It’s summer again! And guess where I am? KOREA (once again)! This time, however, I am living and working in Seoul. What’s my job you may ask? I, along with 3 other Smith students, am an intern for the ruling political party of South Korea entitled Saenuri, or the New Frontier, Party. If you compare it to the United States, we are working on Korea‘s capital hill for the Republican party. HOWEVER! Unlike the US, the political parties here are not so black or white, so it‘s kind of unfair to call them the republican equivent (although it is a very conservative party).
Today is my second day working at the office of Congressman Kim Jong Hoon and so far I LOVE it! When I first got appointed to Congressman Kim’s office I was extremely excited. Many non-Koreans don’t know but one year ago Congressman Kim (he was not a congressman at the time) was the chief negotiator for the U.S-Korea Free Trade Agreement (FTA). I'm honored to be working under such a significant figure in the Korean parliament. What do I love most about working here? My co-workers! Each congressman, according to law, is only allowed to have 7 associates (as an intern I’m the 7th member). Among the seven members there is the congressional aid who acts as the congressman’s right-hand man or woman (our office has one), secretarial officials (our office has two), secretaries (our offiec has three), and then me, the intern. From the start everyone was so welcoming and nice to me and I found it really easy to talk to each of them, despite them being in higher positions. I even joke around with most of them! Congressman Kim and secretarial offical Kim are the only two in our office that speak English fluently so I am forced to speak Korean about 90% of the time (but I was expecting that already). On my first day there was nothing for me to do for the majority of the day so I just tried to read Korean economic books and learned new terminology like democracy (민주주의), political structure (정치 체제), global financial market (세계 금융 시장), and other government-related terms. When Congressman Kim came back to the office (he’s rarely here because of constant committee hearings) I got my first assignment. This Sunday he will be giving a talk to students from the United Arab Emirates so he put me in charge of collecting research on his lecture topic. It’s kind of a lot of pressure because the information that I find will be what he bases his lecture on, so if I get something wrong then he is the one who is embarrassed. At the same time, I have confidence because of all the research experience my East Asian studies and government classes have given me. The assignment is due on Thursday, but because this is my first time researching for someone else, I want to present it to my Congressman ahead of time to make sure I am not leaving anything out.
Another great thing about participating in the internship program is each Tuesday we have field trips to different places in Seoul. Today was our first one to the main building of the National Assembly, the building where parliament members vote on bills and such. It’s very similar to the U.S Capitol building.
Something interesting: When I came to work for the first time yesterday (Monday 6/17), I was looking forward to cooling down inside the office building or at least in my Congressman’s office because outside is SO humid. BUT on the contrary I felt like I was having a heat stroke just by sitting in my chair. Americans blast the air conditioning in buildings but one of Saenuri’s pledges is to create a more environmentally sustainable Korea, and if they blow air conditioning throughout this huge building then it would definitely make them seem hypocritical. Just by doing that I can tell that the Saenuri Party is committed to and stands by what they say to and promise the people.
So everything is so far so good. I hope these 2 months don't go by too fast!
