Program Reviews

Spending the summer interning in Seoul was an unforgettable experience! The CRCC Asia staff were very helpful and supportive before, during, and after the program ended providing us with helpful tips, a variety of cultural tours and experiences, along with opportunities to network with locals. I had gotten a great internship as well which allowed me to explore Seoul and many other cities in South Korea, which was excellent. My coworkers were nice and helpful, and I felt a lot of growth during my time working.

Arriving in Seoul was a breeze as the staff were helpful, provided a great presentation and could answer many questions. On the second day we had received our sim cards which were extremely helpful. One of the apps I recommend downloading to get around Seoul and other cities in South Korea is Naver Maps. One of the best parts of Seoul is the transportation system where you could get around the city for a low price on buses and the subway system. The food is Seoul is also excellent and cheap, there are so many places to shop in local markets, malls, and cultural areas. Don’t limit yourself to Seoul too much as there are other cities to go to and many cultural festivals and events throughout Korea. Purchasing bullet train tickets and bus tickets to travel to other cities are simple as well. I highly recommend this the Seoul Internship Program because it has made a lasting impact on me and there is always something great to do!

Before catching my flight to Tokyo I had no idea what I was going to go through.
I was worried about being in a completely different country all by myself, having to do a job I knew nothing about.
It turned out that my worries were useless.
From the day I arrived I never felt lonely: I immediately met the other interns (coming from different parts of the world) and our friendly and young supervisor. We organized interesting visits, delicious lunches, dinners, and events; we shared our experiences, personal stories and feelings.
Even if just for one month, I feel like I have grown so much after this experience.
I felt emotions I didn't know I could feel, ate great food, made new friends and explored a completely new culture.
Thanks to the internship I have more clear in mind what field I would like to work in in the future and finding a job doesn't scare me anymore.
I highly recommend this experience to anyone: for professional, but mostly, for personal growth. Going back, I would with no hesitation make this choice again.
Ganbare!

If you’re looking for an opportunity to pack up and leave to live and work somewhere else, the CRCC program is a great choice. Shanghai is a great location if you’re looking for the familiarities of home as well as authentic Chinese food and people. Living and working in China for an extended period of time can be very hard to organise yourself, so having CRCC to guide and navigate the process really helped. My only criticism of the program is that there is very little involvement from the intern in where you work (despite the industry selection).

Great opportunity to gain working experience in Asia. The business seminars really help and the mandarin lessons are a plus! This internship is truly what you make of it, the more effort and enthusiasm you put in your work, the more productive you feel. Please don't forget to travel, since you travelled all the way to China! My recommendations are Huangshan for hiking and Hangzhou if you go there make sure you visit Longjin Village. This village has great tea and beautiful sceneries. Best places!

I had an amazing and unforgettable time in China. I was able to gain priceless experience in a professional work environment while also immersing myself into Chinese culture. This is truly a once in a lifetime opportunity to live and work abroad and it will have a great impact on your professional and personal development. The CRCC team were extremely helpful from Day 1 and I felt comfortable and safe knowing they were there to support me at work and at home. I would definitely recommend this program to anyone considering it.

Initially, I applied to the CRCC internship scheme as I wanted to improve my employability. Graduate jobs in the UK can be so competitive and so I was looking to gain unique experience abroad that would help my CV stand out amongst the rest; demonstrating global networks is particularly important in today’s globalised world. I thought that an internship would be a really good opportunity to get a flavour for the media industry, as well as gain valuable hands-on experience, better preparing me for what to expect for media-related roles back in London. I would say that the internship met and exceeded my expectations in this respect.

Whilst working for Shanghai Family magazine, I was kept extremely busy by my supervisor almost every day. My tasks involved editing content on Adobe InCopy to cut down on words and check that grammar, spelling and information was correct, as well as improving the articles for them to read well. I also wrote my own content for both the company’s WeChat subscription page and the cover story of the magazine. I found it super rewarding to see my name printed in a magazine as ‘Assistant Editor’! Of course, there were some challenges at times, such as juggling my own deadlines, being thrown numerous different tasks that were to be done quickly and efficiently, but I found that I thrived more from being busy at work than when work was a bit slow. I learnt to write to a standard I was proud of in much shorter time frames. I attended events, represented the magazine and mingled with the expat community in Shanghai. However, one regret is not integrating more with my Chinese colleagues, which perhaps would have aided a more authentic China experience.

Nonetheless, I found living in China to be an exciting challenge. The language was way more of an obstacle than I imagined it would be (which, in hindsight, was perhaps a bit naive of me), but luckily, my supervisor was native British and so the language barrier was not too apparent in the workplace, and more when it came to weekend trips away. Difficulties such as VPNs and menus entirely in Chinese were still apparent despite Shanghai being more cosmopolitan and ‘Western’ in comparison to the rest of China. I liked that traditional Chinese culture was easy to find, even just in the local park on my walk to work every morning.

