Living and working in a new country is an ongoing lesson in adaptability. It forces you to constantly recalibrate how you read social cues, how you communicate with a professional team, and how you perceive your own presence in public spaces. By week four, the initial novelty of being abroad begins to settle into a daily routine, and the real work of cultural assimilation begins. For me, this week brought two distinct challenges to the forefront: navigating an unavoidable level of high visibility in my personal life and managing workflow ambiguity within my corporate internship environment. Understanding and adjusting to these dynamics has been essential to finding my footing both on the streets of Seoul and in the office.
Cultural Assimilation and the Nuance of Constant Visibility
The most challenging aspect of daily life has been navigating the constant visibility that comes with being an expat here. Standing out so distinctly means dealing with frequent, direct staring from people across all age groups. Whether I am commuting on the subway, walking into a convenience store, or just grabbing a drink from the cafe, I am met with consistent, unblinking observation from the people around me.
Why this has been such a difficult adjustment for me comes down to a very specific cultural contrast. Back home in the United States, I am actually quite used to being in the spotlight more often than others. Because of how I carry myself, my personal style, and the creative spaces I navigate, standing out is something I am familiar with. However, standing out in the US is fundamentally different; it is often tied to individual expression, and it is a context you can choose to step away from when you want a low-key day.
Navigating crowded public spaces and adjusting to the constant visibility of being an expat.
In Korea, that choice is completely taken away. I stand out simply by existing in the space, and it is a structural reality that I cannot just “turn off.” No matter what I wear, how quiet I am, or where I go, the attention remains constant. Even in the office setting, waiting for the elevator I’m met with more subtle stares, but you can still tell that I’m constantly being observed. This lack of an off-switch can be mentally draining, turning everyday tasks into an exercise in high self-awareness and high self-confidence.
Furthermore, this hyper-visibility occasionally crosses the line from passive curiosity to uncomfortable social friction. In one instance, I had to navigate an intense encounter regarding my race. This individual used the N-word toward me; I felt the impact immediately, and I actively had to check him on it. In another instance, someone who knew English asked if they could call me that word.
Dealing with these encounters highlights a significant hurdle in assimilation. One thing I haven’t experienced much in my life is direct racism, and knowing that most of these individuals’ only encounters with Black culture are through social media, I’m seeing the consequences of that in real-time, and they affect me directly. Navigating these moments requires an insane amount of flexibility and restraint. It shifts the burden of adaptation to a new environment toward actively protecting my own peace and dignity while being an involuntary focal point.
Workplace Adaptablity & Project Alignment
In the workplace, the challenges of adaptability shift from the physical environment to communication styles and professional expectations. My primary challenge has been aligning on the definition of “done” and navigating communication loops regarding task completion within the team. Coming from an academic and technical background where tasks usually have explicit, linear boundaries (where a project is handed off, completed, and marked as closed), the fluid nature of corporate startup design cycles has given me a major shift in perspective.
- Defining Completeness: It. can be difficult to pinpoint the exact threshold where a task is considered fully finalized versus when it needs further iteration. In a fast-paced corporate environment, a design concept is rarely black and white; it’s often considered complete only until the next design loop or user feedback phase begins, and even these aren’t clear when they start and end. Which makes the threshold for finality highly ambiguous.
- Proactivity vs. Workflow: Because new tasks aren’t always handed down immediately, finding the right balance of how often to ask for more work, and knowing the best way to showcase completed designs to the team- has required a lot of active adjustments. In a high-context communication culture, silence from supervisors does not necessarily mean dissatisfaction, but for an intern, it can be easily misread as a lack of direction. It has been a minute since the team has given me a brand-new task, making it hard to know when and how to really show them what I’ve accomplished.
Tracking iterations and managing design cycles on the Figma canvas.
I have had to realize that I cannot wait for traditional, structured check-ins to prove my productivity. Instead, I need to learn how to actively present my value, bridge the communication gap, and confidently showcase my output to prompt the next phase of the workflow. Moving forward, the goal is to keep refining these communication loops, turning workplace ambiguity into professional autonomy, and continuing to embrace the unique, unpredictable rhythm of this entire environment.