Hello and welcome to my Yasunari Kōmuten blog. I am 20 years old and my name is Amin Azaouagh.
That does not sound like a real Japanese name, right?
Originally, I am from Germany and I am here in Shimonoseki to study Japanese for one year at the Shimonoseki City University.
During my spring vacation I got the chance to do an internship for three weeks at Yasunari Kōmuten.
While you are reading this, I am in my second week.
Now, let me introduce myself first.
At the Ludwigshafen University of Applied Science, my major is International Management East Asia with Japanese as language. During our third year, we have to study abroad in Japan in one of our partner universities.
You surely ask yourself why I am not in Tokyo or Osaka right now instead of having chosen a small town like Shimonoseki. I belief that in a small town, where literally nobody speaks English, it is easier to make progress and getting better with the language you learn because you are forced to speak only Japanese. Opposite to that, the chances and temptations of speaking English in a metropolis are way higher.
Additionally, you can find a lot of small- and medium-sized companies in which I intended to do an internship.
Because my language skills were not that high-level to do business with at that time, I sometimes got some difficulties in understanding.
But in order to do significant progress in life and, of course, to learn the language you have to be willing to step outside your comfort zone.
Also, the Japanese way of doing business is a little bit different than in western countries. That is why, through an internship, you have the chance to get to know the Japanese way of working and to get insight of a company`s environment.