Charles completed his Japanese studies in New Zealand in 2011. He has been studying for a Master’s degree in International Relations at Peking University, Beijing, China and from 2015 will begin a job with Nissui in Tokyo, Japan.
Japanese language education:
Secondary School:
- Studied Japanese by distance education through the Correspondence School.
Tertiary:
- Attended the University of Otago where he completed a Bachelor of Arts (double major) in Japanese and Asian Studies, a Bachelor of Science degree in Food Chemistry (major) and Moral and Political Thought (minor), and a Diploma in Language endorsed in Chinese.
- Attended Hirosaki University, Aomori Prefecture on an exchange with the assistance of a grant from the Asia New Zealand Foundation.
Motivation to begin Japanese language studies:
Charles’ interest in Japan began when he made friends with visiting students from Japan at his secondary school. He also became interested in New Zealand’s food exports to Japan, having been raised on a kiwifruit farm on the Coromandel Peninsula.
Skills gained as a result of studying Japanese:
Charles’ study of Japanese served as a ‘primer’ for studying other Asian languages—specifically his familiarity with Kanji was very useful when he began to study Chinese.
Spending time in Hirosaki while on the university exchange increased Charles’ skills at adapting to new cultures and environments, giving him the confidence to visit and navigate Asian countries with minimal assistance.
Having a broad awareness of issues in North East Asia has been helpful for his recent Master’s study of International Relations at Peking University. Charles believes that Sino-Japanese relations, especially in terms of trade and security, are a particularly important topic in this discipline.
Charles has also worked as a teacher in Japan and New Zealand, but most recently at a small Japanese-owned school in New Zealand, where the majority of students were Japanese teenagers preparing to enter studies at nearby secondary schools. Having Japanese language ability was extremely useful in this job, and he has found his teaching experience to be a great asset.
Use of Japan/Japanese language skills and knowledge in current employment:
Alongside current study commitments, Charles has been working for the New Zealand Centre at Peking University as a Liaison Officer, which includes a teaching assistant role for an undergraduate paper taught out of the Peking University School of Foreign Languages. His experience teaching Japanese students was very influential in securing this role.
As a Chinese Government Scholarship recipient, Charles currently lives on campus at an international dormitory and shares an apartment with a Japanese national, and as a result not a day goes by without using Japanese language.
Charles has recently secured a contract to work for Japanese food processing company Nissui (Nippon Suisan Kaisha) upon completion of his studies at Peking University. As part of this contract, Charles is obligated to undertake professional and business Japanese classes in his last semester at Peking University.
Time spent in Japan and benefits gained:
Although he has spent just half a year in Japan to date, it is clear that Charles’ skills and knowledge of Japan and the Japanese language have been hugely influential in gaining a scholarship to study International Relations, securing a job with Nissui beginning in 2015, and providing valuable perspective for his planned career move into advanced food product development and logistics for the Asian market.