INTERNSHIP IN A FOREIGN LAND

Doing internship in a foreign land is one of the toughest challenges that I have ever experienced during my course of study. As an intern I was entitled to communicate with the media and suppliers whenever there is an event. I t was not easy task to do as was faced with communication barrier. As mentioned by (Morris, 2002) “language barrier often go hand in hand with cultural differences, posing additional problems and understanding in the workplace”. I had a serious problem of pronouncing the Chinese, Indiana names. It was a bit of a hustle for me and at times I asked myself what am I doing here if at all I cannot communicate with the people that I am assigned to talk to. I have to ask my supervisor time and again to clarify on the pronunciation of names. At times the supervisor will be busy or out of the offices but at the same time I had to complete the task and submit the report to her before end of the day. At times when asked to make calls and the minute the person I called picks he or she will say its wrong number once they hear that my accent is different from theirs. In such situations I had to repeatedly tell who I am, what I want from them. Sometimes I had a problem of understanding the local language as many people prefer using it rather than queen’s language. It was very stressing as I had to communicate with someone that I cannot understand or we cannot understand each other and at the same I was suppose to collect information from them. I should say these challenges made me to grow as a individual as I now realised the importance of learning other people‘s languages so that we can have smooth communication.

When working in a foreign land one is sharing the office with people of different cultures and beliefs, so it very important to keep in mind that respecting other people is the right weapon that can used in order to have a smooth journey in achieving your dreams in the PR world. Moreover respecting the culture your clients usually create mutual understanding between an agency and its clients. Even though I was coming from a different culture I had to follow what was being practiced in the agency, when in Rome do what the Romans do. I remember I went for an Indian even and everyone was supposed to wear Indian elegance in order to attend the event. At first I thought it was not a good idea more so that I was not feeling comfortable with Indian clothes. For me the clothes were too fancy but that’s how the Indian clothes anyways. At the event everyone was looking very beautiful with Indian clothes, music and food was all Indian. That is when I realised that PR people can intelligently incorporate their strategies with the culture of their clients so that they can have a successful event.

REFERENCES

Morris,C.(2002). Retrieved from http://www.charlotteworks.org/clbpositionpaper.pdf