Week three has been very fun outside of the office. On Monday, one of the interns from Yonsei University took me and another intern out sightseeing, and we went up a mountain where we got a really nice view of the whole city. There was a teahouse on top of the mountain, but it was under renovations, so we were unable to enter the building. 30 minutes later, we drove to the Han River, where we walked along the river for around two hours. Along the way we also passed by a couple of idol agency buildings, which was a unique thing to see, since idol culture and kpop is so prevalent in South Korea. On Friday, the team also watched the second World Cup qualifier for South Korea, this time against Mexico. Korea ended up losing this one, but despite the result everyone kept a really good attitude throughout. Win or lose, it was still a good time.
On the food and experience side this week, I tried Bingsu for the first time, which is a Korean shaved ice dessert topped with condensed milk and fresh fruit. It was very light and refreshing, which was perfect given how hot and humid it has been outside due to the rain. I also visited a Korean Costco on Tuesday, which was a genuinely interesting experience since there were more differences than I expected. Compared to an American Costco, the Korean Costco felt more chaotic. Since it is located in the city, the store was actually two floors, which I was not expecting at all (typically Costco is outside the city and only one floor).
The food selection was also completely different. The food court had a giant pork bake instead of a chicken bake, a muscat grape smoothie instead of strawberry banana, and a bulgogi pizza instead of pepperoni. Naturally, I got all the items. The bulgogi pizza and giant pork bake was really flavorful and the grape smoothie was extremely refreshing. Overall, I prefer the Korean Costco’s food court options over the American Costco’s options.
In terms of the internship, uncertainty has honestly been one of the bigger themes this week. One thing worth mentioning is that our office is located in Yeouido, which is essentially the financial hub of Seoul. It is often referred to as the Korean Wall Street, which makes a lot of sense given how many financial institutions and investment firms are concentrated there. One of the interns actually called it “Finance Land” by mistake, which got a pretty good laugh out of everyone.
The main source of uncertainty this week has been the final project that was assigned to all of the interns by the CEO. We were given general instructions on the research and analytical scope, but a lot of the finer details were left up to us. We went back to the CEO at one point to ask for more clarity, and he told us to take our own liberties and bring our own perspectives to it. At first that was a little hard to hear because I am used to having clear cut expectations.
The language barrier has been the other ongoing challenge, and honestly it comes up every single day. Since only the CEO speaks fluent English, communicating with the rest of the team is something I have had to figure out as I go. Every morning we sit in on a team meeting held entirely in Korean. We try our best to follow along, picking up on keywords here and there and using whatever is shown on the TV in the room to piece things together. At the end of the meeting the CEO gives us a brief summary and assigns us our tasks for the day, which helps a lot.
Outside of the morning meeting, communicating with coworkers throughout the day requires a little more patience on both sides. Honestly though, it has never felt frustrating. Everyone is understanding of the language barrier and we all just take our time with each other. Worst case we pull out Papago or Google Translate to get our ideas across, and it works well enough. Navigating all of this has really just come down to staying resourceful and not overthinking it too much. Some things are going to be unclear and that is just part of the experience. Whether it is figuring out the directions while navigating Korea or communicating across a language barrier, the goal is to just keep moving forward. Overall it has been a really solid week and I am looking forward to seeing what week four brings!
