Table of Content

Acknowledgement ...............................................................................................2
I. INTRODUCTION........................................................................................ 3

1. Preface ..............................................................................................3 2. The companys profile .....................................................................3

II. REPORT OF THE ACTUAL INTERNSHIP AT PSO BUSINESS CENTER ...................................................................................................... 6 1. The usage of English in PSO Business Center ........................................ 6 2. My process in acquainting myself with the real working environment ..................................................................................................................7 3. The advantages and disadvantages ........................................................... 8

4. The knowledge and skills applied in the internship ................................ 9

III. EXPERIENCES AND LESSONS ........................................................... 10 1. Experiences and lessons from the internship ........................................ 11 2. The effects of the internship on my personality / viewpoint ................. 12 IV. V. VI. VII. SUGGESTION .......................................................................................... 12 CONCLUTION ......................................................................................... 14 REFERENCE ............................................................................................ 15 APPENDICES ........................................................................................... 15

Acknowledgement
First, I wish to extend my gratitude to Mr. Nguyen Thai Viet Huy General Director and Ms. Le Thi Thu Hang Chief Executive Officer of PSO Business Center, who allowed me to do my internship in the company. I also take this opportunity to convey my sincere thanks to Ms. Le Thi Thu Hang again, Ms. Nguyen Thi Kim Yen chief of Finance and Accountant Department and and Ms. Nguyen Thi Phuong Truc who directly guided me and help me solve my problems during the internship at PSO Business Center in Master Building. Everybody is such a friendly and cheerful companion here that supported me in mixing up the work environment. In addition, I would like to thank the Board of Rector of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, HCM city and teachers in the Department of English Linguistics and Literature, who have provided me with the best conditions for me to complete my internship in the best ways. Finally, I would like to express my thanks to Master Le Thi Ngoc Anh who has conducted me and helped me finish my internship report.

I.

INTRODUCTION 1. Preface The purpose of this report is to represent what I did and learned during my 2

months internship period at PSO Business Center under the instruction of Ms. Le Thi Thu Hang Office manager of PSO Business Center. The report first gives a brief description about Professional Serviced Office Consultancy Corporation (PSO Corp) or PSO Business Center (PSO) and English function in this center. Next, the report shall present an overview of the tasks I completed during the period of internship in details. Then the result as well as the experiences and lessons obtained shall be discussed and analyzed. I tried my best to keep this report simply and concise. It is hope that this report could reflect truly all my attempts in the whole internship period. 2. The Companys profile Our country has been developing in the direction of the market economy. More and more companies have been set up with various business modes. These companies usually aim to an active and convenient business mode. Catching the need, Professional Serviced Office Consultancy Corporation (PSO Corp) or PSO Business Center was established which was based on office business - a new kind of business in Vietnam. Target of PSO is to provide shared office services including reception, meetings, telecom and IT connectivity, translation and free legal services Besides, PSO has virtual office service for small and medium enterprises to develop their business. PSO virtual office provides all the benefits of a prestigious office location without the customers presence. Consequently, instead of the usual leasing of office space, PSO Corp is an excellent way to cut down risk in starting or maintain a business.

There are PSO office services: Basic business services in office including Reception & Concierge Services; meeting & greeting your guests; taxi, car, airline ticket & hotel bookings; preferred rates with couriers Telecom and IT connectivity services Communication services such as managing your message by phone or email, sorting and delivering mail and sending outgoing mail and faxes. Supportive services such as translating, typing, designing websites Free legal service in case customers want to establish a representative office, agency or enterprise.

Board of Directors

Chief Executive Officer (CEO)

Account

IT

Master Building - Head quarter (The sixth floor)

Master Building (The fifth floor)

PVFC Building (The first floor)

Reception

Reception

Reception

Institutional framework (Organizational structure)

II.

REPORT OF THE ACTUAL INTERNSHIP AT PSO BUSINESS CENTER 1. The usage of English in PSO Business Center Main function of PSO is providing spaces and the most professional office

services for customers. Additionally, thanks for its convenient positions in district 1 and 3; PSO attracts many inland as well as foreign businesses. The staffs use English in contacting with foreign customers and supporting them in any involved problems in office services. English therefore is used mostly in speaking and listening. For instance, in the office in Master Building, we have many foreign customers like Mr. Afghahi Mohammad of Exto Solutions Company an Indian; he rents a working space for a person so he works by himself in PSO. Because working alone, Mr. Afghahi usually catches problems in Vietnamese documents or in using office equipment; at those times, he needs our help. Beyond, we also use English in phoning or sending notifications for our customer via email every day. Although English is an important requirement to PSO staff, only the office manager Ms. Hang mostly takes responsible for contacting and working with foreigner customers. In PSO, communicating skill is required for all of the staffs in PSO. Therefore, most of the PSO officers at least can use English at basic level.

