Teacher of mistake!

Portrait View

Academy Schwarzkopf

A long journey has been through to the next round of new roles and time has gone so far that I thought it was just a quick moment, but of course not, it has gone so fast. I started gearing up within the team – regional marketing team  for Schwarzkopf Professional. Having no experiences at all in hair sector, I had difficulties tackling with understanding technical terms used in the team and also in my daily work. As it turns out, there was a great  deal  of amounts of mistakes came up.  A first mistake was related to cultural shock, that I and my manager had trouble understanding each other even the way of communication and thinking, so it took quite a long time for us to understand more clearly to adapt to each other.

View at the Bund

Compared to the other interns from all over the world, I was a bit slower than them even the amount of works, speed of working, and English ability, so the productivity of working is not really competitive if we benchmark the progressive works of other interns from different elites of the world vis-a-vis mine.  As assigned to work on various projects with different countries in APAC region, the second mistake was managing the right time to follow up with the countries on time as there is a huge interval of time constraint  from Asia to Europe; but luckily, I managed to control it by opening an official website to check the time difference for each country, but sometimes I got a crisis as well since I could not prepare everything on time.

Getting used to the new version of Ms. Office programs, I faced another challenging thing which was related to computer software as my company used only Ms. Office version in 2003 and Lotus Note instead of Ms. Outlook, so I could not work quite well with this issue. However,  It seems better now. Looking backwards to the last three months, I could not see any development I could make and produce such a great task at all, yet I never belittle myself and my strengths, still keep asking how I could work out better.

Photo with Yui

By asking the same questions "What should I do to solve this problem?" , "Who is supposed to be contacted for help?", and "What can I do to improve this task even more better?" everyday, I found out a new and profound way through which I implemented and executed for my daily work. Most importantly, I could see there is a huge and unbelievable change I could make and see how progressively I could evolve. Thankfully, I also feel so confident to imply what I could do to improve my daily work as well as my future. Before I would say I am a teacher of making mistakes, now I would rather say mistake is my teacher, sharing me the ideal and wise ways  how to leverage my working ability and results.  There is no perfect man in the world, yet there is a perfect way man could do, if he never gives up, to improve themselves to get more and more better in life.   

A get-up-and-go attitude is needed.

X-mas Party

Katharina's Farewell Party

Feeling so shock with cultures even inside the company and outside, which are quite different from one country to another one, I was in trouble dealing with cultural differences, understanding one another as each of us has different beliefs and thinking, and communicating with other people.  As of the start month of my internship on the 10^th of October, 2012, I spent most of my time learning only to understand how to communicate well with other people from different countries. Having been born in Asia, my thought and beliefs are more straight to Asian style, which is quite far different from Western style.   

Harish, Vijay, and Antje

Still I had to deal with it as yet, but learned a lot from this situation.  Already admitted in Schwarzkopf Professional team for about two months, I still needed a lot of effort to run to meet "the challenges" in every single day of my work as working style from European people is quite fast and more straight to the point, which is quite different from Asia ones, whose speech and communication are more likely circle before getting to the point. Thus, I had to restructure my speech and thinking to adapt to international style.  Before I felt so disappointed with my English ability as I could not understand people whilst they are talking, thoroughly through phoning, it seemed quite difficult to cope with before getting used to it. I, however, managed to improve myself from day-to-day basis to tackle with this quite hard yet interesting situation.  

Farewell Party for Yui

Providing that I were demotivated with my job, I would not have learnt quite a lot from this meaningful time with this German conglomerate – where almost all students throughout the world would dream of being selected or considered as an intern – and professional people. Having a good habit of asking around or being aware of self-progress, I deemed to change myself and enhanced my weaknesses while still keeping furthering my strengths.   From time to time, I saw a lot of changes I could make.

Birthday Dinner for Jean Jacque

If I were not in such a challenging situation, I could not probably make it visible and fruitful as I could see today. Thanks to the past time I have been through and thanks to my parents who always encourage me I know and understand well about the meaning of struggling life. Having lived through it, I learn how to use disadvantage situations to get stronger in moving on in life and promise myself to encourage others to do the same. Every single job needs us with a bit of get-up-and-go.  That is the only thing we all can go further in life. Do not stumble from all challenging things in life as all problems will experience us not to downplay our life. 

A fresh and amazing day!

Regional Marketing Team

Henkel's Office at KIC

Working Office

After having arrived in this new land and felt so lonely as having no experience at all in living alone, especially in another country and unable to speak its language even normal survival words, a good mood comes up with a lot of supports and helps from Mr. Meng Rithy (Rithy Chow, a name in facebook), an engineering employee in a more-than-60-storey building company, located in Jing An temple area. I have been introduced to some Khmer friends here studying in difference majors – Engineering, Information Technology, and Finance – in different universities in Shanghai and other provinces nearby.  

Given a warm welcome, I stayed in an old yet memorable apartment with him for a short period of time until I could find an apartment to live. Thanks to his support and intervention I knew a lot of Khmer friends and found a nice and acceptable shared apartment – surrounded by wet markets, banks, restaurants, and super markets, which I would say it is a nice area ever – with other two Chinese flat mates. Most importantly, it is quite closed to my internship place – Henkel, a German conglomerate,  based in Songhu Road, Yangpu district.

My first working day arrived, and I had to prepare the entrance application form before starting working. Like a blind journey as I could not read and speak Chinese, I had to take metro and find the way to the headquarter of Henkel based in Zhang Heng Road, Pudong District. I lost the way and spent around one hour finding the way by asking pedestrians and phoning Mr. Rithy; luckily, I made a good decision to take a taxi to the headquarter for entrance application.

