Difference between the internship abroad and traveling around the world

田中 將介

by 田中 將介

Traveled around the world after internship abroad in Cambodia

Hello, it’s Masa. I traveled about 20 countries for 4 months after my internship abroad for 7 months. I’ll introduce the difference between the internship abroad and travel from this experience.

In the travel, you can live as you want

travel makes me feel free
The right guy is me

I can never forget the beautiful scenery and valuable encounters I have unexpectedly seen during the travel. Also, as there was plenty of time, I was absorbed in my favorite things reading books, organizing photos while traveling.

On the bus in the South America, it is a good memory that reading a novel by Kiyoshi Shigematsu, I cried in a loud voice. As I’ll talk about later, unlike the internship abroad, travelling was able to give up on the spot “Goodbye”, if I had troubles, so I could live as I want. I think that being able to spend like you want to do without stress is a good point of travel.

In the internship abroad, if I had failed, I caused my colleagues and customers problems so I tried repeatedly to make it somehow successful. On the other hand, in travel, sometimes I felt that I had less opportunities to think using my own head than the internship abroad because most things during the travel, bought a wrong ticket or became a strange hairstyle, were self-contained.

Furthermore, because it was only free time, I got time on my hands. It was more difficult than I thought to autonomously look for usage of effective time that would lead to a life in Japan after the travel.

Troubles made me grow in the internship abroad

In the travel, I felt I could live as I wanted, I felt that if I did not have a rule, sense of purpose would fade away at the same time. On the other hand, in the internship abroad, I had worked with responsibility, so I made a trial and error everyday. As a result, I was able to spend meaningful days during the internship abroad.

And to face a different culture and a different way of thinking is a good point of internship abroad. I had a conflict with Cambodian colleague then I began to reflect my sense of values deeply again.
As the result, I was able to figure out what I’m good at, what I’m poor at, and the path I want to create. I think this is a good point only in an internship abroad which I can cooperate with people who grew up in a different country and have a different sense of values.

Unlike travel, you can’t make all decision while working in an organization. You have to get up early in the morning and go to work, and you must also engage in what you don’t want to do. I could feel the responsibility and satisfaction though, sometimes I couldn’t get things done well and I felt frustration.

Take freedom or take responsibility

vacation at uyuni after internship

Which do you choose, traveling or overseas intern? Although going abroad is the same, the environment that you will jump in is different between travel and an internship abroad. I think that it will change depending on whether you choose a free time or a responsible environment.

I think it’s also okay to not choose one and choose both like me if you want to experience two of them. Starting travel from the country you will work as an intern, there are many regions you can get a flight ticket cheaper than you travel from Japan. For example, I traveled from Bangkok to Finland in about 300 USD.

The encounter during the travel is often ended on the spot, but in the internship abroad, you can spend a lot of time with various people.

By the way, I can’t forget the starry sky of Uyuni salt lake I saw on the travel.

(Editor: Misaki Tachibana)

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