I spent a year teaching English in Kuzumaki, a small town in the mountains of northern Japan, through the JET Program. I was the only foreigner in town, which made for an immersive experience in every sense. I was also extremely tall there.
It had nothing to do with design, but it had everything to do with learning to communicate clearly across barriers: language, culture, expectation. That skill has shaped how I think about product work ever since.