World Languages Student Story - Andrue

Greetings from Japan!

I’m here for a quarter-long internship at a Japanese business through Everett Community College’s International Business Education Japan Initiative.

For me, this is an opportunity of a lifetime. I’ve been fascinated by Japanese culture since I was a kid, so I was thrilled when I was selected to travel to Japan along with three other EvCC students (here's a photo of us at EvCC with one of our Japanese instructors - I'm on the bottom left).

We’re staying at EvCC’s sister school, Aichi Toho University, in Nagoya, Japan. I am excited to learn more about Japanese culture, improve my language skills and get business experience at a family-owned Japanese company.

The program is part of a grant from the U.S. Department of Education to increase international business education and training through EvCC’s business program and the college’s Japanese Cultural Resource Center (here's another photo of me in EvCC's Nishiyama Japanese Garden at the JCRC).

I applied for the internship after studying Japanese in high school and at EvCC. Japanese isn’t my major, though. I’m studying to become a firefighter.

I think the skills I’m learning will help me become a stronger firefighter because I’ll have a better understanding of people from different cultures, plus the business skills that are important for the day-to-day operations at a fire station.

I would encourage everyone to challenge themselves by learning another language and learning about another culture – no matter where you work after graduation, knowing another language will help.

EvCC offers classes in nine different languages – Japanese, Spanish, American Sign Language, French, Italian, Chinese, Russian, German and Arabic, which is new this year. EvCC also offers study abroad opportunities in many countries.

For more information about learning a language or seeing the world while you study, visit the EvCC World Languages program.

Sincerely,
Andrue, EvCC Class of 2012
August 2011