It has been 2 months, here is the report I submitted.

            When I was young, I had always dreamed of the life in Japan. Full of curiosity about the land where rich culture lies, my youthful self pursues his way to the opportunity he had always been imagining. With the scholarship from Kinsei Sangyo Co., Ltd. in cooperation with Faculty of Engineering, Chiang Mai University, I am now working as an internship student in Gunma Prefecture, Japan. However, this opportunity is not where I can roam and travel freely in the country of the east—I have to do missions as the selected representative in doing company projects, and it is quite challenging to my preparation, expectation, reality and my future.

            One year ago, I acknowledged the opportunity from my senior who had been working here before—so I started preparing myself since that time. I applied for the Specialized Non-profit Japanese Language Education of Southeast Asia (JALESEA) Scholarship to study Japanese language while also serving as the Acting President of Chiang Mai University Student Union. I learned on how to manage a budget of over 14 million efficiently while leading and managing over 40,000 students, and basic Japanese conversations in order to work at Kinsei Sangyo Co., Ltd. For the hard skills of Information Systems and Network Engineering Major, I emphasized a lot on how to build the best infrastructure and secure production systems for the company.

            As I arrived in Japan, my mission is to build four internal apps during the six months period, I felt so excited but also worried at the same time. I am relieved that at least I got the scope in the topic of where I get used to the most; building software/systems, but the problem is, I am the only app developer here, If anything happens, I need to check them all by myself. It might be scary to be alone, but the good news is you are now alone. My work seems to be going faster than what I expected with a feasible outcome, while also learning to grow individually stronger day by day. Everyone here is very welcoming and kind, and the working atmosphere is not so much stress like my imagination of Japan’s famous working culture.

            One big problem I encountered is the Japanese language barrier. With the unqualified performance around N5 to N4 of mine, I am struggling hard to communicate with others. While I can handle every conversation with ease, the business nuances and vocabulary is beyond my level. With the position that is nearly equal to Full-stack Developer, I have to go talk with a lot of people from the process, beginning with the User Research until the end where we test the software together. During the process, I struggled a lot to explain and communicate with them. Then the thought of my being bothersome comes to me sometimes while I cannot understand them clearly.

            I still have time until November 26th of this year before going back to live a normal student life in Chiang Mai University, and there are still many things I wanted to achieve before that date came. First, I would like to finish all the work with ease and be able to communicate in Japanese more clearly—I need to talk and use it more often. Second, in order to fulfill the goal of the first one, I want to find some Japanese friends around the same age to talk and communicate with. It is one of the best methods to build language skills while also build a strong connection. Last, to live the moment with no regret. It is true that I am here to work as a cooperative student, but I acknowledged that learning culture and enjoying myself is also a point of this internship opportunity, too. Therefore, I traveled a lot to many places, meet many people. For this upcoming August alone, I am fully booked for a trip every weekend. One to go to Kamikouchi—my dream mountain with an amazing view—and Niigata for enjoying my hobbies, swing dancing, with new people.

            Lastly, it may look hard to move into a new environment where you are not familiar with, with a mission that you have to do in the name of Information Systems and Network Engineering student. Most of my expectations come true, but some may not. The future is unknown, but I have set goals for them. We can’t fix the past, nor knows the future, so I will do my best at this moment, and that is the reason it is called “present”.

Papop Khemngoen

Kinsei Sangyo Co., Ltd. Internship Student

Information Systems and Network Engineering, Chiang Mai University