LAU Yin-mei Joyce || BSc (Hons) Enterprise Information Systems || SVOX AG, Switzerland

Lau Yin-mei Joyce went beyond her limitations when she interned at SVOX, a global supplier of embedded speech recognition, speech output and speech dialog solutions for the automatic and mobile industries in Switzerland for three months.

As a native Chinese speaker, the computing undergraduate was assigned to optimise embedded speech solutions in Mandarin and Cantonese so as to meet customers’ technical requirements and market needs.

“I participated in tuning the sound phrase in Mandarin and Cantonese for a Global Positioning System (GPS). It provided a valuable opportunity for me to learn the software of tuning sound waves,” says Joyce.

She was also assigned to write a programme for departmental usage. “It wasn’t easy for me to write a programme with a specified programming language which I was unfamiliar with. I utilised my knowledge acquired through my Enterprise Information Systems study to solve all the problems step by step. I was glad to learn something new through different hands-on experience,” Joyce says.

Surmounting the language barrier

Apart from challenges encountered at work, the language barrier was another obstacle for Joyce. “To be honest, I was not that confident with my spoken English before going to Switzerland. I encouraged myself to communicate with foreigners,” she says. “If I took a passive role, I would have lost the chance to improve my spoken English and to know more about other cultures.”

Through interactions with her colleagues from different cultural backgrounds, Joyce experienced various cultures such as Spanish and Turkish. She still keeps in touch with her Swiss colleagues after returning to Hong Kong.

When Joyce travelled alone in Zurich, she met a German girl on the way and experienced an in-depth intercultural exchange. They toured around the city and visited different attractions together, turning from complete strangers to travel companions. Joyce introduced the Chinese culture to the German girl and taught her some simple Chinese, also, she got to know more about the German culture.

Being sociable and genuine by nature, Joyce made lots of friends and spent a wonderful time in Switzerland. “To celebrate Christmas, our company held a party. We then went to see an ice hockey game and enjoyed cheese fondue in a restaurant. It was my very first time to watch an ice hockey game and have such a delicious cheese fondue,” says Joyce.

Now back in Hong Kong, Joyce continues to work as a part-time staff member for the company, which provides a valuable opportunity for her to further develop her computing skills.