Japan: Macy Lor (“I’ve never thought about that before” moment)

Program: AIP Internship in Tokyo, Summer

Although I was not in a classroom, I thought of my internship workplace as my classroom. Instead of having lectures and assignments, I was still learning through my work tasks and working alongside my supervisors and coworkers. One of my responsibilities was house management, which involved monitoring room checks at move-in and move-out, planning house meetings, and communicating with the residents. I also had a role in marketing where I took pictures of the bedrooms, kitchen, living room, and bathrooms to update the website listing, as well as content on other paid sites. Traveling to different share house locations has been a fun experience for me because I had the opportunity to explore many neighborhoods within Tokyo, as well as other cities. I have also learned how to use the train system efficiently, navigating it by myself and being independent when commuting to work.

A project that I have worked on was lifestyle photo enhancement, which is taking pictures of a share house and editing them to correct lighting issues and make the property look more attractive. There are pictures on the paid sites to promote the company, but those photos are old, which is why I was responsible for taking new pictures and posting them on the paid listings. I took some pictures a while ago while I was in a share house in Takadanobaba. I had to make sure the kitchen looked clean, as well as the living room. If I wanted to take pictures of the bedrooms, I would have to ask permission from the residents living there and ask them to clean their rooms. This experience taught me that creating marketing content involves more than just taking pictures and uploading them on the website. It requires communication, professionalism, and respect for residents’ privacy. Throughout my internship, I had the opportunity to experience valuable lessons that happen outside of a classroom through hands-on experience and everyday interactions.

Before coming to Japan, I had an assumption that the language barrier would be one of the biggest challenges during my internship. I was worried I would have to speak Japanese fluently at my workplace because it’s a Japanese company. I thought about how speaking in Japanese would make it difficult to communicate with my coworkers and with my job responsibilities. For example, would I be able to ask questions, build relationships, and understand my tasks as they were being explained because of the language barrier? On the first day of my internship, I realized that the other interns and some of my coworkers did speak English and that understanding or speaking in Japanese was not required for my internship. I also found myself working in an international environment with people from different countries. I worked with two other interns from France, but they also spoke English. This made communication much easier than I had expected. This experience challenged my assumption that language would be the biggest barrier to interning in Japan. It showed me that the workplace valued collaboration and made communication accessible for people from different backgrounds. Even though I did not have to speak Japanese for my internship, I still had the opportunity to learn a few common phrases and observe how my coworkers and interns communicated with each other.