In developing Living Language Platinum we hired a crew of language teachers from all over the world. These native speakers will contribute to this blog, answer questions on Twitter and our forums, and teach small group sessions. There’s nothing like learning the nuances of a language and cultural insights from someone who has lived it. We will introduce each of them in the blog with 5 Questions.
Name: Sakura (means “cherry blossom”)
Hometown: Tokyo
Current Residence: New York
Languages Spoken: Japanese, English, some French, some Italian
LL: What do you love most about the Japanese language?
Sakura: There are so many ways to convey a single thing; even the simple “How are you?” can be expressed in dozen different ways. How you say what you say tells a lot about yourself and your relationship to the person with whom you are speaking.
LL: What’s your favorite phrase in Japanese?
Sakura: 青は藍より出でて藍より青し。Ao wa ai yori idete ai yori aoshi. (“The student may become better than the teacher.”) Lit. “Blue comes from the indigo plant but it’s bluer than indigo.” - I think the expression is very pretty.
LL: What language would you like to learn?
Sakura: I want to be more fluent in French and Italian first. Next will be German.
LL: Why did you decide to become an e-tutor?
Sakura: I have a lot of classroom teaching experience. I thought this would be an interesting opportunity for me to explore teaching techniques in a digital context and to reach out to people throughout the country.
LL: What’s your lucky number?
Sakura: 五 (five) and 七 (seven) - I feel like I’m always surrounded by these two numbers.
