Michelle McCarthy: International Management and Japanese at the University of Waikato
"Japanese culture is fascinating as what they say is not always what they mean, so to understand it you almost have to take all the clues you have and piece them together like a puzzle", says Hamilton-based Young Leader, Michelle McCarthy. Michelle has a long-held interest in Japanese language and culture and is currently in her fourth year studying toward a Bachelor of Management Studies, majoring in International Management and Japanese, at the University of Waikato.
Michelle’s current academic scholarship incorporates a directed study looking at perceived levels of Japanese labour productivity compared with actual levels. She explains: “Everyone seems to think that Japanese are very productive workers in comparison to other countries, but in fact statistics show that productivity levels in Japan are actually quite low.” Michelle will endeavour to discover the contributing factors to explicate this finding.
When Michelle was ten years old, her family hosted a Japanese woman for six months and she recalls this time as formative to her ongoing fascination with Japan. She went on to study Japanese at High School and last year she undertook a six month university exchange at Kansai Gaidai University in Osaka. Michelle lived there with a host family in order to make the most of the opportunity to gain fluency and experience Japanese culture at first hand.
She enjoyed intensive Japanese-only language classes, taking business papers and being the only foreigner participating in the university table tennis club. On this point she notes “being the only New Zealander on the programme meant that as the 'token Kiwi' it was my job to tell everyone how amazing New Zealand is and how very different the New Zealand culture is compared to Japan.”
Michelle was also engaged in business research for Asia:NZ. This involved forming a strategic plan to better integrate and direct the various parts of the business programme towards fulfilling the overall strategy programme itself and that of the Foundation. Also, she recently met up with some Hamilton Young Leaders while hosting the World Cafe event.
In the future Michelle hopes to complete a Masters in Japan or Asia and eventually become the New Zealand ambassador in Japan. This ambitious Young Leader wants to become fluent in Chinese and Korean within the next three to five years. In addition, Michelle is a competitive table tennis player and is aiming for the 2010 Commonwealth Games, with the Olympics being her ultimate dream.
