Supporting people speak English began when I was 9 years old. My mum hosted foreign students in our home. I remember being given chocolates from different countries when I spent time in conversation with the female students from Ghana, Iran, France and Italy. At 12 I went to Italy to live with a family for 2 months to help their children with their English conversation. Later, I attended University and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Japanese Language/Art & Archaeology of Japan at the School of African & Asian Studies in London.
During my university years I attended a Dutch course so I could study at Leiden University in Holland for a year. I earned extra money by teaching English to women from Suriname and Indonesia. I went and lived in Japan for almost 15 years while travelling around India, Thailand, Hong Kong, USA, Morocco and Africa. While I attended Hokkaido Kyouiku University in Sapporo I taught English to local families. I lived in a Buddhist Temple in Kyushu and taught English to monks, their families and people from the community. As an English teacher in Japan, I followed different curriculums with textbooks. I taught both privately and at many different language schools in Japan. They all had a one-size-fits-all approach. None of them took into consideration people’s differences. After the academic learning I was keen on cultural learning. Always having been interested in music, I joined the team at Universal Music in Tokyo. By now, I felt very comfortable communicating with people from other cultures but at Universal Music, I knew what it felt like to sit in meetings and have something to say but not be able to get it across in time and sound credible.
I now have my own language teaching method. The Newsom Method. Besides learning the foundation of a language, there are so many soft skills involved in this art. These are learnable and effective.
Getting used to accessing what we know in the present moment and feel good about our communication is also an art.
Working again with Japanese people feels part of a natural cycle. The culture feels like a second home for me, and I am so happy to be able to re-connect again.
Everything you come across in life is gifted to you.
