#27 Sanaa - Self-Taught Polyglot and Japanese Fashion Expert from Oxford University

On this week's episode of the KoreKara Podcast, we spoke with Sanaa, a student studying German and Arabic at Oxford University who is self taught in Japanese and has work experience in a tech company in Japan. Aside from having spent time living and working in Japan, she is also very passionate about fashion, which started from getting into Japanese fashion magazines and music at a young age. If you enjoyed the podcast, please consider liking and subscribing as it really helps us out!

Sanaa's Links: 

► Tokyo Fashion Post: https://twitter.com/TokyoFashion/stat...

About Sanaa:  

Before becoming a student at the prestigious Oxford University, Sanaa had a fascination for a very certain country growing up. At the young age of 4, she wrote a letter to her mom saying she wanted to go to "Tokoyo" (how she spelled Tokyo in the letter). After listening to a Japanese song back in 2009, she fell into the Japan rabbit hole of music and Harajuku fashion and never looked back. The next step in her journey with Japan was her quest to learn the Japanese language herself.  

At the age of 13, she was laser focused on teaching herself Japanese, especially after seeing YouTubers such as Hannah making videos learning Japanese. With the help of resources online and her strong motivation, she started learning Japanese by herself entirely. This went to the extent of asking for a JLPT book for her 14th birthday. At age 16, she felt comfortable speaking and communicating and Japanese. Going into university, she knew that she wanted to learn more languages, and got into Oxford for German and Arabic.  

Despite not actually getting to go to Japan, she finally found her opportunity when finding a job posting at her university. Despite not having the qualifications of the job, she eagerly called the company and was able to come out with a job offer and a ticket straight to Tokyo. Her company focused on creating puzzles using AR technology, and she held a position which allowed her to playtest puzzles, pitch new ideas for puzzles, and a lot more. As for living in Japan, she loved her time there and made great friends, but she faced many difficulties along the way. Looking forward, she's very keen about continuing her interests and visiting Japan again.