, also known as Bilingirl or Bilingirl Chika, is a Japanese
YouTuber
A YouTuber is an online personality and/or influencer who produces videos on the video-sharing platform YouTube, typically posting to their personal YouTube channel. The term was first used in the English language in 2006.
Influence
Influe ...
. Since 2011, Yoshida has been producing videos on
YouTube
YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second most ...
where she gives casual English lessons to Japanese people. As of 2021, she has over 1.5 million subscribers on her YouTube channel.
Early life
Born in
Nagasaki Prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan located on the island of Kyūshū. Nagasaki Prefecture has a population of 1,314,078 (1 June 2020) and has a geographic area of 4,130 km2 (1,594 sq mi). Nagasaki Prefecture borders Saga Prefecture to the northeast.
N ...
, Japan, Yoshida moved to the United States when she was in her first year of elementary school due to her father's job transfer, and she grew up in
Anacortes, Washington
Anacortes ( ) is a city in Skagit County, Washington, United States. The name "Anacortes" is an adaptation of the name of Anne Curtis Bowman, who was the wife of early Fidalgo Island settler Amos Bowman. She attended a Japanese school every week from elementary to high school, where she was classmates with actor Kei Hosogai. After graduating from high school, Yoshida enrolled at the
University of Washington
The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington.
Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seat ...
in 2003, where she majored in business and attended the
Foster School of Business
The Michael G. Foster School of Business is the business school at the University of Washington in Seattle. It was founded in 1917. The school has more than 50,000 alumni, and is accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Busin ...
, and she graduated in 2007. After spending 16 years in the United States, she moved back to Japan, where she worked as a business consultant for an American company at their Japanese branch. From 2010 to 2012, she briefly opened a nail salon in
Ginza
Ginza ( ; ja, 銀座 ) is a district of Chūō, Tokyo, Chūō, Tokyo, located south of Yaesu and Kyōbashi, Tokyo, Kyōbashi, west of Tsukiji, east of Yūrakuchō and Uchisaiwaichō, and north of Shinbashi. It is a popular upscale shopping area ...
as a side business.
Career
In 2011, Yoshida posted her first video on her
YouTube
YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second most ...
channel, to teach English grammar to her friend, who had asked her to look over her English resume. After posting more English lessons, her channel began attracting a following, and after 1.5 years, she decided to focus on her YouTube career full-time after receiving job inquiries from several companies. Several clients that Yoshida has worked with include
Austrian Airlines
Austrian Airlines AG, often shortened to Austrian, is the flag carrier of Austria and a subsidiary of the Lufthansa Group. The airline is headquartered on the grounds of Vienna International Airport in Schwechat where it also maintains its ...
and
Kao Corporation
is a chemical and cosmetics company headquartered in Nihonbashi-Kayabacho, Chūō, Tokyo, Japan.
History
Kao was established in 1887 by Tomiro Nagase as a manufacturer of domestic toiletry soap. Until 1954, they were known as , and finally ...
. Since opening her channel, Yoshida has gained 1.5 million subscribers as of 2021.
In 2014, Yoshida opened a second YouTube channel, ''Japanagos'', which features educational videos about Japan to her overseas viewers. In the same year, she appeared in a commercial for YouTube.
In 2018,
NHK
, also known as NHK, is a Japanese public broadcaster. NHK, which has always been known by this romanized initialism in Japanese, is a statutory corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television license fee.
NHK operates two terrestri ...
broadcast a television program that named Yoshida as the 5th favorite YouTuber in Japan. In the same year, she launched a
mobile app
A mobile application or app is a computer program or software application designed to run on a mobile device such as a phone, tablet, or watch. Mobile applications often stand in contrast to desktop applications which are designed to run on ...
called "Help Me Travel", which teaches English phrases to Japanese people when traveling abroad.
In April 2020, Yoshida took a hiatus from her channel following criticisms of her decision to return to Japan from Malaysia at the height of the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified ...
. She resumed posting videos on August 13, 2020.
Personal life
On October 18, 2015, Yoshida announced that she was getting married. In June 2018, she gave birth to a daughter, nicknamed . On October 19, 2021, she announced that she had given birth to a son.