ThailandInterview and article by Miyuki TakahashiSai MaiBangkokThe streets of Bangkok, Thailand’s capitalOffice of Geonoise Co., Ltd. where she worksThe area surrounding the Geonoise officeProducts in the Geonoise lineup14Rion recently welcomed Norwegian acous-tic instruments manufacturer Norsonic to the group. As part of that change, since October 2023, I’ve been posted overseas in Thailand to Geonoise, Norsonic’s Bangkok distributor.Geonoise is a company with about 20 em-ployees, all Thai except for the president, who is Dutch. Many of the staff members are experts in architectural acoustics. I’m often assisted by their expertise. Our president also speaks Thai, so the common language in the office is basi-cally Thai. Since I don’t understand Thai and the others aren’t very proficient in English, when I need to communicate, I usually ask for help from Pongsun, a Thai staff member hired by Rion who speaks English. Thai people in general are said to be more optimistic than Japanese people, but Pongsun is a hardworking and attentive person. He’s also knowledgeable about Rion’s products and someone I can rely on. Thanks to him I can feel at home here.My job is to support sales of Rion’s prod-ucts—mostly sound level meters and vibration meters—to Japanese automobile manufactur-ers, home appliance manufacturers, and other companies operating in Thailand. Challenges are the order of the day. Sometimes a product we believe is ideal for a potential customer in-terested in our product turns out to be not quite what they needed; sometimes they turn down our offer, deciding they’d rather continue using the instruments they used back in Japan.What I find fulfilling about my job here in Thailand is that I get to meet the customers in person. When I worked in the International Sales Section back in Japan, I almost always met my customers virtually. There weren’t many My colleagues at Geonoiseopportunities to experience the reactions of our customers in person. Now, when I meet our cus-tomers in person, I get to hear their real voices, something you don’t get online. For example, when I visit a Japanese company, I often hear about the problem of technological succes-sion—Japanese engineers returning to Japan without effectively passing on to the local staff the sound and vibration measurement methods they apply, techniques based on long years of experience, intuition, and knowledge. In cases like this, I believe these skills can be passed on to local managers, using Rion’s measuring instruments to quantify and document personal intuition and expertise. In these and other ways, I’m constantly considering ways to solve our customers’ problems with Rion technologies and other related ideas on a daily basis.I’m very comfortable living in Bangkok. My place is located in central Bangkok, which is a convenient part of the city to live. The city is clean. I can get anything I need for daily life. Although Japanese products tend to be expensive, the cost of living isn’t much different from Japan. I don’t have to worry about food or shopping. Public transportation is different here than it is in Japan. The air conditioning on the trains is often too cold, and the railroad network isn’t as extensive. The office in Sai Mai district is about 35 kilometers from home, about two hours by train to commute. Riding cars to work though, can be uncomfortable. This is because a lot of the roads aren’t paved, and I get carsick from the car bumping over the roads. Not to mention that I can’t return any e-mails during the ride, so there’s no perfect solution (laughs). I’m still trying to get used to life in Thailand, and I’m still not quite at the point where I can fully enjoy living here. But, at some time in the future, I want to travel around Thailand and in the neighboring regions on my days off to get a feel for the country and the regions around where I currently live.Rika MinagakiDispatched to Geonoise. Joined RION in 2020. After working in the Technical Document Administration Section of the Development Department, she was transferred in 2021 to the International Sales Section of the Environmental In-strument Division, then posted to Thai-land in 2023. At an office of Geonoise Co., the local Norsonic distributor, she provides sales support for Rion’s prod-ucts.FROM OVERSEAS Here we’ll present reports by Rion staff members and partners living overseas on their work and daily life in foreign countries.How does Rion contribute to people in foreign countries?What’s life like abroad?This section will introduce the story of one member.Three Months After My Posting to Thailand: A Full Life and Busy Listening to People in a Way Only Possible in Face-to-Face MeetingRion Across the Sea
元のページ ../index.html#16