For the last part of the four-part Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University (APU) interview series, the subject is Md Moin from Bangladesh, who graduated from the school in 2005. Moin revealed his thoughts on APU and Japan, together with his aspirations in life and work.
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Q: Why did you choose to come to Japan and study at APU?
Moin: Originally, it was my father who recommended me to come over. Working as a researcher, he had visited many countries. But he was most impressed by Japan for the kindness of its people, as well as for its safety and cleanliness, despite being the second largest economy in the world.
After becoming a university student in my country attempting to do overseas studies, I found APU posters at the Japanese Cultural Institute, as well as at the Japanese Embassy. I found the multicultural character of APU very impressive. It was very different from other universities.
In 2001, I applied as a transfer to APU, passed the exam, and obtained a scholarship to study international financing and accounting. This happened when I was in my first year at Dhaka University, and I transferred to APU as a sophomore.
Q: How was your campus life at APU?
Moin: To be honest, studies at APU were not as strict as Dhaka University. There, you had to literally immerse yourself in academic studies. I had done enough of that, so the practical, business-oriented studies offered at APU were a good match for me.
APU was wonderful for being multicultural. There were students from a total of 61 countries during my time. Out of the 900 students or so, 50 percent were from overseas. Case studies involving discussions were really exciting. In my course, there were students from 20 countries, and we had debates just as if you were in a global business setting. The school inspired you to be independent, too, and you could build a huge network of colleagues spanning the entire globe. And since I had a vision to become independent in the future, I found the setting perfect.
As for my living situation, I originally checked in at the APU House, the school's dormitory. After one year, I moved to downtown Beppu to share a flat with my mates from Tonga, Canada, Japan and Korea. In my private time, I was also a vocalist in a band. I also started up a fair trade business selling traditional ornaments, original musical instruments and so on. Over the years, I mastered Japanese and Spanish, in addition to originally speaking Bengali, Arabic, Hindi and English.
Q: You stayed on in Japan after graduating from APU. You are currently working for a prominent global company, but you are now starting up your own company. Why?
Moin: First, I wanted to be connected to my dear friends in Japan. Second, I didn't want to forget Japanese, which was a very difficult language for me to learn. I wanted to utilize the language in real life, so that I eventually could build a relationship between Japan and Bangladesh in the future. Those are the main reasons as to why I stayed on.
I got married in 2006 with my wife, who was originally my schoolmate in Bangladesh. I called her over to Japan, and we started up our family here. We now have a 1-year-old son.
I have been working for a German company at its office in Tokyo since 2007. But after the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the resulting global economic crisis, I decided to further my studies and enrolled in an MBA program at Tsukuba University in 2009. Those two years were very tough, but I finally completed my studies in July this year.
While obtaining my MBA, I started a company called Pikt (Pick & Talk) in 2010 that offers one-on-one online English conversation courses at strikingly cheap prices. All the core members of Pikt are actually my close friends from APU, and I do the directing, financing and planning. Although Pikt operates in Japan, it has full-time, high-quality English tutors in the Philippines. It adopts what I define as an ﾒintellectual fair trade communicationﾓ business model. It is a ﾒsocial businessﾓ that sets its first priority on social contribution. It helps to provide full-time job opportunities to highly qualified Filipinos who graduated from the University of the Philippines, while offering top-quality English learning opportunities for the Japanese. I came up with the idea of establishing Pikt after discovering from my Filipino APU ex-pat friends that their country had an exceptionally high unemployment rate of 25 percent, even if you graduated from the very top university.
I am setting the foundations toward my future goal to establish a consulting company that will ultimately offer business consulting services that enhance the relationship between Japan and Bangladesh.
Q: How do you define the role of APU, and would you recommend the school to others?
Moin: Oh, absolutely. It is an exceptional existence. I often ask if there are three kinds of people in the world. The first is the cool, the second is the fool, and the third is the cool and the fool. Which one of the three are you? If you answer that you want to be the third kind of person, APU is the place to be.
What I mean by being ﾒcool and a foolﾓ is to be smart, but dare to be different from others by enjoying being creative and original. APU prepares you to be that kind of person.
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/global-career-viewpoint.html?date=20111205
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