As young people, many of us dream of exploring the world beyond our hometowns. But dreams and opportunities aren't always the same thing, and when an opportunity arrives unexpectedly, we don't always feel as ready as we thought we'd be.

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That's exactly how I felt when my manager told me I'd be going onsite to Malaysia to work with Tanalink, a Malaysian agritech company Dirox has partnered with for five years. Tanalink uses Internet of Things devices to help plantation owners track their workers, equipment and harvest across large areas of land (read the case study). Instead of pure excitement, I found myself filled with nervousness: about living abroad, about communicating in English, about adapting to a new culture.

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Landing in Malaysia, I immediately noticed how different everything was, cleaner, more modern, more diverse than I'd imagined. Public transportation was convenient, people came from many different cultural backgrounds, and English was spoken everywhere. Even buying a bottle of water became a small adventure, converting Ringgit in my head while trying to communicate in English.

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If one thing worried me most before the trip, it was English. I had studied it for years, but using it in real business conversations was a different experience entirely. Before my first meeting, I sat quietly rehearsing sentences in my head, afraid of sounding awkward or misunderstanding the customer. In conversations, I sometimes needed a few extra seconds to process what had been said before replying, and those brief pauses felt much longer in my mind than they probably did to anyone else. What surprised me most was that nobody expected perfect English. My colleagues and the customer were patient, genuinely focused on understanding one another. Little by little, the fear I carried into every meeting began to fade, I stopped trying to speak flawlessly and started focusing on communicating effectively, listening more carefully and asking better questions.

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Working onsite was also very different from working remotely. Back in Vietnam, most of our discussions happened through calls, messages, and shared documents. In Malaysia, I sat in the same office as the Tanalink team; a question simply meant walking over, talking it through face-to-face, and reaching a decision much faster. There was no hiding behind a screen anymore. It was sometimes stressful, but it taught me that good communication can matter just as much as technical skill when working with an international team.

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One thing I didn't expect to struggle with was the food. My Vietnamese taste buds needed time to adjust to Malaysia's blend of Malay, Chinese, and Indian cuisine — some dishes sweeter, some far spicier, flavors I'd never tasted before. So I packed a suitcase half-full of instant noodles, which turned out to be one of my better decisions. After a long day of work, a hot bowl of noodles in my hotel room felt a little like being back home. As the days went by, I grew braver, trying more local dishes with my colleagues, asking what each one was called and laughing when I mangled the pronunciation. Looking back, getting used to a new place is a lot like trying new food: strange at first, and slowly, it becomes part of the experience.

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Beyond the work itself, the best part of the trip was the people. I worked alongside the customer during the day, and after work we shared meals, walked around the city, and talked about our lives and where we came from. Some of my favorite memories didn't happen in meeting rooms at all — they happened over dinner, during coffee breaks, or while getting lost and finding our way back together. By the end, I had gained more than work experience: I had made new friends and met people who inspired me in different ways.

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This experience also changed how I think about working at DIROX. Before the trip, my world was mostly my daily tasks, my team, my desk. Going onsite showed me that our work can connect us with people across countries, cultures, and ways of thinking and that sometimes, all it takes is saying yes to something that feels a little scary.

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I came home with photos, souvenirs, and a suitcase of unfinished instant noodles, but more importantly, with confidence, and the understanding that I didn't have to feel fully prepared before saying yes to something new. If anyone at DIROX feels nervous about going onsite, I understand completely, I felt exactly the same way. You don't have to be perfect. You just have to be willing to learn, ask questions, and take the first step. After all, at DIROX, together, we can. 

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