Experiences of Technical Intern Training #4 “Baking Bread with Passion”
Ms. Phan Thị Cẩm Thúy
Born in 1995 in Vietnam
2017: Graduated from high school
2018: Japanese Language Center
2019: Started technical internship (Kagoshima Prefecture)
Came to Japan to Achieve Future Dreams
I love cooking, so after high school I got a job cooking at a local restaurant. In the future, I want to open my own restaurant, so I decided to do a technical internship to save money. I wanted to do a technical internship training in cooking, and there was a baking job available, so I applied for it. The fee I paid to the sending organization was about 550,000 JPY.
What I am Doing in my Internship
In October 2019, I started working with a colleague at a bakery in Kagoshima, Japan. The workplace has a kitchen and a sales floor. The store opens at 10:00 am on weekdays and our training is from 7:00 am to 1:00 pm. We work longer on weekends. It takes about 20 minutes by bicycle from the dormitory to the workplace.
Our job is to make the bread dough and bake. Every morning we start by making the dough for the sandwich bread. We mix the ingredients with a large mixer, but it is difficult to control the water temperature at that time. Then we let the dough ferment a little and bake it later in the day.
While the bread dough is fermenting, we also make sweet bread dough. This dough is frozen and then defrosted to bake when needed.
Friendly Colleagues
The staff are all women, and they are very kind to us. They talk to us often, and on rainy mornings, someone will drive by the dormitory and give us a ride. Sometimes the manager will drive us to the supermarket.
Occasionally they come to visit us in the dormitory, and we entertain them by cooking Vietnamese food. We have a barbecue on the shop’s terrace, and also go out to eat together.
Our Father in Japan
Interacting with trainees from other companies with our “Dad”(photo taken in 2020)The union for our technical intern training is Western Japan Skill Center Cooperative in Osaka, and our local branch manager supports us. He is a very kind man, so we call him “Dad”.
He comes to see us several times a month to see how we are doing. Sometimes the female staff members who come with him bring used clothes they have collected from their friends. “Dad” also teaches us Japanese and drives us around to eat and sightsee. He also organizes dinner parties with technical intern trainees from other companies.
I Want to Work in Japan for a Long Time
On the day we first arrived in Kagoshima Prefecture, “Dad” took us to a ramen restaurant. The ramen was so delicious that I would like to treat it to my family if they come to Japan in the future. My dream is to open a restaurant in my hometown in the future, but since I am still young and surrounded by kind people, I would like to work in Japan for as long as possible.
Experiences of Technical Intern Training #3 “Changing Jobs to a Food Processing Company”
After completing technical intern training, Ms. Ly consulted with the union about changing jobs, but the union lied and said, ‟You can only work here.” A nonprofit organization supported Ms. Ly and she was able to change jobs!
Experiences of Technical Intern Training #5 “Ms. Sunshine in the Nursing Care Workplace”
The following are the stories of two Vietnamese women who are working at a nursing home for the elderly as part of their technical internship in nursing care.. They came to Japan with a certain degree of Japanese proficiency and have been very active in their workplaces right from the start.
If you want to know more, check here!
