Yayoi Oguma | TEDxTokyo 2012
Her abysmal scores on English-language proficiency tests shocked Yayoi Oguma. Instead of giving up, the girl who dreamed of becoming an interpreter transformed herself into a model for every clueless speaker of English in Japan, devising a 42-step approach to linguistic mastery. Three years later, Yayoi was linking Japan and the rest of the world across fields such as economics, industry, environment, medicine, entertainment and politics. She now counts self-help guru Tony Robbins, Nobel Prize winner Dr. Horst Ludwig Stormer and big-league CEOs among her clients, and her motivational and “super speedy learning” seminars earn a 99 percent participant satisfaction rating. Her first book, detailing her 42 rules for mastering the TOEIC test and becoming an interpreter, is a best-seller, and her second, Learning English with a Master Map: The Key to Staying Motivated, just debuted in April 2012 and is also selling fast.