Throughout my studies at university I have had many units that cover the topic of cultural differences and some of the challenges of working with organisations worldwide. I recently learnt the truth to this in my internship.
For my internship I have been involved in writing emails, using social media, and posting mail to international organisation members. These are the organisations that operate within Confederation of Meningitis Organisation (CoMO) around the globe.
I have found that social media is an effective tool for communicating worldwide because it is fast compared to mailing a letter in the post. However posting to social media on a global scale can have its challenges. Time differences are something I learnt about in units throughout my degree. When this challenge became a reality it truly was difficult working out what time would be most effective worldwide. Another challenge is that some places around the world do not have the accessibility or knowledge about social media which made things a bit tricky.
When it came to sending packages/mail in the post this proved to be another challenge. I found that time was a big constraint when sending mail around the world. When you only have a few days to get something across the world you therefore need to use express post which can be expensive, especially if you are sending parcels to many places around the world and you are a non-for-profit. I found it also difficult when writing the mailing address onto the packages as many places addresses are different to us here in Perth, WA. Did you know some places postcodes are more than 4 digitis and some do not have postcodes.
Writing emails to organisation members around the world proved to be interesting. I had learnt at university that languages can be a barrier when communicating to someone who speaks a different language. So when I had to write an email to someone who spoke a different language to English I had to use Google translate. This tool is not the best at grammar and based on email responses that had been through Google translate on their end I found often the email did not make sense, and therefore I am sure neither did mine to some extent. When I would send the email I would be sure to put the translated version at the top and then the English version below so I could CC anyone into the email that needed to be, and it would make it easier for them to read rather than again going back to Google translate.
I have learnt a lot about communicating worldwide throughout my time at my internship. It has been a fantastic learning opportunity. All the cultural barriers I had learnt at university where now put into practice.
-Alyce
