It all started - around the beginning of 2012 in which I got the notice about the opportunities of
joining the “YES program” with AIESEC, a management internship. I joined the information session,
listened to the speakers about the content and got very excited due to the experience story of one of
the previous participants of the program. And with me four other students from the Tilburg
University. The next thing to do was applying for the internship, writing a motivation letter, a
curriculum vitae and passing a selection procedure in which a roll play, discussion and some
questions with respect to handling specific situations came across. After passing the selection
procedure the following months to until the flight to Shanghai went by very fast. During this short
and hectic period there had to be arranged a lot of things with respect to stay in Shanghai and the
flight ticket had to be booked. Vaccinations, travel insurances, a visa, extra bank card, credit card
and the flight tickets were one of the main things to arrange. Besides my/our effort, the people from
AIESEC prepared us in making this big trip, from providing information about the required documents
to a master class in which culture was one of the main topics of discussion. From the Tilburg
department of AIESEC we received significantly more guidance compared to the AIESEC department
of Shanghai. The department of Tilburg, arranged the company, provided us with several meetings in
which we were prepared for this adventure. The department of Shanghai on the other side, only
arranged a couple of events with other interns and did not had any contact with the company or
arranged other meetings. As said earlier the time from passing the selection to the flight to Shanghai
went by very fast and this also had its consequences, the internship was arranged one week before
the flight to Shanghai for instance. After all everything was arranged in time and the adventure
started. However, just before the flight I became sick and it lasted until the first week in Shanghai.
Luckily, I was not on my own during this week and the other participants provided me with some
care and arranged the apartment in which we have lived for three months. These three months
provided me with amazing moments, which have become good memories. During this stay we
changed from participants to friends and we got to know each other very well.
The internship - was at a manufacturer of large format printers, Teckwin. As said before I was not on my own in the YES program and two other guys and me did our internship at this company. During the internship we were guided by a kind of mentor, which educated us with basic knowledge on the different type of printers and provided us with the assignments, work. Most of the work we had to do, was about doing market research with the focus on expansion of the market for Teckwins’ printers. We also got a lot of assignments in which we had to check brochures and manuals on grammar. The mentor was very friendly and if there were any problems we could call him. Besides the contact with our mentor we only saw our boss a couple of times and there was no further contact with her. There was also little contact with another woman who also gave us a couple of assignments. Unfortunately, we did not had much contact with other people in the company, because we had our own assignments, own office and it was difficult to communicate with them due to the language barrier (most of the other employees do not speak English and we do not speak Chinese). Although the internship was not that challenging in the sense of workload and difficulty, I have experienced a typical Chinese business culture. First, of all it is noticeable that Chinese people do not always say what they expect/feel. This was an interesting learning experience as I found out that this could create conflicts and difficult situations easy, because as being a person from the western world I am not used to this kind of “communication”. Besides this I also experienced that you have to be very flexible in a Chinese company and that there is not asked up front if you are ok
The internship - was at a manufacturer of large format printers, Teckwin. As said before I was not on my own in the YES program and two other guys and me did our internship at this company. During the internship we were guided by a kind of mentor, which educated us with basic knowledge on the different type of printers and provided us with the assignments, work. Most of the work we had to do, was about doing market research with the focus on expansion of the market for Teckwins’ printers. We also got a lot of assignments in which we had to check brochures and manuals on grammar. The mentor was very friendly and if there were any problems we could call him. Besides the contact with our mentor we only saw our boss a couple of times and there was no further contact with her. There was also little contact with another woman who also gave us a couple of assignments. Unfortunately, we did not had much contact with other people in the company, because we had our own assignments, own office and it was difficult to communicate with them due to the language barrier (most of the other employees do not speak English and we do not speak Chinese). Although the internship was not that challenging in the sense of workload and difficulty, I have experienced a typical Chinese business culture. First, of all it is noticeable that Chinese people do not always say what they expect/feel. This was an interesting learning experience as I found out that this could create conflicts and difficult situations easy, because as being a person from the western world I am not used to this kind of “communication”. Besides this I also experienced that you have to be very flexible in a Chinese company and that there is not asked up front if you are ok
with working overtime during weekends or events, which also occurred during our internship a
couple of times. So, the main experience from this internship came from the typical Chinese
environment we were situated in.
