Bonny Li – Taiwan

Please give a brief introduction of yourself.

My name is Jia-Qin Li(李佳親), from Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C. I’m a sophomore in National Cheng-Chi University and my major is Japanese Literature. My hobbies are reading and writing. I regularly go to the library and bookstore in search of elements for my novels. I’m also interested in photographing the inconspicuous but lovely plants and insects that come into my life. One of my daily routines is logging all my experiences–happiness, sadness, anger, surprise, etc.- in a diary so that I can give my future self a nice big present.

How did you start interning at VANK?

I got the chance to intern at VANK through AIESEC, the largest international student internship NGO. I sent my applications to many countries and only received one reply from South Korea so I went to South Korea for my internship at VANK. It lasted around eight weeks, from 07/16/12-09/07/12. I spent most of my summer vacation in Korea. It was really amazing for me.

What were your duties as an intern?

Interacting with VANK members –most of them are high school students- to introduce where I’m from and who I am; writing reports about the international relationship between Taiwan, China and South Korea and what I did every week; being as a helper in events VANK held; going to many places like museums to learn more about Korean history and cultures.

What have you gained from your experience as an intern?

I gained the ability to research more and more information, to practice writing and speaking foreign languages every day, to experience true Korean cultures, and to interact with people from other countries. Since I’m not an extroverted person, I think that there may have been some misunderstandings that happened during my internship with other interns. After coming back to Taiwan, I pushed myself to speak my true thoughts. This is the greatest thing I gained from this internship.

In the VANK office, there were less problems. But outside of VANK, there were more problems especially when talking with clerks. Most of them don’t speak English so I couldn’t understand what they meant or anything else. It was useless to make gestures so I gave up communicating with them. Besides, the price in Korea is more expensive than in Taiwan so I seldom ate out and rather cooked in the dorm. Maybe this is another ability I gained during the internship.

Another experience was going to Dokdo. It is said that even if you are Korean, it’s difficult to set foot on Dokdo because of the territorial dispute between South Korea and Japan that has last for a long time and both countries are still fighting for this island. During the time in Dokdo, I joined the group composed of other VANK members who welcome me very much and I made a lot of friends during the trip. On the last day, my group was rewarded with an amazing and surprising cultural performance. This was the most rewarding moment.

Describe some of your short-term and long-term goals.

The short-term goals are to publish my own books about comics and anime and to catch up with academics because I’ll transfer my major next semester. The long-term goals are to become a translator and interpreter because I’ve learned many languages and I want to improve these two abilities. I also want to save money to travel to Europe, Australia, etc. in the future.