I really gained a lot from the experience in China. I learnt that I am pretty resilient person, and I proved to myself that I am capable of thriving, professionally and personally, whilst being completely out of my comfort zone. I was genuinely surprised at just how strong my support network was whilst I was in Shanghai. I feel as though made friends for life through the CRCC scheme and I am extremely grateful for the experience.

China is an incredibly vast country, with such a distinct culture, I feel like I barely scratched the surface - 7 weeks is such a short amount of time! Although I have no immediate plans to return as of yet, I am sure that I will return to China in the future. Going forward, I feel more confident to seek work both abroad and within the media industry.

Great program. Would definitely recommend. Development so much personally and professional, and got to learn so much about the Chinese culture. Very happy with the accommodation provided, my host company and support given by the Shanghai team will out in China.
Some achievements and highlights include seeing pandas for the first time, as they are indanged and so rare to see, learning Mandarin as I've always wanted to learn the language, experiencing Shanghai's TeamLab, being able to take part in the calligraphy and dumplings making classes, and making friendships that will last a lifetime. A number or things I did while undertaking the internship included; transcribing documents and websites from automated Chinese to English to correct English, watching over interviews and pick out the best parts, help editing interviews , helping write blogs, leaflets and updating the companies website, and helping organise events. I was very happy with my placement, and was so glad I got to work along side a very supportive team. Cant thank the British Council and CRCC enough for giving me this opportunity to take part in such a life changing program.

My internship in Osaka had to be one of the best experience I've ever had to me it was pretty great and a lot better than I expected. This was good because I was really skeptical ongoing in the first place because first off it is pretty expensive and is unpaid. But I feel the people I met and immersing myself in the experience made it really worth it for me.

The Internship:
My internship was for a month doing Market Research and Web Analytics for a new tourism agency offering experience in the city of Osaka. Most of the internships were for startup companies and although not directly my major, I was still able to learn new skill on the job, a bit about myself, and cultural differences of Japan. I communicated with one of my coworkers who was fluent in both English and Japanese to my boss to help me understand my work tasks. Otherwise, I was fine with my placement and enjoy working for the company and working with my coworkers. My fellow interns had varying experiences as well but overall I feel they were also fine with their situations.

CRCC Asia:
The staff was very helpful throughout the entire program whether we had any issues or questions they were there to solve them. They went above beyond what I was expecting and were personable and felt more like friends then advisors throughout it all. We had a generally small group of 16 interns compared to Tokyo's 50+ but this made it nice because I was able to get to know everyone pretty well.

Accommodations and Services:
The accommodation I stayed in was brand new and furnished no roommates or shared parts except the lounge. We stayed at a social apartment where we got to know Japanese tenants as well as our fellow interns. This isn't the case for all the program locations and possibly future programs so I have to say we were lucky. CRCC offered tours, business events, and cultural events offered once a week that was great to attend we visited many tourists destinations, networking events, guest speakers, etc. We generally had free time on weekends and holidays to do whatever we wanted as well and we weren't obligated to go to the events.

Overall thoughts:
I'm overall pretty satisfied with the program. I believe we had the best program based out of all CRCC Asia. The coordinators that were on-site definitely made the program for us and I greatly appreciated that. There aren't many things I disliked at all other than the cost because it is pricey once you factor in travel, transportation and food it can be costly. However, I feel that if you do this program you will learn and gain a lot from the experience and make a many great memories along the way.

The CRCC Asia Seoul summer program will be unforgettable and the best experience I had! I meet great people who have similar interests as me from around the world and built strong relationships with my host company. The CRCC Asia staff were really on point in resolving any concerns and always willing to help you in anything you need, before and during your program! I highly recommend this program due to the experiences you will earn and the amounts of learning you will achieve. Also Seoul is such a beautiful city, rich in culture and fashion, cosmetics and in general lifestyle. In addition, CRCC Asia staff will have cultural events were you can learn and experience certain aspects of Korean culture and lifestyle, experiences you will regret to miss!!

My summer in Seoul was fantastic! I felt very supported by the CRCC staff throughout the process, from interviewing with companies in Seoul to discussing my preferences and leaving for Seoul with a preparatory talk. On arrival, the staff was helpful, courteous, attentive, and made sure that we were all taken care of and settling into the city nicely. I enjoyed the professional development workshops, the cultural tours and experiences, and other fun programs that were offered. My internship placement was perfect for me. The company aligned with my interests and the job was enjoyable too. My coworkers were amazing to work with and we still keep in touch regularly. I highly recommend the Seoul Internships Program. You will never be bored in Seoul!