My international experience(s) to date is(are):

I was born in Vietnam and lived there until I was two and a half years old. I don't remember much of my time while I was there but have been back twice since receiving the opportunity to migrate here from the US Government. Outside of my parent country, I've been to the UAE, visiting Dubai and Abu Dhabi as a part of E-Scholars and also visited Mexico last summer for a vacation with a small group of friends from High School. This year, I have been to China, visiting Beijing and Shanghai as part of my Global Engineering course.

I want to go to China because:

China is rapidly becoming the world's largest economy. Companies from all the different engineering industries are increasing their presence in China because of the vast amount of financial opportunities that arise with a growing economy. Markets that are crowded and oversaturated in the US, such as the smartphone market, are immensely larger in China and are still have plenty of room to grow. I want to go to China because I want to experience firsthand how multinational companies solve problems while also accommodating different cultures and governmental policies. I also do not want to be at a disadvantage in the corporate and engineering world when China does overtake the US as the world's largest economy.

I think the main professional work differences I experience will be:

Before the trip, I had expected the primary work differences to a lower standard of quality for Chinese based companies versus US based companies. Unfortunately, we did not get to visit any Chinese based companies during our visit there. However, we were able to visit some US based, multi-national companies so I will talk about what I learned about how they approach problems differently. IBM & AECOM held its high standards across all of their corporate offices. All employees were expected to follow the same set of regulations and ethical standards regardless of where their offices were located. This also meant that the quality of work expected from each employee was also the same, no matter if they were in China or if they were in the US.

I think the main cultural differences I experience will be:

Initially, I had predicted Chinese culture to be similar to Vietnamese culture, however, after going on the trip, I realized that although the two cultures shared many similarities they also had many differences. Both cultures hold their elders and superiors in higher esteems than the US does and both cultures place a large emphasis on family. Chinese people also place a high value on group cooperation and individual modesty. This was reflect in all of our business meetings when people with high titles, such as Senior Vice President came out and spoke to us about their business affairs in China. One of their speakers, Dr. Li, was very modest about her skillset even though she has more accreditations to her name than all of us added together.

I think the main political differences I experience will be:

The main political difference I thought I would experience is that China would favor Chinese based companies over any other company. Our visit at IBM confirmed my prediction. They noted that they were not allowed to provide Cloud services and that regulations were looser for Chinese based companies. This led them to change their business model to change from selling hardware to selling expertise and counseling due to those skills being harder to copy & master.

I predict that I will be surprised about:

I predicted that the food in China would be amazing and for the most part, the food was pretty darn good. I am surprised that there hasn't been an established Mexican restaurant yet due to its high concentration of ex-pats but that simply hasn't happened yet. I guess that's a business opportunity that's still open ;)

I think the major differences in living conditions will be:

The major difference in living conditions is that people have to deal with smaller spaces due to highly dense populations in major cities. In the US, there is plenty of land for people to sprawl out and own homes with yards. This is slightly changing in large cities, but for many Americans city-dwellers can buy a house with a small yard. This is almost impossible in large Chinese cities. Citizens are being forced to move out of their homes into large high-rises with hundreds to thousands of other people.