NCW Sixth Form Student Alejandro is a super keen linguist. In fact, Alejandro is a polyglot, 4 languages and counting, namely English, Spanish, French, and Japanese, with Japanese being one of the languages he’s interested in studying at University. This summer, he had the opportunity to have his first external work experience at Japan House London (JHL) in central London, which is the cultural home of Japan in the UK and part of a global initiative to share Japan’s diversity and culture around the world. It was a collaborative effort to make this placement happen, combining Alejandro’s connections with Blind in Business (BiB) and Guide Dogs UK, and was a very positive experience for both Alejandro and JHL as noted by both their respective feedback on the experience below.
This was my 1st official external work experience placement, and it was great. My role was as a volunteer Visitor Engagement Assistant in the Visitor Experience Team at Japan House London (JHL), and from the beginning to end of my week there, my manager and team, were open, kind, welcoming, friendly, and supportive. I learned so much about my role as well as myself as a person. The JHL team also learned because this was their first time having a person who was blind/visually impaired work with them. While there, I met a lot of new people daily because I had to engage with the public. Some of the things I learned or skills I improved on ranged from problem-solving, communication, advocating for myself, being professional, using good judgement, to dealing with unexpected situations, teamwork, time-management, connecting and socialising with my colleagues, taking constructive feedback and being flexible and adaptable. I also improved my writing skills because I had to capture visitor’s stories every day. I even had the opportunity to participate in a meeting with the programming and marketing teams to share my experiences and recommendations about how to make JHL more accessible to people who are blind or visually impaired like me, and people with other disabilities as well. They were very open to all that I shared and even want me to possibly work with them again sometime in the future. Most of all, I got to practice my Japanese every day, as well as my other languages, which made me happy. All the experiences at JHL gave me so much confidence and allowed me to do things I didn’t think were possible, and I really enjoyed my time there.
What a pleasure these 5 days have been for everyone at Japan House London! Alejandro was excellent and is very detailed oriented, so he fit right in with the organisation. He prepared meticulously for his work placement, by investing a lot of time learning about what we do, as well as familiarising himself with our spaces. Alejandro’s charisma and multi-lingual skills were a fantastic asset for visitor engagement, and it is clear he derives a lot of enjoyment from talking to people. He applied the same skills for his collaboration with others. Everyone in the team enjoyed working with him and exchanging their enthusiasm on Japan, which is what unites our team. He reached the daily goal of visitor stories, which are a way of documenting our visitors’ feedback and outcomes from their visits and are essential in improving our project’s impact on the promotion of the Japanese culture. He also takes feedback very well and brought daily suggestions for improvements, making his collaboration with the supervisors very smooth and an incredibly pleasant experience. Alejandro also participated in a meeting with the Programming and Marketing & Communications departments, where he gave his feedback on our accessibility, coupled with suggestions on improvements. He prepared thoroughly prior to the meeting, making it constructive. The conversation inspired our Director of Programming, who would like to continue working with Alejandro on the creation of audio descriptions for our exhibitions. We are happy to have worked with Alejandro, who is now an honorary member of the Japan House London team!
