Quote EndQuote Cross-Cultural Strategy

Why I Chose Quote EndQuote Cross-Cultural Strategy For My Internship

Posted by QEQ Intern | 06.24.13

Before coming to Canada to study, the reason why I chose to come to Canada was I heard it had mosaic cultures. I wanted to learn to broaden my views of different cultures, because in the future, I wanted to work in the United Nations and help developing countries change their image. To accomplish that, I should know not only how western cultures think but also how those developing countries think, in order to help change their existing image.

But when I arrived to study at UBC, most of my classmates were Koreans, except for two, who were from Mexico and Thailand. So I was little disappointed; although I always tried to use English and communicate with the two non-Koreans, it didn’t work well.

Luckily, I had another chance to use English during my internship period, so I hoped to work in a culturally diverse environment. For my internship, I was recommended the company, Quote EndQuote, from my program coordinator. Actually, at first I didn’t have lots of interest about this company because I didn’t have much information and I didn’t know well what they did.

But after visiting their website and Facebook, I changed my mind. I felt something in my mind. The most interesting things to me was what they did. They tried to help organizations who had trouble with handling cultural differences. It would mean the company would know and understand eastern and western cultures very well, because before giving advice to other businesses, this company should know not only about western cultures, but also eastern cultures. As well, even among eastern cultures, there are differences between them; I knew I would also learn about differences that also exists within western cultures. I decided this was good opportunity for me to learn both cultures and how to market to them. After that, I arranged for an interview.

During the interview with Alisa, I could feel how passionate she was, how knowledgeable of both cultures she was. I wanted to learn from her the leadership skills needed to inspire change in the minds of people.

Those are the reasons why I chose Quote EndQuote Cross-Cultural Strategy for my internship.

I’ve just finished my term as an intern at a Quote EndQuote Cross-Cultural Strategy, and the internship was more than I expected. In the beginning, though, I was not satisfied, because sometimes the work was too hard for me. Furthermore, there were some cultural differences, which included talking directly with the president of the company and sharing my opinions even if I was just a intern; these are not done in Korea. I also had communication problems because of my limited English. But, as times went, I could adjust the culture and differences with the help from other co-workers, including Alisa. They understood what I did wrong and talked to me what the problem was. They always waited and tried to explain the task patiently until I understood. It helped me and finally, I can adjust to the work, and feel satisfied with my work.

I think what my internship at QEQ did for me was related to how we do marketing with different cultures. If we want to sell products to other cultures, we should understand their cultures, invite them to come to our products, have a view which they have, and make them feel satisfied with our products and brands. So I learned not only how to communicate with other people, but also how to deal with different cultures.  This is something special I have been able to learn from the company, as a intern, and I felt very sorry every time when I realized my period of internship was almost done.

Thank you for giving lots of opportunity to me.  – Posted by Justin (Inki) Kim, Marketing Intern at QEQ from Korea.