Alexandre Chabot-Leclerc
I am a fourth year electrical engineering student at Université de Sherbrooke in Québec, Canada. I'm currently in the middle of the first of two internships for Asahi Kasei. To be honest, I had never thought about coming to Japan before. Now that I am here, I feel like I would have missed something by not coming here!
Rarely will you have such an occasion to meet so many different people in such an interesting and different place. It's like Lost, but in a friendly environment ;-) The support from all the permanent employees and others interns is terrific. (So is the food by the way!) They really do a great job of making you feel at home from the first day you set foot in the office.
Definitely a must for anyone wanting to work abroad; you'll get your money's worth!
Brian Serr
My first few months with Asahi Kasei have been pleasantly exciting and rewarding. In only a short time, I have been able to learn much about speech modeling and put my education in Computer Science to good use. Hopefully, the communal efforts made here will evolve into voice-recognition technology that will make life easier for many people around the world! The work environment here is relaxed and a lot more enjoyable than I would imagine it being at any other large Japanese company. Many thanks go out to the interns and permanent employees alike for the genuine kindness they have shared with me.
Living and wandering around Japan has provided countless opportunities to learn the language and understand the day-to-day customs that define one of the most unique cultures on Earth. Atsugi proves a convenient place to live and work, and its location allows myriad travel possibilities. More beautiful than the temples, gardens, and other sights that make Japan an outstanding country are its people. Those you will meet are curious about you and your way of life as well, so I encourage you to visit and share with them your stories and observations. The skills you will develop working here will make you a valuable asset to your future company, but the insight you attain about others - and most importantly, yourself - will make you a valuable asset to the future of all humanity.
Byung Ju Ji
I am a Physics student from the University of Waterloo (Canada) currently working here as a US Spanish developer. I arrived here about 8 months ago and my internship is coming to an end now. I think I can provide some good insight as to how the internship has been so far for me.
I presume you'd like to know about the job first. The job is very interesting. Each language developer is assigned a language to work with, which may have some unique problems you might have to solve. If you are multi-lingual then you might have the grand opportunity to work with multiple languages! You will get to learn about parts of your language that you might have never thought of before as well. The people you will work with are all very interesting as well. They come from different countries, backgrounds, beliefs, etc. The people you will be working with here (not only interns but the Japanese people as well) are very international and open-minded. It won't be hard to find people who have lived in several different countries and have had an international experience at some point in their lives as well. The people in the company can surprise you in many ways.
When I first came here, I didn't know a single word of Japanese, nor did I bring any studying material. However, I've survived! So don't worry if you don't know any Japanese. There are enough people who will help you. Also, Japan is a fun country to be in. Atsugi may be arid at times but Tokyo and Yokohama are pretty close, so you could always go to either after work or during weekends. There is always something going on around you, so all you need to do is join the activities. The interns usually find a lot of events and stuff to do during the time they are out of the office.
I've made a lot of new friends during my stay here in Asahi Kasei. I am sure I will remember the many anecdotes, which I will be able to share with my other friends. I hope you will choose to apply to the internship as well as to come here to join the group!
Hung Lun O
Hi, I studied mathematics and computer science in Germany, and speak Cantonese. I work on the Cantonese speech model. Of course, I do not start from scratch, but work upon the achievements attained by the previous interns. I still keep in touch with my predecessor, even though I only worked with him for 1 day!
Work
Like the other interns, I am assigned some routine tasks, which can get quite boring after 2 months. But I guess this is when we start to explore some new ways of making contributions to the company. I have quite a lot of free time to explore my own ideas. :)
Play
If you play Frisbee, there is an interesting Frisbee team in Tokyo, made up of foreigners like us, as well as Japanese. Excellent opportunities to make friends with cool people. Of course the coolest people you will soon find out may turn out to be the guy next to your desk at work.
P.S. You need around 1 hour to travel to Tokyo by train. The fare is relatively cheap.
I am not a party type of person, but we have plenty of colleagues who are into that. There are endless opportunities to hang out at night and during weekends.
Friendship
I make friends here easily.
