Students' Perceptions of an Internship Experience in China: A Pilot Study

This small-scale study reported American students' perception of the effect of their internship conducted in a study abroad program on their development of Chinese language proficiency, intercultural competence, and professional knowledge. The results indicate that a self-evaluated successful internship allows interns with intermediate-level language proficiency to have sufficient oral communication in the workplace and provides interns with major-related observation opportunities overseen (supervised) by their supervisor/coworker. Working cultural competence is an essential skill for American interns to acquire for creating and maintaining positive interpersonal relationships in professional contexts.