The stay – in Shanghai was an amazing experience and I will never regret the decision to go on an internship with AIESEC. The apartment we have lived in is situated in an above average and very safe area of Shanghai and I did not experience any dangerous situations. In my opinion, Shanghai can be characterized as a large modern Chinese city, which shows a lot of similarities with large western cities. The people in Shanghai were very friendly, but starting a conversation was not that easy, since there existed a language barrier. If a Chinese person spoke English it was most of the time a student or a business person. Furthermore it is noticeable that, we have not experienced violent people in Shanghai even in the area of the clubs people were not violent. One of the reasons why Shanghai is an amazing place to live in for me is that there is always something that you can do. If you are hungry you can find a lot of BBQ shops on the streets were you can order snacks till late. If you want to go somewhere for a drink, there are always clubs and (karaoke)bars open. The clubs are very nice to see and can be very cheap if you choose the right ones. Everywhere you want to go in Shanghai you can go by metro or taxicab, both are very convenient and very cheap compared with the Dutch prices. There are a lot of beautiful places to visit in Shanghai, to mention some: the Bund (skyline of Shanghai), the Tv tower (in which you have a view all over the city), a lot of temples, Yuyuan garden and many more in and around Shanghai (a travel guide was very helpful). Besides Shanghai we also went to three other places by airplane and boat: Beijing, Hong Kong and Macau. These places are relatively easy to reach from Shanghai and are very nice to stay and travel in. In Beijing you can see some traces of the communist period of China, it has its own character and some places are very recommendable to visit during a stay like The Great Wall of China and The Summer Palace. In Beijing we also rented bicycles as it is convenient and nice to cycle to several sights. However to some places we had to go by taxicab or bus. Hong Kong is like Shanghai a modern city with a lot of skyscrapers and from The Peak you have a beautiful view over the city. Macau was very cool to see as it is the Las Vegas of Asia. These three places we visited during the weekends and a couple of days is enough to see these places. Next to the group of the YES program, we also got to know other people who we went out with for dinners and visited clubs with. This experience story is just a small part of the stay and there is too much to tell in only two pages, but one thing can certainly be said about Shanghai: It is an exciting city to live in! So, I would definitely recommend an internship in a city like Shanghai.
Personally – I also went through some changes. I have learned to say no to other people more easy, which is sometimes better than accepting everything that is asked from you. Furthermore, I lived in a more relaxed way in Shanghai than in the Netherlands which was very comfortable, this is sometimes difficult for me to do in the Netherlands but now it is more easy than before. I think the stay also gave me the impression I am able to live on my own in another country in the future, which is very important for me as I am interested in an international career. I did not had the feeling of homesickness or such, but maybe this had to do with the fact we lived with the four of us in the same house and three of us saw each other the whole day at the office.
The stay – in Shanghai was an amazing experience and I will never regret the decision to go on an internship with AIESEC. The apartment we have lived in is situated in an above average and very safe area of Shanghai and I did not experience any dangerous situations. In my opinion, Shanghai can be characterized as a large modern Chinese city, which shows a lot of similarities with large western cities. The people in Shanghai were very friendly, but starting a conversation was not that easy, since there existed a language barrier. If a Chinese person spoke English it was most of the time a student or a business person. Furthermore it is noticeable that, we have not experienced violent people in Shanghai even in the area of the clubs people were not violent. One of the reasons why Shanghai is an amazing place to live in for me is that there is always something that you can do. If you are hungry you can find a lot of BBQ shops on the streets were you can order snacks till late. If you want to go somewhere for a drink, there are always clubs and (karaoke)bars open. The clubs are very nice to see and can be very cheap if you choose the right ones. Everywhere you want to go in Shanghai you can go by metro or taxicab, both are very convenient and very cheap compared with the Dutch prices. There are a lot of beautiful places to visit in Shanghai, to mention some: the Bund (skyline of Shanghai), the Tv tower (in which you have a view all over the city), a lot of temples, Yuyuan garden and many more in and around Shanghai (a travel guide was very helpful). Besides Shanghai we also went to three other places by airplane and boat: Beijing, Hong Kong and Macau. These places are relatively easy to reach from Shanghai and are very nice to stay and travel in. In Beijing you can see some traces of the communist period of China, it has its own character and some places are very recommendable to visit during a stay like The Great Wall of China and The Summer Palace. In Beijing we also rented bicycles as it is convenient and nice to cycle to several sights. However to some places we had to go by taxicab or bus. Hong Kong is like Shanghai a modern city with a lot of skyscrapers and from The Peak you have a beautiful view over the city. Macau was very cool to see as it is the Las Vegas of Asia. These three places we visited during the weekends and a couple of days is enough to see these places. Next to the group of the YES program, we also got to know other people who we went out with for dinners and visited clubs with. This experience story is just a small part of the stay and there is too much to tell in only two pages, but one thing can certainly be said about Shanghai: It is an exciting city to live in! So, I would definitely recommend an internship in a city like Shanghai.
Personally – I also went through some changes. I have learned to say no to other people more easy, which is sometimes better than accepting everything that is asked from you. Furthermore, I lived in a more relaxed way in Shanghai than in the Netherlands which was very comfortable, this is sometimes difficult for me to do in the Netherlands but now it is more easy than before. I think the stay also gave me the impression I am able to live on my own in another country in the future, which is very important for me as I am interested in an international career. I did not had the feeling of homesickness or such, but maybe this had to do with the fact we lived with the four of us in the same house and three of us saw each other the whole day at the office.
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