The match has gone into extra-time… It has been one of the most pulsating match in the tournament’s history… the score is still 4-4… the seemingly-mighty Liverpool is meanwhile under tremendous pressure from a minnow team from Spain… all of a sudden, Gary McAllister rose above the rest of the defenders to score the winning goal of the match! Liverpool has finally won the Uefa Cup Final!

Yes, I have been a fan of Liverpool ever since Primary Six. But, I must have been the only Singaporean to have watched my favourite team win the Uefa Cup competition at the Westfalenstadion in Germany- all thanks to my Professional Attachment in Germany.

During the May and June in 2001, I undertook my Professional Attachment in Germany with Aral GmbH & Co. KG. Aral GmbH & Co. KG has the largest network of petrol stations in Germany and they can also be found in European countries like Poland, Austria, Hungary, Czech Republic, Switzerland and Luxembourg. At first, I counted myself very privileged to be selected to undergo this training with Aral as there must be many things to learn from this successful company that rakes in annual revenues in the region of billions. Since my PA, Aral has also merged with British Petroleum to form a powerhouse corporate organisation.

It all started with a mass e-mail from the Office of Professional Attachment (OPA) to all NBS students, announcing that there were four German companies willing to take a few of us for a Professional Attachment. Having learnt German in Secondary School, I applied for it. Together with another student, we were the only ones selected for an internship in Germany.

Germany is a really strange place - everyone in Germany speaks German! This is akin to the situation where everyone in China speaks one type of Chinese and everyone in Singapore speaks Singlish. Now, here is where the problem lies. Having not spoken German for the past 8 years, I found it very difficult to understand the German that was spoken by the locals. Learning the vocabulary and grammar of German back in Singapore is one thing, while practising it with the German locals is really another matter altogether.

However, I soon overcame this language barrier and culture shock as I immersed myself in everything German from the “Guten Tag” to the “Aufwiedersehen”, from the Frankfurter to the beer, from the Bundersliga football to the ancient German castles, from the Berlin Wall to the impressively efficient rail system… It did not take me long to speak like one of them. In fact, I soon noticed that the Germans are so proud of their language that they will hold you in high esteem if you are able to speak their language and communicate with them.

At my workplace, I was amazed by the vast expanse of land of the entire compound. The office complex alone easily occupied over 20,000 square metres of land; it serves as the modern work place for 1,000 employees.

I was attached to the Lubricants Export Department. Throughout the eight weeks of internship, I was given project after project by my department. The major one was the research-based project. I had to analyze the feasibility of establishing a presence of Aral in specific countries of North and South America. This presented some of the most challenging situations as the availability of such specific information was hard to come by. To add on to the difficulty, some of the information that I had to source for were in German. However, the project also had its fun element, for example, once I was so desperate that I had to persuade the CIA to release some sensitive information.

Other projects included advising my Department Head on a legal case in Malaysia with regards to trademark infringement; rectification of invoices; sourcing for new suppliers and revamping the contents of the Department’s SAP…

The department I worked with can be described in one word - Dynamic. This could be seen from the positive work attitude of my colleagues, who came from different parts of the world. I think one thing that stood out is that these corporate workers were never as stressed-out as their counterparts in Singapore. The whole culture and working environment is totally different. And the company is still making millions of dollars in profit. An interesting question that my colleagues posed to me was: Why do Singaporeans slog so hard? This was one of those times when I could not give them an adequate answer.

The department is also “very together”. The emphasis on teamwork means that outdoor activities are organized once every two months to create a stronger bond amongst the people. When I was there, I had the privilege to participate in one of these activities. This time, it was a little different as the department decided to have a go-karting competition against another Department. We had a fun time there and in the end, my team came in 5th. It was really tiring, but fun.

The whole Professional Attachment was a wonderful, life-enriching experience for me. I learnt a lot through the various life situations that I encountered. Having been thrown into a totally strange and different world, I had to be very independent and build a good rapport with the people around me so as to make the best out of every situation. Learning from these international people helped me compare the difference between our (Singapore’s) way of doing things and other systems.

In conclusion, I would like to take this opportunity to thank the OPA, without their help this overseas internship would never have materialized. I have benefited tremendously from this experience. I hope you will make the same decision too!