Music
Initially, I wanted to continue my guitar lessons in Japan, but the cost turned out to be twice as expensive as that in Germany. For example 3000 yen for a 30 min. lesson. That makes me think twice. The art and music column of the Asahi Shimbun English Edition gives interesting information about music and arts you can enjoy in Japan. Very well written, I think.
Photography
Many interns are interested in buying cameras in Japan. It is way cheaper here than, let's say, in western Europe.
Japanese
Free lessons are offered by local volunteers. I love the Wednesday lesson most. I often end up having dinner with the teacher and the other classmates, who are mostly the other interns here. hehe...
Traveling
Most interns here love traveling. I hate to spend whole weekends at home. I feel so miserable.
Juan Acevedo
Hello, I am the US Spanish trainee. I am from California Polytechnic State University in Pomona, CA, taking one year off school.
Although I have only been here a week and a few days, its been great. The people are great, the place is great, and everything is great. What I am doing is very interesting and most importantly the environment of the company is great. Everyone is really friendly and helpful.
Besides work, I have discovered in one week that Japan is full of things to do so you will never be bored. If you are scared that you will be a foreigner alone in Japan, don't worry because there are plenty of us here.
All in a nutshell, come for the experience and the once in a lifetime opportunity.
Loïc Nigay
Hello!
I am a French electrical engineering student at CPE Lyon. I am in Asahi Kasei for a 1-year internship, working on the French speech recognition model.
Being part of an R&D team is really nice, you will learn a lot about the future job environment you might have. If you have never worked on speech recognition, you will discover this is fascinating technology.
You will see how different (from France at least) working with Japanese people is. It will help you to open your mind on a special culture. But not only on Japan! You will also be part of an international group, and will have the opportunity to know all these people! This is a great experience!
Life in Japan is really cool and active, a bit confusing sometimes at the beginning, but all the interns are here to help you and you will quickly get used to this different life. Tokyo is an amazingly enjoyable city which is only 50 min from Atsugi. Your room will be surrounded with the sea, mountains, and cities so you can easily have little trips around!
You will also be able to discover Japan and don't hesitate to take a look (or several) outside Japan, flights are very cheap! You will have plenty of time to look around.
Be prepared to eat a lot of rice!
Marco Abitabile
Hi readers, I'm Marco from Milan, Italy. I'm working on the Italian model. I'm here since 10 days ago and that's enough to say that the work here is very interesting, as are the people I'm working with.
I really think that by the end of this year I'll improve my knowledge about speech recognition and it will be very useful for my career. I'm just approaching with the Japanese way of life and I'm pretty sure I will remain astonished day by day.
Anyway, this experience is giving me something new every day. Something that you need to have!!
Enjoy.
Michael Prinzinger
Greetings! I am Mika, currently in charge of the German model. By taking this opportunity I am taking a one year break at from university in Erlangen, Germany, where I have been studying Computer Science for four years and Japanese Studies for two. The work here is closely related to what you meet under the term Pattern Recognition (Muster Erkennung) in German universities. From this science branch, Asahi Kasei works with Speech Recognition and Image Processing.
I arrived 4 months ago and have already had plenty of chances to get to work on different aspects of language processing, travel to interesting places, meet interesting people, become friends with my coworkers, and explore the country, culture, and language in my own way. If you are interested in these, this is a really good opportunity for you to get in touch with them, and with all the other foreign interns, you will never be alone.
Since the company as well as your coworkers take real good care of you, living here is really enjoyable and you will have a lot of freedom in what to do with your time. We were provided a room to live in and a monthly allowance, which allows you to travel across the country. And there is always someone helping you to plan or even joining any crazy trip you can think of.
A note of advice: If you are vegetarian or vegan, Japan can be a bit tough. It is really hard to find food which does not contain any kind of animals. On the other hand you can take this as an opportunity to improve your cooking skills ;)
In any case, I am grateful to have been given this opportunity and am hoping that you will have the same chance one day!
Ryan McAuliffe
Hello everyone. I, like many previous interns, am a computer science major. I am currently a student of Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas. I am here at Asahi Kasei's Speech Solutions department helping to develop a new framework to aid in the development of the recognition of models and the creation of the middleware.
