Watch today’s show at YouTube or BlipTV.
Hi, I’m Sarah. Welcome to The Daily English Show.
Exciting news - today we have a special guest on The Daily English Show.
Miho came into the studio today. Miho is Japanese. She lived in England for 7 and a half years. In England she studied hospitality management, international relations and Italian. Her interests include acting, modeling, fashion and media.
Her most recent job has been a radio announcer at FM Niseko. And this week she’s moving back to Tokyo where she’s going to be working in fashion and sometime in the future she’s planning to move to Sydney and be on Neighbours or Home and Away.
Today I asked her about her experience living in England and about language.
Here’s a little bit of what she said – and the rest will be in the conversation.
Why so long in England?
Yeah, I just wanted to study the language for six months. And that’s, you know, that, that was all I was going to do. But I just decided to go on to college and do like a sort of diploma there. And then ended up going up to university as well.
What did you study?
At college I did, um, hospitality management. That was like high school degree kind of thing. And then after that I went to university and did international relations and Italian.
Why Italian?
Italy. Fashion. Good food. Cute guys.
Did you work in fashion?
I started working in a shoe shop when I was at university in Nottingham. And, ah, I did work as an interpreter at Vidal Sassoon when I was staying in London for a while, as well.
And when I came back to Japan in 2005. I started working in ... ah, I started working for a fashion brand from New York. And yeah, I was working as assistant merchandiser.
Why FM Niseko?
I met, I met ah the executive producer from FM Niseko in Tokyo through a mutual friend. And he was looking for somebody who can speak Japanese and English. Um, so I was like yeah OK I’m interested in working in media. So I thought I’d do it.
Why Sydney?
I thought about going to Melbourne. I thought Melbourne would be better for me. Like more culture, I thought. But if I want to work in media, then Sydney would be better.
STICK NEWS
Kia ora, this is Stick News. The highest ranked sumo wrestler in Japan is in trouble after he gave his opponent a bit of kick when he was already down.
The rank of yokozuna is the highest rank in sumo.
They’re supposed to be good at wrestling – and be well behaved.
Currently there is only one active yokozuna – a Mongolian wrestler called Asashoryu.
Yesterday Asashoryu was fighting a wrestler called Kisenosato.
After Kisenosato hit the ground Asashoryu should have stopped fighting immediately.
But he was so excited that he didn’t stop.
Asashoryu dropped his knee into Kisenosato.
The commentators weren’t impressed.
And that was Stick News for Monday the 19th of March.
Kia Ora.
conversations with sarah
#196 When did you go to England?
Step 1: Repeat Sarah’s lines.
Step 2: Read Sarah’s lines and talk to Miho.
Sarah When did you go to England?
Miho January 1998.
Sarah How long were you there for?
Miho I was there for seven and a half years. Initially I was going to stay there for six months, just to study the language. But somehow I ended up staying there for quite a while.
Sarah Did you come back to Japan often?
Miho I tried to come back once a year. But sometimes I didn’t.
Sarah When you met people in England did they ever think that you were born in England?
Miho Oh, yeah, some people ... Well, this guy actually, when I met him ... Like we, we were all like having a drink in the bar. And I met this guy for the first time. And he goes: “So, Miho, which part of Burmingham are you from?” And everyone just cracked up. Because like ... I’ve never lived in Burmingham. You know only been there a couple of times or something. And obviously I’m from Japan. I’m not even English, I’m foreign for god’s sake.
Sarah How did your English get so good?
Miho ‘Cos I was bullied. (You were bullied?) Yeah, I, I after six months at language school – I went to collage. And ah I, you know, I was in a class with English kids. And, you know, when you go to a language school you only hang out with you know people who speak English as a second language. So you don’t really, you don’t really learn real English do you. Then, like, you know, you feel like you are speaking it. And you think you’re really good and that. But when you, you know, when you go and actually mix with like native people you sort of realize oh, dear. Yeah. And that’s what happened. And, um ... when we had to do like group work and stuff. Like, those like, English kids didn’t really want to do it with me. Because they thought I was stupid. You know I didn’t speak the language properly. And you know, they didn’t, they didn’t think I was, you know, capable. Sort of. So that really pissed me off. Yeah, I was like proper gutted. I, I worked really hard and learnt English. Just to convince them, that I was capable.
Sarah Do you have any advice for people who are thinking about studying abroad?
Miho I don’t recommend anyone to go to a capital city. Cause there’s always going to be a Japanese community. And yeah, you ... I mean you have to be put in a situation where you have to speak the language, don’t you? To properly learn it.
Sarah Was it hard coming back?
Miho It was. It was really nasty actually. Yeah, cause everything is so different.
Sarah Do you ever have difficulty switching between two languages?
Miho I do sometimes, yeah. I’m kind of getting used to it now.
But like before I was like speaking English to a Japanese person and Japanese to like an English person or something. Yeah, I do get confused sometimes.
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