Meet the Team

Team Members

Jasmine Martinez Jasmine Martinez Jasmine is half Swedish and half Puerto-Rican. She was born in Stockholm, Sweden but moved to New Jersey at the age of 4 and lived there for a total of 8 years. During these 8 years, she attended Swedish school every Monday evening to keep her mother tongue intact. At the age of 11, she moved back to Sweden where she did rock music as a major in high school and took a 3-month Japanese course at University. Currently she is studying at a Japanese language school and living her dream in Japan. She enjoys going out to drink with friends, watching anime and horror movies, playing lots of games, and dancing parapara.

Morten Hunke Morten Hunke Morten Hunke was born in Berlin and raised in rural North-western Germany. With a Danish first name, he took an interest in studying Swedish at university and soon became extremely proficient in the language. He has lived and studied in Germany, England, Ireland, Japan, and Sweden. He graduated with 2 MAs in English and History, and Linguistics and German as a Foreign Language from Bielefeld University. Morten is a fully-fledged teaching professional and he has taught English, German, and Swedish at universities, colleges, and adult education in England, Germany, and Sweden.
Currently he is teaching at various locations in Tokyo. He is developing materials for some of the courses at SwedishPod101.com and he is the audio co-host for a few more..
Satsuki Murofushi Satsuki Murofushi Satsuki is half Swedish and half Japanese. She was born in Stockholm, Sweden and has spent most of her life there. In her mid-twenties, Satsuki moved from Stockholm down to the south of Sweden and started studying Social Work at the University of Lund. Finishing her Bachelor’s degree in Social Work in 2009, Satsuki then decided to continue studying in order to pursue a Master’s degree in Social Work. Two years ago, Satsuki moved to Japan with her boyfriend. While living in Japan, Satsuki has continued to pursue a Master’s degree in Social Work as well as learn more about the Japanese language and culture. Satsuki loves living in Tokyo since there are always new things to explore!
Elin Elin Widmark

Elin is from the northen part of Sweden, and she’s a native Swedish speaker. She holds a bachelor’s degree in History, and is also very interested in agriculture and learning other languages. Elin speaks Swedish, English and Japanese. She believes that as long you maintain your interest in learning new languages, you can master any languages! Currently, she’s working at IKEA Japan. She is very glad to be working with the SwedishPod101.com team, and hopes that the listeners will enjoy her work as well.

Carl Rei Samuelsson Saito Carl Rei Samuelsson Saito

Carl was born in Kumamoto, Japan and speaks Swedish as his native language, as well as English and Japanese. He is a foodie above all else—the way to his heart is definitely through his stomach, and he literally gets tears in his eyes when he eats amazing food! He also loves travelling to rural, non-touristy areas, knowing the latest economic and political news, and, last but not least, his cat Bengt.
Carl studied at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden and Doshisha University in Kyoto, Japan. He worked as an English teacher for Japanese students at Doshisha University, and also as a tour guide in both Tokyo and Kyoto, which he says is practically like being a full-on culture teacher who also has to be entertaining!
Throughout his life, he has lived in Sweden, the United States, and Japan. Carl once got chased by an elephant in Indonesia. Luckily though, the elephant stopped around twenty centimeters in front of him and used its trunk to snatch all the oranges he had in his pocket at the time!

Vicky Taylor Vicky Taylor

Vicky is half Swedish and half English, and was born in Stockholm and spent most of her life there. When she was 19 years old she moved to Spain to work as an au pair for one year before returning to Sweden. She enrolled in Södertörn University in Stockholm, and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in tourism studies when she was 23 years old. After that, she left Sweden permanently and spent six months exploring South-East Asia and volunteering with wild animals and at a local school in Thailand. Vicky moved to Japan at the end of 2014, and currently works at an English conversational school in Fujinomiya as a full-time teacher. She is a native speaker of Swedish and English, and has intermediate Spanish and Japanese. She loves Japanese culture and she is now working towards fulfilling her dream of owning an old Japanese house in the countryside.

Engla Stenholm Engla Stenholm

Engla Stenholm Samuelsson was born in Stockholm, Sweden. She is a native speaker of Swedish, and is fluent in English and Japanese. She has studied media in Sweden, with a focus on TV and radio media. She enjoys baking and making sweets and she’s planning to work in the field in the future.

Simon Bokedal Bystrom Simon Bokedal Byström
Simon was born in Stockholm, Sweden. He is a native Swedish speaker. Simon is currently studying Japanese, which will be his third language after Swedish and English. He worked as a teacher at a kindergarten in Stockholm.