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Sayaka Kobayashi is better known as Birigyaru (The Gal Who Finishes Last). She’s the titular subject of a 2013 bestselling nonfiction novel, later made into a mega-hit movie. The book, written by her mentor and cram school tutor Nobutaka Tsubota, carries the message that with the right teaching, any student can aim for academic success — just like Kobayashi, who was at the bottom of her class but got into Tokyo’s Keio University.
Now in her early 30s, Kobayashi has worked as a wedding planner, attended graduate school at Sacred Heart University in Tokyo and gained a reputation as a lecturer on education. Still, she says she’s ready for a change. “So now, I’m studying to get into graduate school at a top U.S. university.”
That decision came last year, shortly before the pandemic hit.
“I had been lecturing for years, telling the kids in the lecture to ‘do something exciting’ with their lives. But I thought, what have I done lately that’s given me a buzz? The answer was, not much. The time was ripe for another challenge, and since my biggest regret was that I never studied abroad, I decided to make it happen.”
Easier said than done, as Kobayashi’s English was very rusty. She needed to score 100 on TOEFL before applying to the grad school of her choice and knew it would be an uphill grind. But the pandemic worked to Kobayashi’s advantage: “Staying home all the time was actually ideal for studying.” (Kaori Shoji)
To be continued…
This article was provided by The Japan Times Alpha.