About

Welcome to far from fluency, my little blog where I write about love, language and life lived elsewhere.

I’m a late-thirties Australian woman with a law degree, a graveyard of half-finished hobbies, and perpetually itchy feet. After close to a decade bouncing around government departments in analytical roles, and during the COVID-era travel restrictions, I moved to rural Japan to teach English. I had no teaching experience and no Japanese language skills.

I never expected that what was intended to be a 12-month sabbatical would so drastically alter my life. I suddenly found myself with no home base to return to, the life I’d built in Australia having been dismantled from afar. But distance brings perspective and opportunity, and so a new season of life began.

I met my husband on Bumble while travelling around Japan. In the span of 18 months, we moved in together in Tokyo, got engaged, then married, and moved to Kuala Lumpur where he was transferred for work.

Now, five years after leaving home, I still can’t speak Japanese, I will move internationally again, and my intercultural relationship is about to blossom into an intercultural family. There will never be a shortage of topics to write about in this life of flux!

 Thank you for reading along,

 Elissa