Anna's trip Winter 2009

Debrecen, Hungary

I am living in Debrecen, Hungary. Debrecen is the second largest city in Hungary and is located in the North-East part of the country close to the Romanian border. I am working for National Instruments which is an U.S. based computer peripherals company. National Instruments (NI) currently produces approximately 85% of their products at the facility in Debrecen.


I will be working in the Planning Department as a Regional Planner for NI-Japan and all of their International Direct shipments. The job requires coordination between the individual product-line planners and the sales offices at each of the branch offices. I was selected for this position because of my ability to speak Japanese. NI-Japan is an emerging market, and in hopes of creating more effective communication between manufacturing and sales I was chosen to fill this position.


NI owns an apartment on Thomas Mann that I will be staying at for the month of June. I will be traveling to the branch office in Tokyo, Japan for the month of June, and then returning to Austin for 30-45 days while I wait for my work permit from the Hungarian government. Afterwards, I will return to Debrecen and live in my own apartment for about one year.


I was very excited when I received official notification of being hired and moving to Hungary for one year. I was especially looking forward to being in a position where I would be dealing with a Japanese division and speaking Japanese daily. After returning in 2004 from living in the Nagoya area of Japan for 2 years it has been hard to find opportunities to speak Japanese. This job will give me both the want and necessity that I have to continue speaking Japanese.

http://www.ni.com/