Working and living in Japan is a great experience. Even if you are unsure of what to say, or do not know any Japanese at all, the people around here seem to be willing to try to communicate with you in English; albeit most of them have a very limited vocabulary, but the basics seem to be understood by most people (food, bathroom, help, numbers, etc).
There is also plenty to see, it is a big country and far older than America so most of what is around has been there for centuries (some over a millennium). I have been to a few places since I first arrived 5 months ago; Nikko, Kamakura, Tokyo, Kyoto, Odawara, Machida, Hiroshima, Miyajima, and I have plans to visit Sapporo and Wakkanai up in Hokkaido over what is Thanksgiving weekend back home. Of all the places I've been so far, Hiroshima definitely stands out in my memory the most. Given the history our two countries have over that city it was a very sobering and amazing place to visit. I recommend it to anyone visiting Japan.
I also recommend that you apply for an internship here as you will not regret the time you spend here, although you may have to deal with not wanting to go back home at the end of your internship.
Sébastien Picard
I'm French and I happen to be working in a team totally different from the other one where all interns but I are grouped together. It doesn't mean it's less interesting, indeed I quite enjoy it. I'm working on image recognition with an interesting team. The job in itself requires me to use my knowledge about image processing and mathematics. The work is not monotonous at all and I appreciate the variety of things I'm led to do. More than that I'd like to point out that I have not been asked to praise what I'm doing, I guess that it's not the case that everyone can say the same thing.
However Japan is not paradise, even if I have been enjoying most of my time so far, it would sound fake if I was telling you Japan is perfect. I'd like to warn you if you don't speak Japanese, you should know that many people don't speak correct English, in other words it's not possible to communicate with some Japanese persons.
The place where we live, Atsugi, is reasonably close to Tokyo so that you can enjoy the Tokyoite life on weekends. On the other hand it's far enough to protect you from the smog of pollution around Tokyo, and unfortunately it also means you are likely to stay in Atsugi every weekday, which has proved not to be thrilling.
Before I came to Japan four months ago I had a different idea of what it would be, indeed it is really complicated to understand Japanese culture. It's amazing every day, but it can be in the good way or the bad way. As an example I defy you to understand what does a Japanese person think of you when he smiles. If you have the answer please tell me.
Wu Yan Zhu
I'm from China and my job focuses on Mandarin model development in the Vorero model team. I'll graduate from Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications with a master's degree in March 2008. My major is circuits and systems. This is my second year in postgraduate study. I have been here for almost 7 months and have to say it's a really good and amazing opportunity.
About the work, it's not very hard, but it's also challenging. If I have problems about my work, I can always find smart people to help me. It's amazing that I can work with people who came from different kinds of countries. In our team, we talk with each other about the culture and funny things. On weekends, sometimes we'll have a room party such as watching a movie, playing games, or having a birthday party together.
Japan is different from what I thought before. It's a very clean and convenient country. There are a lot of temples, a lot of festivals, a lot of kinds of foods, a lot of pretty gardens, a lot of onsen places, a lot of coffee places, and a lot of interesting things. They have lots of holidays when you can travel and enjoy the Japanese culture. If you are energetic, I think you also can find some friends for cycling, shopping, hiking, onsen, clubbing, climbing Mt. Fuji together, etc. About Atsugi, it's a quiet but convenient city. You will like it.
Finally, I'm grateful for Asahi Kasei giving me this opportunity and the people who help me make it work. Thanks for the friends making me feel the life in Japan is so great! It's a wonderful year in my life.
Youngki Chang
Hello!
I am working on Korean model development here, and I study in University of Waterloo, Canada, majoring in Computer Science. I joined Asahi Kasei in August for a one-year internship. Next year, I am going back to my school to finish my bachelor's degree.
Work in Asahi Kasei is a great learning experience about speech and pattern recognition; before coming here, I did not have any background knowledge about the voice recognition field. However, even though I have been here so far for only three months, I learned some basic knowledge of this area. Also the work is challenging enough that you can apply your own ideas to improve your language model.
Besides work, life in Japan is quite interesting with cultural surprises and excitement. This is a great opportunity to learn more about this country and culture. I am still looking forward to traveling more areas in Japan during my internship..! |
