This weekend I took a solo trip down to Busan and explored the city on my own. Unfortunately I got food poisoning on the first night from a food cart, which was a very rough start. Before the food poisoning effects hit, I was able to get a good amount of exploring in. On Saturday I walked around a local market and visited two beaches. I went to Haeundae Beach during the day to relax, and Gwangalli beach at night hoping to catch a drone show that apparently happens every Saturday evening. After waiting for half an hour, I unfortunately found out that the show was cancelled due to poor weather conditions, which was a big letdown. On Sunday I visited Gamcheon Culture Village, which was Little Prince themed. The village is very colorful and was located on a mountain, which made traversing the village very tiring. While I was there I met another solo traveler from Malaysia, and we ended up helping each other take photos before going our separate ways. It was a really nice interaction, and I was genuinely glad to meet someone else who understood the struggle of solo traveling and asking strangers to take photos for you.Last Sunday was also a record breaking day for me in terms of being mistaken as Korean. Including the solo traveler, seven different individuals either asked me for directions or spoke to me directly in Korean, and each time I had to apologize and explain that I was not Korean. At this point I have gotten pretty used to it, but seven in one day was a new personal record.
In terms of skills, this internship has pushed me in a lot of different directions. Some soft skills that I feel I have developed the most are communication in an international environment, time management, organization, decision making, and task planning and execution. Operating in a workplace where English is not the primary language has forced me to be a lot more deliberate and clear in how I communicate, whether that is with my coworkers, the CEO, or even just navigating daily life outside the office. Decision making has also been a big one, especially on the days where instructions are vague and I have to use my own judgment to move forward.
On the technical side, the two areas I have grown the most in are research methods and presentation building. For the research, I have been looking into companies, analyzing financial data, and summarizing their methods of investment, which has given me a much better understanding of how to approach financial research in a structured and thorough way. The presentation work has been equally eye opening, but for different reasons. We initially built our deck in an American style, keeping it concise and brief, however, the CEO did not like it at all and told us to restart completely. We ended up spending three full days just working on the layout before we could even begin importing our research onto the slides. It was a frustrating experience at the time, but it allowed me to understand how presentation standards differ across cultures and how something as simple as slide structure can carry a very different meaning depending on the audience.
That experience ties directly into the broader theme of global competencies. Going into this internship I understood that cultural differences existed, but experiencing them firsthand in a professional setting is a completely different thing. Whether it is adjusting my presentation style to fit Korean standards, navigating daily language barriers, or simply being patient when things do not go as expected, every situation has added something to how I think about cross cultural communication. I feel like I am leaving each week with a sharper awareness of how to operate in an environment that is different from what I am used to, and that is something I will carry with me back to the US long after this internship ends. Overall it has been another really full week. Busan was a great experience despite the rough start, and I am looking forward to seeing what the final stretch of the internship brings.
