As I look back on my last full week in Seoul, I have a lot to talk about. There are currently 3 days left in my program before my flight home, and the bulk of that time will be spent working. 

This past week I helped to lead a tour for an international school from Turkey. This was a group of about 15 or so students who our company guided around Seoul for two days on Thursday and Friday. The main areas we took the group to were Gyeongbokgung Palace and The War Memorial of Korea. These places I had been to before as part of my previous work activities. This week was going to be a bit different though, so my boss and I went to both locations on Wednesday for research and site inspection. 

We were planning to guide the group through both locations while sharing facts about the area and history of the palace, for example. For this, we had a script that we wrote up which we worked to practice speaking and memorizing. We did the same for the War memorial museum in which we walked around and practiced our guiding speech.

Once Thursday rolled around, we started the day by meeting with the group at Gyeongbokgung Palace. We showed them around to the main buildings for about an hour then we made our way towards Bukchon Hanok Village, a traditional style village near the palaces in Seoul. There we did our cityteering program which takes groups around the village completing missions to earn points. We spent another hour there before moving on to Insadong – a cultural street and area nearby to the previous two areas. We got lunch there at a Shabu shabu place and spent time exploring the traditional and modern shops along the road. We finished our day at DDP, Dongdaemun Design Plaza, a large shopping and exhibition hall in Dongdaemun area of the city.

Friday continued the tour with the Turkish American school. We began at the War Memorial of Korea to learn about the Korean War history and other conflicts in Korea’s history. Afterwards, we rode up Bugaksan Mountain which has an overlook at the top which provides a great view of the rest of the city below.

With some of my friends I left work on Friday and went straight to Busan. We took a bus there which took about four hours, so it got us there quite late since I usually don’t finish work until 6. When I arrived in Busan, I had to catch the subway toward our accommodation, a hostel about an hour away. Luckily I was able to catch one of the last subway cars, and rode the train for close to an hour I think. Over the trip we went to the beach, went to a cool traditional village, and visited a small market. We also went to the largest Department store in the world – Busan’s Shinsegae Centum City Department Store, which is over 3.1 million square feet. Overall the trip was a lot of fun, but Busan was way bigger than I expected, so in order to really have a good time and experience a lot, you would have to spend at least 3 or 4 days there in my opinion.

I think that in a lot of ways the definition of “success” or a “successful employee” is quite similar between American and Korean companies. Often, both value hard work, and respect for the boss and higher-ups, but I think that Korean companies emphasize respect a lot more. It’s built into their culture even outside the workplace, from Confucian values, so it makes sense that it’s still prevalent and noticeable in workplace dynamics. Compared to America, Korea values teamwork a bit more I think, at least in terms of projects. Often American’s focus on their individuality and how they can separate themselves from the others and stand out, but I think that Korean people usually work to benefit the company overall as well as their group. This ties into another factor which is how Koreans are much more loyal to their company and can often stay at the same company their entire working age. Of course this is possible in America too, but I think that Americans are more inclined to switch companies semi-frequently. They may even choose to switch companies just to see another point of view and change up their work if they have been at their current company “too long.” 

For me, these values are important to my success as an intern, but I also incorporate my own values, work ethic, and American working values. I have been putting my best foot forward with my work here, and I will continue to do so through my last day in this program and at my internship.