My name is Kristin Nguyen. I go to the University of
Texas at Dallas and I'm studying Electrical Engineering.
I wanted to learn
about the Japanese culture and just kind
of put myself out there in the country
if I had never been to I've actually
never been outside of the United States, so I thought it'd be a good
way to learn some independence and how
to live on my own
I work for an electrical
engineering company they specialize in
custom-designed embedded electronics, so
like custom design of devices.
In the  beginning of my internship I spent most
of the time redoing projects that the
electrical engineer had done so just
learning the steps and how to use the
tools that he used to complete these
projects and after that I started
working on a project on my own so coming
up with a proposal and choosing all the
different hardware components learning
how to create a budget and a schedule of my own
I don't necessarily need to but I can
and I've been able to learn a decent amount.
There are a few
English speakers in the company but
they're not completely fluent, so I did
get to practice like little bits of
everyday conversation in Japanese
I think that I've definitely learned a lot more
about independence and living on my own
it was difficult when I first came here
just not really knowing anyone and
having to meet new people and being in a
country where I pretty much didn't speak the language at all
so just getting that confidence and
trying to learn the language and just
navigating a foreign country
I've met
some really cool people got to explore a lot of really cool places with them
I really
enjoyed the Sumida River fireworks
festival that was really cool
I'm also into the Ghibli Museum which
has been like a lifelong dream
ICC did really well I mean it was
kind of a one shot for me because I
only interviewed with one company but it
was a really good company that that was
the first choice because they
matched really well with the
kinds of things I wanted to work in
which is micro electronics
Be brave and
just go out there don't be afraid to
walk around on your own if you need to
and just to go and make some friends too and practice your Japanese It'll help!
