My Internship Experience

By Machiko MARUYAMA

I did an internship at the Japanzine office. Japanzine is a magazine for foreigners. Why did I do that? Because I'm interested in Journalism and wanted to know about it.

The people in the office were thoughtful and kind, so I enjoyed working and learning a lot there. But not all of my experiences were easy.

On the first day of work, I was so nervous, because I thought I would have to speak in English all the time and I worried about whether I could do the work correctly and also.. there were many dogs. I don't like dogs.

At first, my work was to call the information centers, museums and so on to check about their opening times,holidays and their phone numbers. It was just calling and asking, but I was so nervous. However I got used to working day by day.

My main work at the office was to make the Tokyo map. I translated the Japanese names into English with "Acrobat software". It is very useful software and one of the members of staff taught me how to use it. He said that it will be good for my career in the future to be able to use this software. So I was excited even though it was difficult.

I translated other things as well. When the boss instructed me to translate the questionnaire into English, I thought "I can't do this!" but I tried and he praised me for that.

When I realized I was really working, I felt good. But I did make mistakes and I had no excuse for them. However, each time I did, it made me work harder.

When the last day came, I thought I will work harder than ever. But... on of the big dogs bit my arm in the morning at the
office! I couldn't believe it. I wanted to cry and I felt scared. Looking back on the experience, the dog bite was only
bad memory. I still feel scared when I look at the scar on my arm. But the work experience was wonderful.

I've never done work like that before. So everyday I learnt something new and I had real responsibilities. I think it's a great thing to experience something in society while we're young. It'll help our career in the future.

I did this internship for one month, I think it was a short time. But I really learnt many things and want to learn more.
If you're interested in something, I recommend an internship as a good way to get an idea about the type of job you want to do. Now, I want to be a journalist more than ever! Lastly, I want to say thanks our teachers Taeko and Chris P and especially, everyone at Japanzine.