Fabian J. Froese, German, Graduate student in the Graduate School of Asia Pacific Studies
ICC Student Staff Leader: June, 2006 – May, 2007
Hi there!
Interested in ICC? I have been working for ICC since June 2006 when the center was set up. Let me share my experience with you. In the following, I will first list some benefits of this job, then describe my main job duties (events and office work) and conclude with some general comments. These information may give you an overview of how work at ICC can be.
Benefits
Gain some work experience in a Japanese atmosphere Improve your Japanese language skills Gain experience in organizing and holding events Opportunity to practice public speaking Meet various people during your work (students, faculty, company managers) Make friends with your coworkers (six other student staff and four fulltime staff) Visit companies, go on trips Additional income
Events
As you may have participated in or heard about, ICC organizes various events and activities to facilitate cross-cultural exchange on campus. When ICC opened in June 2006, most events were on a relatively small scale and attended only by a few number of people but as time went by more and more people participated in our events. These days, we usually have between 30 and 100 people per event. Organizing and holding various kinds of events is one of the main parts of my job.
Naturally, since I am German, I have been involved in almost all Germany related events. Depending on your national background you may be asked to organize similar events reflecting your background. Together with a Japanese student who went for study abroad to Germany, we organized a “German Festa” – a series of events featuring various aspects of Germany, including a soccer game, German food tasting, talk sessions, etc. As we needed some posters, videos, pamphlets etc. about Germany, I had to contact (phone, email) various Germany related institutions, such as the Embassy, Goethe Haus, German Tourist Board etc. Most people were very friendly and supportive. Eventually, we visited these institutions and picked up plenty of posters, videos etc. Furthermore, we also asked German companies, such as Lufthansa, adidas and Haribo to sponsor our events. After an exchange of several formal letters, emails, telephone calls and visits, we were lucky to receive hundreds of product samples as give-aways or lottery prizes (soccer balls, sweets, wine).
Apart from the country festas, I have regularly organized German Cafe and English Hour sessions. The purpose of these sessions is to bring international and local students together who can speak German or English, respectively and let them have a great time meeting new people while discussing various topics. Sometimes, these sessions become quite big with more than 50 participants. In such cases, I need a microphone in order to be able to address all people and also need to organize them into smaller groups so that they can better enjoy the session.
Using a microphone, making announcements, being MC of events is a regular part of my job. Thus, standing in front of a crowd of 50 or more people shouldn’t be a horror scenario for you. Certainly, nobody expects you to be like a professional TV entertainer.
Last semester, we introduced “Friday Nite”, that is various performances by student circles plus open cafe on Friday afternoon/evening. Due to its popularity, this has become a regular program during the semester. My role consists of welcoming student circles, preparing the lounge, welcoming students, facilitating during the event, and then cleaning up everything when it is over. Sometimes, I can also watch and participate in those events.
Office work
Apart from the events, I spent a lot of time in front of the computer, writing and/or editing reports and communication material in English. If you are bilingual you may be asked to translate documents. Since my Japanese reading is not that good, I rarely do translation jobs.
Overall comments
As you can guess from my report, I really enjoyed organizing events. Since I am a graduate student, I spend a lot of time in front of the computer. Thus, sometimes rather simple writing/editing work is not what I am looking for. Nevertheless, there is usually a good balance between interesting events and necessary office work. Luckily, during the semester, I spend more time on events than on office work but this changes according to our schedule. Overall, when looking back after one year of working at ICC, I can say: I would do it again!
