Internship experiences in the U.S.A.
About my boss at The Times Record
On July 19, 2001, the third day in Maine for me, I visited
The Times Record with my internship coordinator for the first
time.
Since my supervisor, managing editor, Jim, was in the meeting,
the city editor, Tom, showed us sections such as advertising,
Internet, pre-press, composing, and administration. Finally we
went to the newsroom where I worked for ten months. I talked
with almost everyone in the company, and was asked many questions
in rapid succession: "What type of news are you interested
in?", "What type of genre of the newspaper would you
like to deal with?" "What type of educational materials
did you produce in your former publisher in Japan?" It was
natural that they were Americans, and they spoke so fast in perfect
American English, using many technical jargon related to the
newspaper.
In fact, I had been confident about speaking English, before
I came to The Times Record. Since I was producing English educational
materials at work in Japan, it was easy for me to book hotels
or restaurants or even complain about my room to the hotel front
in English. I was also very familiar with American English, because
American English is the standard English we learn at schools.
However, I was overwhelmed soon. I found that English used in
the newspaper was much more difficult than that I have used in
travels, losing all of my confidence.
Later, Jim and I discussed the plan of my internship. He said,
"I am not sure what you would like to learn from The Times
Record and what you can do for the company. But we really hope
to respect your interests, and hope that this internship would
be enjoyable and rewarding for both of us." At that time,
I just thought he often use words like "interest" or
something, and did not notice how much he was a great boss for
me.
I guess that it might be hard for Jim to teach me, a person
from a different country, a person who did not have any experiences
or knowledges in the newspaper industries. He always taught me
patiently, and suggested me many things. I learned a lot about
how to write English columns, how to interview people, and many
cultural differences from him.
For me, it was much harder to work using only English than
I first thought. I sometimes was faced with unpredictable problems
that happened from the cultural differences. I even did not know
what was the common knowledge in the US. Now I feel, they might
not have such common ideas, because America is a country with
people from various countries. Anyway, we tried to communicate
well, because it was the only way to solve problems.
On the first day Jim also said to me, "You are brave. You did not have any acquaintances in Maine. You did not have any acquaintances in The Times Record. But you came." I was not brave. I just could not imagine what would happen when I applied for the position. I always think I will be okay. Actually I was able to be okay and complete my internship. But now I think I was just lucky to meet nice bosses, friends, and readers.
