Hello, I’m Balthasar Liu and I’m a newly-graduated student from college of foreign languages, University-Qingdao. I am major in intercultural German study, and have spent half a year in Bayreuth, Bavaria as exchange-student, where I became a rather good cook (courtesy of studying abroad). Once I made pizza (from dough kneading to baking) for my classmates there, and two whole pizza disappeared in less than 5 minutes.I was supposed to(and of course would gladly) continue my study next year in Jena or Nurnberg, Germany, which means I have a nice and long vacation till then. But who would spend such precious time just sitting at home doing nothing meaningful? Not for me! So I decide to experience the life that normal salarymen have: working from 9am-5pm and making money for housekeeping.
My first “job” was in a marine manufacturing company doing some translating and making contact with foreign clients. It’s quite a long way from where I live to where I work, I need to wake up at 6:30 am everyday for the time spent on road was about one hour. The work was rather interesting but I couldn’t learn more other than yachts and boats. Then one of my mother’s associate recommended me going to Internchina, said it could greatly improve my communication competence. And now, here I am, in Internchina, and I must say, it feels great!!! I can find almost everything I once dreamt of from work: free and relaxed office-atmosphere, kind colleagues and considerate boss. My daily work is to help the foreign students who come to China find accommodation such as homestay family or apartment, provide necessary help if anything goes wrong and offer them internship opportunities. I study intercultural communication in university so this is the best place for me to do what I’m taught for. When I was alone in Germany I can find many cultural shocks and stereotypes locals hold for us Chinese, and I’m sure same could happen here. And it will be my job to prevent cultural shock turning into misunderstanding. Feels like a lot of responsibilities and I’m ready for it!