Sayaka Matsui

One of five Japanese flight attendants working on Air New Zealand short haul, Sayaka Mutsui is thrilled to be there. �It�s fantastic.� she says. �I feel like all the aircrew are my family now.

They�re all really friendly, helpful and supportive. I meet people from all over the world and of all ages. The other day, for example, I looked after 30 fishermen from Poland!�

Sayaka�s New Zealand education �" and subsequent career �" started at 18, when she spent five months in Auckland studying English. �I loved it and decided I was definitely going to return to New Zealand again so when I was 20 I came back.�

She enrolled at AIS St Helens, spending a month improving her language skills in the English Language Centre before starting her Bachelor of Language and Culture. During her three year degree programme, Sayaka also gained a Diploma in International Business. �I chose AIS because at that time I was very interested in language and culture. I was always interested in world history at school. I wanted to see what was happening in the world and to get a perspective from a Western country.

�I really enjoyed it and it was good to study business as well. It definitely helped me in regards to getting work. I studied Korean and Mandarin. In fact I�m studying Mandarin again now because I think it�s so important. I�m doing Stage One Mandarin at Massey by correspondence.�

Then, following work in the retail industry, Sayaka was accepted in 2001 as an international flight attendant with Air New Zealand. Unfortunately, due to concerns such as September 11, the training course was cancelled. So instead she pursued a career in marketing.

Last year she embarked on further study, starting a Graduate Diploma in Marketing part-time at AUT. But she had only just started when she got an unexpected phone call. Air New Zealand was offering her a position as a flight attendant on their domestic route.

Now Sayaka flies around New Zealand and also to Australia and the Pacific Islands, and although she still hopes to go international, the domestic routes have proved to be a fantastic learning ground.