Lunch Meeting of Regional Marketing Team

Spending a whole morning for application and travel, I managed to come to the office at nearly lunch time, but I felt so nice to see the working environment of Henkel where there are more than ten nations coming from all over the world and working in an open office. I was introduced to related persons whom I had to be working with by my line manager, Antje Chu, whose position is Regional Brand Manager, taking over for Schwarzkopf Professional branches and supporting APAC region.

A view at ASK area

With other interns from all over the world, I had invited to have lunch at a nice and high-class Chinese restaurant with a shared price. During lunch time, we made a short conversation and shared some ideas or interests about Henkel, and I felt quite interested in their jobs with challenging roles and responsibilities. A first historical start began  with a long journey of a six-month internship. 

One Place, One World

Situated in the middle part of the Asia world, China, one of the world biggest country, is the world of diversity, having a huge population in this planet. Having lived here, just one part of China, for about 4 months, I founded something new and interesting about China; generally speaking throughout the world, China is a world of languages, cultures, customs, beliefs, and administration preparation.

Controlling over 22 provinces, China has five subdivisions officially termed "autonomous regions", namely, Guangxi, inner Mongolia, Ningxia, Xinjiang, and Tibet. The four municipalities – Beijing, Chongqing, Shanghai, and Tianjin – can be collectively referred to as "mainland China"; having claimed officially by China, Hong Kong and Macau is termed to as "special administrative regions".

Yuyuan Garden

As I know so far, each province of China has its own culture, belief, language, foods, and administrative management, which is authorized to manage with its style to adapt to local people. Thanks to the past time of Mao's regime Mandarin Chinese was put as standardized language of this nation.  If it was not Mandarin  Chinese, we would have to spend time learning more than 22 languages if we want to live easily in this nation, but still elder people in some areas could not speak Mandarin at all. As far as the development booms the country, Shanghai becomes the world's busiest container port.

The Bund

Shanghai View

Located in the Yangtze River Delta in eastern China, Shanghai – where I live and work for my six-month internship – sits at the mouth of the Yangtze River in the middle portion of the Chinese coast. The municipality borders Jiangsu and Zhejiang Provinces to the west, and is bounded to the east by the East China Sea. It is an amazing time for me living in this nation. 

New land, New Life

Pudong International Airport

Flying along the way for about four hours and half, the air plane landed at the Pudong International air port, an international air port in Shanghai, China, a great world of diversity and the largest economy in Asia and the second one in the world after the United States. Arriving in the earlier morning at the air port, I felt a bit tired and so shock as this is the first time of my life traveling alone in a new land.

Generally required to do some obligations at the air port, I had to fill the arrival application card in order to get authority to live in this great land, so after having already filled in the form, I had to go to passport check place in order to get the visa sealed, then just went through to the ported-luggage check and found the transportation means to find my Khmer friend's house in Dalian road. You might need hotel or hostel if you don't have someone you know. 

Inside Airplane

Inside taxi

Shanghai Public Transportation Card

As structured with high technology, Shanghai, which has the busiest sea port in the world, is well-prepared in term of infrastructure  so that you can find easier and faster transportation means – taxi, bus, maglev (Magnetic Levitation Train), and metro – you like, yet as the new comer and unable to speak Mandarin Chinese even for a normal survival word, I had to take a taxi , even it is a bit expensive and as I am not accustomed to the environment and geographical area, to Mr. Rithy Meng's house. 

To live officially in Shanghai, we have to register our name into the district in which you are living. If not, you will be judged as illegal migrated person, so let imagine what happens then. What to bring with in order to be accepted for registration is to have a copy of visa, passport, and lease contract as they are the must-have documents for registration.  Therefore, you will feel fully peaceful and convenient to go anywhere else. 

Metro Station

View from Khmer students' dormitory

However, in order to keep safe with the money we have, we should have bank account – would be  good if you have ICBC account as Henkel company always transfers money to this bank – rather than carry a huge amount of money in hand; again, passport, visa, living address, and phone number are officially required at the bank. Enjoy a long journey of life.

What to do at the Phnom Penh airport?

It is a rare opportunity to fly to visit another country which is so different from our normal living day based on the condition, environment, standard of living, and even people. As part of graduation for my last four years at Pour Un Sourire d'Enfant (PSE) -- this non-profit organization helps and supports underprivileged students and poor families, I got an opportunity to intern at a well-prestigious and more than 100 years company based in Shanghai, China -- Henkel -- which has more than 30 branches throughout the world and its headquarter is based in Düsseldorf, Germany , having officially been recognized as the world's friendly branch. 

Gotten the visa and confirmed flight ticket, I had to prepare my 6-month luggage and had to come at least two hours earlier for flying preparation at the Phnom Penh International Airport, a well-known air port since the 1960s of King Sihanouk's regime, to make sure I had everything officially required for departure. 

Therefore, what would be the best to be considered preparing is to first be there earlier before time so that we could still check if we had everything needed. Frankly, we had to get into the departure working place to check in and check the luggage as they are a must-to-do responsibility; and for sure after having already checked in, we had to go to check the tax payment place before going up stair to wait for the departure. 

Once ready for above mentioned tasks, we had to go up stair for checking the passport and the portable luggage that we take along the way, then just go to the waiting place for departure. However, what we need to have is flight ticket and passport with visa so that it might not be making trouble for us.  Last but not least, we had to check our seat to make sure that we might not take someone's; otherwise, we will be asked to sit at the right place. Do not worry about this since we can find the seat number in a form, that we had already been asked and given at checking in place before getting up stair.  

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