Luckily I got accepted and started learning in an intensive Japanese teacher training program. As the days go by, I started to fall in love with teaching.

On the last day of the program when I observed an oral test of an American students who I’ve been with in the program, I immediately started crying. They didn’t know anything and now they’re able to communicate. I got to know how rewarding the job is and decided to pursue a Japanese teacher career.