Episode: 33 — "You Can Be Independent at 18" · Full Episode #33
Season: 4
Language: Libyan Arabic
Samar Jaddour (سمر جدور) is a Libyan-Filipino HR director. Her father is Libyan and her mother is Filipino. She arrived in Libya as a child without speaking Arabic and learned the language in first grade. She began working at eighteen and built a career in human resources.
Jaddour arrived in Libya speaking no Arabic. She learned the language in school, starting from first grade, surrounded by children who had spoken it from birth. She did not describe the process as difficult. She described it as the condition she started from.
As a mixed-heritage child in Libya, Jaddour was called "Chinese" by classmates — a catch-all slur applied to anyone with East Asian features. She described one incident in which she punched a bully in the stomach. She told the story as a factual account of what happened when she reached her limit, not as a lesson in standing up for oneself.
See: Punching the Bully
Jaddour got her first job at eighteen through a newspaper advertisement. She saw the ad, cut it out, and kept it. She was later recruited while shopping — a coincidence she described as the ad manifesting. The job launched her career in HR.
See: The Newspaper Ad
Jaddour offered practical advice for young people entering the job market, drawn from her experience on the hiring side. The advice was specific and operational rather than motivational.
"I cut the ad out of the newspaper. I kept it. Then they found me." (EP 33)