Sonja

Hello, my name is Sonja. I come from Finland but I’m studying in a Master’s Degree program at the University of Potsdam, Germany. I’m majoring in Foreign Languages and Linguistics. I am especially fascinated by the Korean language which is why I wanted to do my internship in South Korea. I then found out about Acopia and after reading thoroughly about the organization and the internship program they offered I decided to apply for an internship. The tasks and responsibilities of interns were various and they were spread across various different fields (marketing, web design, language teaching etc.) that all were of interest to me so I was very excited when I learned that I had been accepted into the program.

I learned many things while doing my internship at Acopia. We were required to function not only as a team but as individuals. The work was at times very independent with minimal supervision but I really enjoyed it. The working atmosphere was pleasant and interns were also given a lot of responsibility which made it even more interesting and motivating for us. As a project management intern I was mainly responsible for promoting Acopia and it’s camps, managing the social media channels and the organization’s website, answering emails, updating various files and handling the accounting activities concerning incoming interns and the sales at the cafe.

I also appreciated the chance to be able to learn Korean in a 1:1 class once a week. My teacher was very nice and I learned a lot, thanks to her. Because I’m a language major, being able to learn Korean was particularly interesting to me. I had first expected the work of interns to also include teaching of languages, but after I arrived I learned that this was not the case anymore. Even though I didn’t get to teach languages I still had many other interesting tasks to do and was able to connect the tasks to my field of study by translating content and in the general use of foreign languages in the communication between colleagues and customers at Acopia.

I also got to help out with a K-pop Camp which Acopia organized in the end of December 2017. I got to accompany our group one whole day around Seoul and was guiding our campers and helping out whenever help was needed. We did some shopping in Hongdae, ate delicious Korean food, visited a traditional Hanok village and had dance classes at the famous 1 Million Dance Studio. It was a great learning experience for me seeing how such a camp is organized and also what could be improved in organizing such an event.

During my internship I made new friends from all over the world. We had so much fun together and they really made my internship experience worthwhile. The Japanese staff were also so nice and helpful during the two months I spent at Acopia. All in all I had a great time and I’m very glad and thankful that I got to meet all these wonderful people.