赴任先のオランダより、最近日本に戻ってきたボッシュのエンジニアに、駐在生活について聞いてみました！
濃くとても充実した日々だったと話す彼の生の声をご紹介します。

・担当業務を教えてください。
オランダのティルブルグ（アムステルダムより南へ約100km）という町のR&Dおよび工場併設の大きなオフィスで、主に日本の顧客向け無段自動変速機CVT用プッシュベルトの技術担当をしました。
4年7ヶ月の赴任期間、エンジニアとしてプロジェクトのリードや製品開発など様々な業務を担当しました。顧客要求を、文化や言語の違うオランダ人にわかりやすく説明するよう自分なりに工夫をしたり、時には嫌われるのを覚悟で主張を根気よく続けてチームを引っ張ったり、工場に足を運んで実際に何が起きているかを自分の目で確認し、オランダでしかできないことを率先して実施してきました。オランダのことであれば誰にも負けないくらい理解できたという実感が得られ、赴任して本当に良かったと思っています。

・オランダでの生活はどうでしたか？
とても快適でした。オランダに住む多くの方は英語が堪能で、「オランダ語を話せない」と伝えると、瞬時に英語に切り替えて対応してくれるため、地方都市でも地元のスーパーマーケットでさえもコミュニケーションをとることに苦労しませんでした。加えて、オランダ南部にはとてもフレンドリーな人が多く、外国人に対してとても優しく、かつ子供に対しても寛容で、日常生活においてストレスを感じることはほとんどありませんでした。また、旅行を思う存分楽しみました。日本からだとなかなか旅行できないようなスペインのマヨルカ島を始め、イタリアのカプリ島にある青の洞窟など、赴任中に13ヶ国へ旅行しました。また陸続きのヨーロッパは車で他の国に行くことも。中でもテレビでしか見たことなかったスイスのマッターホルンに行き、実際にその綺麗さを目の当たりにした感動は今でも鮮明に覚えています。

・海外で働いてみたい方へのアドバイスはありますか？
日本とは180度以上違う生活環境を考えると、多くの方がまず不安を思い描くかもしれません。ですが、海外で実際に現地の人と一緒に仕事をしてみないと分からないことがたくさんあり、学んだことは必ず自分の糧となり、今後のキャリアアップにも役立つことの方が多いと思います。ボッシュには海外で働くチャンスがたくさんあると思うので、積極的にチャレンジしていただきたいです！

【写真】
1. 同僚とオフィス前にて
2. オランダのユトレヒトという歴史ある町で、友人家族との記念撮影
3. スイスアルプスで最も有名なマッターホルンの絶景写真

Letters from abroad: engineer worked in Netherlands

We talked to an engineer who has returned to Japan from assignment in the Netherlands about his lifestyle over there. Here is what he said about his engaging and fulfilling days, in his own words.

・Please tell us about your work
I worked in Tilburg in the Netherlands (about 100 km south of Amsterdam), in a combined R&D and factory facility with a large office. I was in charge of push belt technology for continuous variable transmission (CVT) units, which are sold mainly to Japanese customers. I was on assignment for four years and seven months. During that time I had various responsibilities as an engineer, including project lead and product development. I made my own innovative attempts to explain customers' requirements clearly to the Dutch colleagues, who have a different culture and language. Sometimes I needed to show strong leadership to team members in order to achieve the project target although this behavior made them unhappy. I visited the factory in person to check the situation there and took the lead in doing things that could only be done here in the Netherlands. I came to feel that I understood the Netherlands as well as anyone, and I am really glad that I went on assignment.

・How was the life in the Netherlands?
It was really nice. Many people living there can speak English well, so they switch over straight away once I explain that I cannot speak Dutch. So I had no communication problems, even at the local supermarket in a regional city. On top of that, most people in the south of the Netherlands are very friendly. They are really kind to foreigners and tolerant of children. I almost never felt stress in my daily life. I was also able to travel to my heart's content. During my assignment I visited 13 countries that I wouldn't easily be able to visit from Japan, such as the island of Majorca in Spain and the blue caves on the island of Capri in Italy. And in Europe, where everything is connected by land, I was able to visit other countries by car. One of the places I visited was the Matterhorn in Switzerland, which I had only ever seen on TV. The feeling I had when I saw that beauty with my own eyes is still very clear in my memory.

・Do you have any advice for people that want to try working overseas?
Some people probably feel anxious when thinking about the living environment somewhere that is completely different from Japan. But until you actually work alongside local people overseas, there will be many things that you don't know, so what you learn becomes a source of encouragement to you. I think this kind of experience would help many people to advance their future careers. I think there are lots of opportunities to work overseas at Bosch, and I would encourage you to actively seek them out.

【Photo】
1. With colleagues
2. With a friend's family in the historical Dutch down of Utrecht
3. A beautiful photograph of the most famous mountain in the Swiss Alps, the Matterhorn