Humans of UniSA: Josphanie Loh

Everyone has a story. A defining moment of their existence that makes them the person they are today. For Humans of UniSA, we delve into the depths of human nature and speak with some students to discover a slice of their personal history.

Josphanie Loh

Bachelor of Commerce (Accounting)

My name is Josphanie. Lots of people, when they hear ‘Josphanie’, their first reaction will just be ‘huh?’. But then I’ll explain how I came up with my name. So my name, ‘Josphanie’, is actually ‘Josephine’ plus ‘Stephanie’ because I didn’t really want to have a name that’s similar to someone else. I wanted to have a unique name. I chose my name before I came to Australia. I’m from Malaysia. It’s common for us to choose our own English names if your parents didn’t choose one for you. I grew up in a part of south Malaysia called Johor Bahru. It’s a smaller city. It’s not like Melbourne or Sydney or those big cities. It’s kind of similar to Adelaide. But Adelaide’s quiet and more peaceful.

When I first came to Australia, I was completely homesick. When I was in Malaysia, my parents pretty much did everything for me like the laundry, dinner, and breakfast. They covered everything for me. Actually, the reason why I’m studying accounting now came from my mum’s ideas. My dream was originally to be a fashion designer and I wanted to study fashion design but my mum said it’s competitive. Even if you step into it, you’ll either be very famous or no one will know you. So she said accounting is a better choice because you can learn a professional skill. It’s a more stable job.

When I was studying in high school, bookkeeping was one of my best subjects. I got good marks in it. That’s another reason why I chose accounting rather than fashion design. Plus, I had never touched any fashion design stuff before so I was kind of afraid that maybe I couldn’t handle it. But I still like to design and decorate stuff. So when I have spare time, I like to draw something, or I have a scrapbook and I like to do all the designs, and I like making cards for my friends as well. Sometimes I still follow fashion to see what’s come up and what’s new but I think my mum’s right. It’s too competitive.

Interview conducted by Geena Ho

Image supplied by Oliver White