Reflection: Internship

Lessons that I've learned during my internship:

1. Despite my expectations, the low-income individuals or families who come to pick up food came from very diverse backgrounds. From Nigeria to Pakistan, these individuals were as in need of help as those in Japan. Perhaps not knowing the language contributed to the difficulty of finding employment.

2. You really can't judge a book by its cover. When I came to Japan, I immediately noticed how many foreigners populated the area I worked at and stayed at. Perhaps because Tokyo is such a popular tourism place. But you really can't make assumptions. Some of these "foreigners" work or study in Japan, some were even born or lived here, and their Japanese are fluent. Even at our internship there were so many non-Japanese who speak and understand the language.

3. Food loss is a very big issue in Japan. Restaurants and big companies will not hesitate to throw out left-over or slightly damaged food without any thought of recycling them. They won't even donate to maybe a church or organizations like Second Harvest unless we are working with them. All the foods that go to waste would help feed even more families or help the families already associated with Second Harvest have even more food.

Things I wished I have known coming in:

1. Japanese: I really wished that I had at least know some basic Japanese. It depends on the internship but for me, it would've been really useful to know phrases like "where do I put this," "how many," "do you need help," and more. I learned some of these phrases as I go through the internship but it would've been great to know them before coming in.

2. Take initiative: I am saying this because there were many other activities that I could've volunteered for had I taken the initiative and looked them up and asking our supervisor. That would've added a lot of variety to the works that I do.

Overall, I loved this internship experience and would recommend it to anyone. You'd make friends and meet people that you would keep in contact with for a long time. Also, the cultural immersion that comes with this internship was one of the best thing the past six weeks offered.