International Internship in 2017

I am able to know about how the construction industry works. I realized that a construction project is usually divided into many different parts and are deployed to many specialized company, rather than totally completed by one company. In addition, the construction industry emphasizes more in the safety issue instead of the pace of the progress. The international internship allows me to experience working in a foreign country. I am able to know about different working cultures.

While  there were some communication inconveniences before the internship, the internship itself was a valuable experience. I believe it fosters interest in the field of civil works. However, since we do not hold any engineering   licenses, there is nothing to do on-site other than touring the site. It gets quite boring once you have seen everything on-site; therefore, it might be  better to go somewhere where we can actually do some work.

For a foreign student   who desires to have a career in Japanese company, speaking Japanese is  extremely important. As a general contractor, frequent communication can not  only benefit to the forward moving of working process, but also play an extremely important role in people’s relationship. Starting from the first step of entering the company, Japanese manner should be always obeyed or will stick in the trouble of people’s relationship. According to the communication with my supervisor, I still need to learn the appropriate ways of  communication using Japanese.

The project is under construction since it’s already started from last year. In  the site, we can’t see much because of too dangerous.

Overall  of the internship itself is interesting. I learned a lot about Japanese  working atmosphere, and especially what consultant is. They treated us very  well even though only a few of them capable of speaking English, they tried   their best to explain anything to us.

After learning and doing so many things in the summer international internship  program, I am very grateful for this opportunity. Not only learning a lot in  the process of internship, it also has given me more input on deciding the  career path that I need to choose after graduation.

I  also learn that in solving real problems we cannot only apply what we have   learned in classes, but we also need to think our own idea. By combining from  basic research with the development on its application, we can have more   efficient and effective solution. Therefore, I noted that being innovative is   one important thing whenever we work.

It   was important to build experience as a student. I believe that it will help   me a lot to get a Job in the future. The employers are much more likely to   hire someone with internships. It was important to apply what I learnt for   the last years of education and to visualize the real image of how people   deal with actual problem.

I  believe, as a civil engineer, that experience is important as classes and it  a better way to learn.

It  was a great chance for me to work for such a prestigious company like Shimizu  that has such a significant name, not only in Japan or Asia, but in the whole  world.

Before  I went to this internship, I had no idea about how shield tunnel was built  and why it should be built. I have learned about Soil Mechanics, Structural  Mechanics and other basic acknowledge, however, I still felt confused about  the application of them. Appreciating for this internship, I find the significance of those subjects. Civil engineering is not only a mental job, but also a manual job. It needs your physical vitality, your spirit and your   patient.

This internship was a good and useful   experience for me. By this chance I have a deeper understanding about the   Japanese company culture and I also learned a lot of knowledge such as the process of the tunnel construction and safety regulations and got some experience that will be useful for our future careers either in a construction company or research. In addition, I also found out that improving the Japanese level is very  necessary  for us, the foreigners if we want to hunt the job in Japan.

This  was a precious experience for me to be at a real construction site. I got to observe or even sometimes be part of every small piece of the whole  construction project. I gained a lot of basic understanding of construction   work, such as their schedule, safety, office work, food, equipment and so on. Also, I saw how everyone served their roles at the site; I worked, ate and  chatted with them, from which I am familiar with the people and how big  Japanese companies are organized inside. These will be extremely helpful for my future career.

Through practice and site visits during the internship, I leant a lot about contract, design and construction management in oversea project, and how the knowledge   of structural and soil mechanics are utilized. At the construction site, it was very impressive for me to see lots of experience and wide view of  engineers in proceeding the project under financially and physically limited condition.

I  would like to express my sincere appreciation for all the people who kindly  arranged this great opportunity to us.

Through   this internship, I have learned so many things. First of all, I have   understood about the major construction firm, that is, how they construct, what they did through the construction, and the situation in the real   construction site.  I think something I  have learned will help me for my future life.

Thanks   to the internship, I learned how a general contractor manages the workers,   the schedule, the materials for the construction and the process. Every step   is managed strictly, just to prevent the troubles take places. Though all the parts are taken care carefully, there are still some troubles. In the case  this kind of trouble happens, the staffs has to immediately start to manage  the solution. This problem solving attitude is needed for the construction   especially in foreign countries.

Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam

This is the first time for me to go to Vietnam and real construction site , so I  had learned many things . I talked with many Vietnamese people and Japanese  managers. After I finished the Internship, now I think I deepen the   understandings about Vietnamese people’s thinking and Japanese companies’s  construction process in foreign country.

My  site visit gives me precious experiences and precise overview to work at  construction company, in terms of their specialized skills as well as  communications between engineers, attitudes towards ‘manufacturing’, and so   forth.

Participating  in a project to supply water for 50,000 residents in Myanmar, I realized the  importance of the civil engineering technology. Construction in developing   countries commonly has many geographical and legal restrictions, however, worker at the site flexibly get over such difficulty by proposing promising alternative. Such attitude toward work was very impressive.

Trough  the internship, I also find there are many connections between what I have studied in the university and the actual construction project, that motivate me to   learn harder. Furthermore, it make my career plan clearer.