French Luxury Brand Store Manager モアナ
Moana
studied Japanese at High School in New Zealand for 3 years before moving to
Geelong, Australia. Her school in Geelong didn’t offer Japanese but Moana
was keen to continue learning the language, so after her final year of high
school she applied for an AFS exchange and was selected to go to Tokyo for 1
year. Upon returning to Australia, her Japanese now greatly improved,
Moana entered Melbourne University where she majored in Japanese and French.
In her third year Moana transferred to Sydney University where she had the
opportunity to go back to Japan for 3 months to prepare for year 4, and has
since been back twice on holidays. She also keeps in touch with her host
family from her AFS exchange - they have come to New Zealand to visit her
twice and speak on the phone regularly.After graduating from University, Moana’s language skills helped get her a position at the world’s leading luxury brand store in Sydney where she had the opportunity to speak Japanese with staff and clients. The company is an International luxury brand that specialises in luggage and handbags with stores all over the world. After 2 and a half years in Sydney Moana was transferred to Auckland for the opening of a new store on Queen Street.
Moana’s organisation and people skills were quickly recognised and after working in the Auckland store for only 1 year she was promoted to store manager of both Queen Street and Custom House stores. As a manager Moana is sent to Paris and Hong Kong for regular training and also travels to places such as China, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, Thailand, Australia, Indonesia and Spain for annual manager’s meetings. Moana’s favourite part of the job is not travelling to exciting places but the satisfaction she gets when she is able to use her selling skills to find the perfect bag for a client. This makes her day and makes their dream come true.
Moana often uses her Japanese language skills
with clients and says that when applying for a job in the tourism/retail
industry languages skills in Japanese are a huge advantage.
profiled by Jessica Andrews, 2003