ie hobby & professional influence

HOW TRAVELING AFFECTED MY CAREER AND LIFE ASPIRATIONS

Daniel Bröcker

[email protected]

IE University

Application

INTRODUCTION A HOBBY THAT I ENJOY…

Especially during the past 5 years, I decided to use the opportunity to travel to different parts of the world in order to

engage both in different intercultural projects and also simply in the joy of a long journey itself. These were the most

important stations: After finishing High School (2012), I started a road trip in Australia for three months together with my

father and sister. Then, I worked as an English teacher in a poor rural area of Peru, staying with a local family and learning

a lot about the country’s values, customs and political state. During that time I also visited other places in South America.

Later, in 2014, I worked for SAP in Quebec, Canada for two months, also a very enriching experience. In 2015, a one-

month trip to Indonesia last year was the most recent further located part of the world I have been to so far, during which I

learned about a country-wide economic transformation due to one industry.

The following slide show is intended to highlight the cultural experiences I made during those trips and to what extent

these have shaped my open-mindedness and professional motivations in order to become part of a multicultural learning

process. All of the following photos are self-made.

AUSTRALIA 2012ROADTRIP FROM BRISBANE TO CAIRNS/SIDNEY

During my Australia trip, the contrast between nature and modern, urban culture was very extreme… Cities like Sydney, characterized by the Angloamerican modern lifesytsle…


...as opposed to the Frazer Island, the largest sand island in the world

...or the Great Barrier Reef, a massive and impressive ecosystem, which may not be

present for many more years...


...shed light on the current debates on ecology preservation and how close, yet far away impressive natural habitats and metropolitan areas can be to each other.

Furthermore, this was the first time I could use my English proficiency, having just finished High School, in order to get most out of the conversations held with locals and other international visitors.

PERU 2012ENGLISH TEACHER FOR 5TH TO 12TH GRADERS AND MARKET

SELLERS

Working with less priviledged children as a bilingually raised person (Spanish/German) was one of the most fulfilling experiences. In the Andes region of Cuzco, I not only taught in the local school...


SELLERS

...but also initiated an own project for local artisan sellers who needed some basic English in order to sell and advertise their products more effectively to the tourists that frequently visited the village, Pisaq. Together with three German and Danish friends from the non-profit organization we worked for, we booked rooms in a museum and offered free 4-week courses people (aged 6 to 72 joined in the end).


SELLERS

The places I visited after the social projects were unforgettably beautiful (Machu Pichu, Titikaka Lake, Colca Canyon, Buenos Aires, Uruguay, etc).

What I took out of this time was definitely how important internationality and languages are as keys to new cultures and sharing skills others can simply not obtain that easily. Without my Spanish proficiency, I would never have been able to engage in such interesting conversations. Teaching would obviously have been much more difficult, too. Also, I lost 25 kilos of weight during this time, something I also count towards my personal development.

MONTREAL 2014INTERNSHIP AT SAP AG

My time in Quebec was especially interesting because the mixture between French and US-American influences could be identified in all parts of the city and region. Montreal looks like an American city, but its culture is highly francophone. Thanks to my French language education in school, I was able to communicate rather well. At SAP, the working language was a mixture of French and English as well. It was interesting to see how Quebec inhabitants are all able to speak two of the most ‘important’ languages in the world.

INDONESIA 2015ISLAMIC & HINDU CULTURE FROM JAVA TO BALI

Indonesia is one of the greatest examples of how tourism shaped an entire economy, infrastructure and educational system. I travelled there with my mother who had been there around thirty years ago. She knew some locals who agreed and elaborated on her impression of how the islands, especially Bali and Java have completely changed due to intense tourism. The economy is growing because of it, but the beautiful landscape is being replaced by hotels, young people are studying mainly tourism, and the streets are overloaded with taxi drivers.

INDONESIA 2015ISLAMIC & HINDU CULTURE FROM JAVA TO BALI

This trip helped me understand how globalisation has created opportunities for formerly poor and underdeveloped countries to pave the road towards more economic growth. The countriy’s beauty is the catalyst for such economic rise, but one should still see the compromises that need to be made in terms of culture and preservation in order to keep the unilateral motor of growth going – tourism and sightseeing.

WHAT I LEARNED FROM TRAVELINGA BROADER VIEW TOWARDS THE WORLD…

Especially after the first two trips after high school, my decision to become an international person was

crystalized. Although being rooted in Germany so far, I knew that I wanted to be enriched by people from

different nations, telling different stories and living different lives. Traveling as a hobby definitely opened a

very important door for me – I not only wanted to be taught internationally, but also wanted to become part

of an international environment.

Furthermore, I learned a lot about tradeoffs and how resources need to be used in order to get the most out

of sometimes very limited situations, like in Peru, for instance. Combining interpersonal together with

technical skills is the way to see and understand the world. Traveling privately and professionally is a great

motivation I have for the rest of my life – it is the best way not to get bored or too static in terms of ones

perspectives.