In a world where interns mostly tend to go unheard, one South African intern made an impression on an ‘American Buddha’.
Global (16 July, 2023) — Oftentimes, interns don’t have the floor to share their opinions. Not least when it comes to mindset matters. In the same breath, many interns are afraid to share their thoughts and ideas, something anyone who interned in the big wide corporate world will understand. However, one South African intern had her voice heard, and the result was an enlightening experience for one American Buddha.
Taking to share the experience, The Daily Buddha blog’s founder (who goes simply by Jim) told the story of how a South African intern got him thinking for the better.
Jim shared that a while back when working with the SA intern, he learned a little more about how different South African and American mindsets can be.
Being from South Africa, the intern naturally had unique opinions on American culture.
“The differences in our cultures made for some very interesting and enlightening conversations,” shares Jim.
“One such conversation was her observation on how we here in America seem to only love those things that are most like us, or we tend to only pursue the sure thing. Although this was a generality, there seemed to be a small grain of truth in her observations.”
The American Buddha went on to share that the conversation made him realise how many Americans do tend to localise their love and efforts to their own inner circles. This is quite different to South Africa, where the fabric of our differences are what thread us together. South African culture is a melting pot, and when we think of local love, most of our minds will go to all of us as a nation, not just those of us that are like us—uBuntu at its finest.
Jim had become inspired to take notes from SA culture thanks to the intern’s opinions, and shared some lessons with other Americans:
- “People can be unreasonable, illogical and self-centred. Love them anyway.”
- “If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives. Do good anyway.”
- “It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare; it is because we do not dare that things seem so difficult.”
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