こんにちは みんなさん！Hello everyone! My name is Grayson Gabet, an accounting and Japanese double major of the Class of 2025. This summer I will be interning with a Notre Dame alumni, Daniel Kerrigan, at Interactive Brokers, a finance company with an office in Tokyo, Japan. I have studied Japanese independently for around three years, but I have only recently started taking classes, and since then, I have seen my progress greatly increase under the instruction of professors at Notre Dame. Foreign language, global relations, culture, history, and geography are some of the topics that have always interested me most, so the opportunity to travel and intern abroad is a dream for me. I have studied foreign language abroad before with learning Spanish in Madrid, but now I have the chance to see another part of the world and get hands on experience with business and meeting new people.
During this internship, I will be learning more about the international business world as well as more about the Japanese culture and language. At my internship, I will be learning business Japanese as well as conversational skills, and we will also be utilizing the city itself as our textbook. We will have guest speakers coming in to highlight key concepts in the world of international business, finance, or Japanese culture. In addition, we will be exploring various sites across the largest metropolitan area in the world such as famous neighborhoods like Roppongi or Shibuya, going to historic locations, and maybe even catch a baseball game in the city, the most spectated sport in the country. This summer, I am hoping to immerse myself into Japanese culture, experiencing all that I can and see as much as I am able to. After the end of my internship, I will be spending a few extra days to see more natural and historic sites across the country, which I hope will also expose me to regional differences, subcultures, and great new experiences. And to be entirely honest, I also hope to try PLENTY of new foods from all over the country!
I will also be conducting research abroad examining the differences of Japanese and American workplace culture in international business, while also taking a examining the influences from cultural norms and historical developments. I understand that I have only seen a fraction of the world and interacted with a miniscule population, but I want to broaden my horizons and be challenged with leaving my comfort zone as much as possible. I want to be exposed to lifestyles, ideologies, and perspectives that I have never had the chance to before. I hope that by the end of the summer, I can come back as a person with greater understanding, cultural competency, and broadened perspectives.
I add this last bit in the few remaining days before my departure. I have been keeping up with studying every day and have been talking to myself in Japanese as I carry out other tasks, probably looking a bit crazy, to practice pronunciation and speaking as a whole. I must admit that as the clock counts down, I have been getting more and more excited but also nervous. I look forward to meeting so many new people and being thoroughly shocked by new experiences and most likely a culture shock or two . . . or twenty. I will update my blog with my new experiences and plenty of pictures soon after I arrive.
Until then, またねー