Sayaka was born in Japan and attributed her love of books and languages to her father, who was a librarian. She studied German and English at Osaka University of Foreign Studies, earning a BA in Language and Culture; majored in German and Comparative Linguistics; she also obtained a Teacher’s License for Junior and Senior High Schools. Upon graduation, she travelled to New Zealand, where she worked as a volunteer assistant teacher in several schools.
On her return to Japan, she taught English at a Japanese junior and senior high school for three years before moving to England to further study English, earning a Cambridge Certificate of C2 Proficiency (CPE) and TESOL, and working as an administrator at a language school.
Sayaka then moved to Bavaria, Germany, where for the past eight years she has been teaching Japanese language and literature to secondary school students (including MYP and DP Literature at Standard and Higher Levels) at an IB World School. In addition to the IBO Language A workshops, she has participated in various workshops and job-alike meetings to deepen her knowledge of literature and IBDP courses. She has also been involved in other curricula and forms of education, including teaching Japanese in an online school for two years and in the local Japanese School, a government-approved high school providing the Japanese national curriculum. Sayaka has also supervised several Extended Essays on Japanese authors.
Sayaka also worked as a translator for a pharmacy selling organic herbal tea and homeopathic treatments. We are delighted that Sayaka is available to work with our Japanese language students.