Ciao!
Fabio here. I am Italian, born and raised in Sardinia, and I have been living in Japan since 2017. I teach, design learning experiences, and I am currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Educational Technology. Alongside that, I study Japanese drums. These things are not separate parts of my life. They overlap more than they might seem.
My Story
I grew up in Sardinia as a curious and restless kid. I spent a lot of time in my own head. From an early age I was drawn to Japanese media like manga and anime. School was harder. Sitting still, listening quietly, and following rules without understanding why never felt natural to me. I learned better when I could move, imagine, and take part. A lot of my learning happened outside the classroom, while I was busy making up stories and worlds.
Dungeons and Dragons and the Super Nintendo changed how I related to learning. Through games, I stayed focused without forcing myself to. I tried things, failed, and tried again. Around that time, something strange happened at school. I was doing poorly in most subjects, but I suddenly became very good at English. I did not study grammar much, and I did not think in terms of rules. I just picked answers that felt right. Much later, I realized that years of playing video games in English had shaped how I understood the language. At the time, I did not think of it as learning. It just worked.
I kept moving, both mentally and physically. At nineteen I went to Australia, then to Canada a few years later. I spent some time in London before starting my Bachelor’s degree in Bologna. Living abroad taught me that understanding people comes before teaching them anything. Language, culture, and learning all break down quickly without empathy. That lesson stayed with me.
During my second year at university, I joined an exchange program and studied in Osaka at Kansai Gaidai University. While there, I started teaching English at a small language school. Teaching felt right almost immediately. It was not about being impressive or confident. It simply felt natural to help someone understand, try, and improve. Feedback from students and colleagues made me realize that this was something I wanted to keep doing and build my life around.
That experience shaped how I approach instructional design. I care less about perfect explanations and more about how learners feel while learning. If they feel lost, judged, or stuck, learning slows down. If they feel capable, curious, and safe to try, learning happens. Empathy shows up in small choices: how activities are framed, how mistakes are handled, how much space learners are given to think and explore.
I never stopped playing Dungeons and Dragons. I never stopped playing video games. I never stopped thinking about how people learn. In 2023, I started learning wadaiko, Japanese drums. I play as often as I can. It is physical, repetitive, tiring, and deeply satisfying. Practicing for hours feels both grounding and joyful. It also reminds me that learning is not only mental. It lives in the body, in rhythm, in shared effort. My wadaiko club has become an important part of my life and a place where learning happens through practice rather than explanation.
icuwadaiko1990
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