From classroom to culture

Nate Tegtmeyer is a sophomore studying Integrated Social Studies in the Patton College of Education ; he is also doing a minor in Japanese .  Last summer he completed the Trancy Corporate Experience Program (T-CEP) in Japan.

T-CEP is a six-week summer program in Yokkaichi, Mie Prefecture, Japan. Students selected for the program get on-site work experience in a global logistics company. Interns are given free accommodations and a small stipend and pay for the airfare out of pocket. Several Ohio University students in the Japanese program have done the internship.

“Before coming to OU, I never took any classes or had any sort of teacher, I learned entirely on my own,” Tegtmeyer said. He began teaching himself Japanese during the coronavirus.

“I did not really know what I was doing at the start, so my study was quite disorganized, just watching YouTube videos and learning random words,” Tegtmeyer said. 

He conducted research, bought textbooks and made progress. When Tegtmeyer started at OHIO, he he tested into the fourth-year class.

Before pursuing the internship, Tegtmeyer had never been out of the country. 

“I really wanted to travel,” he said. “I just decided to do it. I definitely wanted to improve my Japanese and I knew my Japanese would get a lot better if I did the internship.”

His workdays (including his commute) lasted from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. 

“I would move throughout the different departments of the company and they would give me a presentation and then give me a tour,” Tegtmeyer said. 

He also helped workers practice their English language skills.

“At one of the departments I went to they had a group of about 15 people who had lunch with me and they asked if we could only speak in English while we ate” Tegtmeyer said. 

He wrote an article about his experience in Japanese which was posted in their company newsletter. On his last day, Tegtmeyer gave a 20-minute presentation about his experience and everything he had learned. 

“This was all done in Japanese,” he said, “So it was quite difficult but definitely elevated my skills.” 

He said everyone at the company was very supportive of him. They were very social too. On Friday nights, he and coworkers attended an izakaya, a casual bar or pub with small plates of food like tapas. On weekends he was often invited to spend time hanging out with his colleagues' families. 

“I feel like I gained a lot of independence while I was there. I just kind of learned to do things on my own. But at the same time, I improved my social skills,” he said. “I wanted to talk to people. I wanted to experience everything. And my language ability definitely improved while I was there. And because I had never traveled before, I got to experience something new.”

Back on the Athens campus, Tegtmeyer's progress has been noted.

“I am very happy to see Nate assisting fellow students since his return from Japan as an active leader of the Japanese Language and Culture Association (JLCA) ” said Dr. Hiro Oshita , associate professor of linguistics and director of the Japanese language program. 

After graduation, Tegtmeyer is considering moving to Japan to teach.

“I think the biggest reason people don't want to do it is because they think that they're not ready for it, or that it's going to be too hard, which to some extent, is true,” he said. “Even when I got there, I was like, I don't think I'm ready for this. But despite that, you will still get so much out of it, even if you feel like you're not able to do as much as you want to do. So, it's definitely worth going, especially if you haven't been to Japan before.”