Hello! I’m writing this blog post on Monday afternoon, July 20th. I can’t believe I have under ten days left in Korea. It has genuinely passed so fast. I feel a little excited to return to my normal life (I miss my friends and family), but also so sad that I will be leaving so soon. Korea is such a beautiful country. I will definitely be back at some point, though.
Last weekend there was a weekend trip to the historical city of Jeonju, but I chose not to go. I stayed in Seoul and explored a few new neighborhoods instead. Since it was. three-day weekend (Korea’s Constitution day) I decided to go hiking on Friday. I hiked around seven miles but did not make it through the full course I planned. It was so humid outside I really didn’t want to continue.
On Saturday, I went to the neighborhood Seongsu, which is known for being trendy and having a lot of pop up locations. I ended up spending the entire day there buying little souvenirs and gifts for friends and families back home. We also ended up going to a bank themed pop up which I found really funny. It was all cutesey while also trying to sell us its credit card.
On Sunday, we went to a mall a 90 minute train ride away which is known for having a big library in it. It’s incredibly photogenic. We basically just spent the entire day shopping (the mall was nine stories), and afterward visited a nearby fortress. It was very beautiful and I made sure to take the time to admire the Korean traditional architecture.
As for my internship, I was tasked last week with translating and formatting an investor presentation from Korean to English. It wasn’t very difficult of a task, essentially just plugging the text into an AI, pasting it, and reworking the syntax to make it sound more natural. I finished it within a day and got feedback from my supervisor that “you need to make the text shorter. It is too long now”. I did that and got the same feedback.
Earlier today when I went to work on the deck again I realized the problem: when I emailed the file as a PPT it condensed itself into a Google Slides, meaning the format was off. I thought it was definitely a cultural difference in communication from my boss. If I was in the US my supervisor would probably pull me aside and ask me why the formatting was corrupted directly, but to save face I was given significantly kind but still meaningful feedback in Korea. I’m not sure which I prefer more, to be honest. I could understand that although the feedback was gentle there was absolutely a deeper meaning under the surface.
Before this internship I would consider myself a decent leader. I am not the most naturally loud person in the room, so I would consider myself a ‘naturally born’ leader at all, although it’s something I can definitely do. I tend to be a more hands off leader, caring more about the result than the process. When I’ve had to take the lead in previous group projects all I would do is set a hard deadline and assign tasks, give reminders, etc. I don’t think it has to be complicated as long as your instructions are simple and clear.
All of my experiences at this internship have reinforced this leadership style for me. Seeing the way my supervisor manages me and my coworkers (he is very hands off, often giving unclear directions and unclear feedback) I think I prefer my way of leading more. There is definitely something to be said about an approach like that, but I prefer to have a very solid set of instructions, almost like a list I can check off whenever I work in a professional setting. For the peace of mind over anything else. For example, I was told to “make content” without any further instructions or resources. I had to ask follow-up questions, and even then didn’t get anything beyond “shortform” or “longform”. My supervisor is certainly very busy and I understand that some things slip through the cracks. I think I will take this experience as an example of how not to manage people and give instructions, though.
After writing this, I will make a list of the things I want to do during my final days in Korea. I definitely will be stocking up on skincare and makeup products as well as eating plenty of good food. I’m also starting to book my hotels for when I solo travel to China. I’m really looking forward to that trip. I think it will be a good chance to do some soul searching and think about where I really want to end up in the future. I’m not really at a place in life where I know what I want to be doing forever, so I think the temporary solitude will do me some good.
Until next week!
Sydney