2. My process in acquainting myself with the real working environment. As my major is English Linguistics and Literature, I was arranged to work in PSO as Ms. Hangs assistant. In addition, because PSO is a professional serviced company, my tasks were various and flexible. During the initial days of the internship, I was asked just to do simple tasks and there were not so much job for me to do; instead, they gave me a lot of time for observing all of the usual activities of a working day in PSO Business center. The main purpose of

this observation was to familiarize me about the working procedure in the company. Because PSO is major in leasing officer, what I had to do in my first days in PSO were understand the service packages (A, B, C, D) and other services that a professional office need. Besides, because this is a general office for many companies, there is many people visit PSO every day, they can be our new customers or customers of the other companies. Therefore, it is very important to remember names and faces of people in here; we can identify them easily and give out suitable services quickly. One of my tasks was receiving mail, sorting them out and then providing notification and information of sender via email for PSO customers. This firstly seemed quite complicated to me. Actually, this process usually followed these steps: When receiving a mail or parcel, I had to check the customers list firstly to make sure whether the receiver was still our customer or not. Because we have a large numbers of customers (virtual and non-virtual), the list is changeable and updated every day. After making sure about the letter/ parcel I would sign in the bill, then I sorted and numbered the letter/ parcel in customers mail list. Finally, I send a notification via email for the customer. PSO also provides meeting rooms and meeting facility. We have many meeting rooms available for rent every day. When PSO received an order, my duty was preparing the entire meeting room usages included rental: projector, conference system, IT support, beverage... Besides, there are many contracts need to be made every day like office leasing agreement, working station contract, addendum and completion statement contract... These contracts are different depending on the package (A; B; C; D) the customers ask for. My job was filling the form of these contracts in Vietnamese as well as English. This job was easy but it also confused me at first days. In each contract done, I have to read carefully and make sure about the numbers in it. Thanks for this task, I knew more about business procedures as well as business English in making a contract which may help me very much in my future job because I am going to work in business field.

As I got familiar with almost the services in PSO, the supervisor sometimes asked me to introduce the office and the services when we have a new customer visiting the center. I really loved this job because I had many chances to communicate with people. Owing to this task I became more confident in contacting with everyone. 3. The advantages and disadvantages Although I have ever done many part-time jobs before, getting involved in a professional working environment like PSO was quite strange and challenging to me. I caught a lot of advantages as well as disadvantages. 3.1 The advantages: About the advantages, the first one is the friendliness that the staffs gave to me. Not only Ms. Hang who takes the responsibility to guide me, the other staffs were also glad to help me in solving issues and answering my questions. Everybody in PSO were so friendly, they gave me a lot of constructive comments in my tasks. I regarded PSO is not only a professional working environment but also a warm place to join in. Another advantage, because my major is Translation and Interpreting, when contacting with documents in English, I was not very perplexed. With all of my knowledge in translating, I could help Vietnamese customers in understanding many English documents and vice versa with the foreigners. 3.2 The disadvantages: Firstly, PSO is quite a professional and active working environment, everyone did their jobs in harmonious and effective ways while I considered myself was quite shy and inexperienced in here. During the initial days I could not catch up with the working processes and I usually took a long time to complete a task. Besides, communicating skill is one of my weak points I found when working at PSO Business Centre. I had to contact with many people every day in both English and

Vietnamese, being not good at communicating skill caused me to be misunderstood in some situations. Customers sometimes had to repeat or explain their demand clearly for me to get it. I also caught a little problem in translating English document relating to business knowledge. Because every field of business has its particular terms, translating a document sometimes made me confused a bit. Especially I caught problem with economic and legal documents which sometimes I was asked to translate for our customers. Fortunately, I got through the problem thanks for internet facility; I usually searched in internet to know the meanings of particular terms in these documents. 3. The knowledge and skills I applied to my work During the internship, I had chance to apply the knowledge and skills, which I had studied in 4 years in the university to support me in the internship at PSO Business Center. Being an English student enabled me to use English fluently in work. With the four Basic English skills including listening, reading, writing and speaking, I got no much difficulty to contact with foreigners at PSO. For instance, I used my writing skills in making notifications, contracts. Especially, speaking and listening skills were used frequently in contacting with foreigners. Truly, working at PSO gave me an environment to use all of my English skills, which I studied in my university. Besides, I got chance to apply the knowledge and skill of translation in translating English documents. These documents often were notification of payment, services descriptionso they were quite simply and easy to understand and translate. I usually took this task in order to support companies in their business. I was so interested in doing this duty as I had opportunities to improve my translation skills as well as get some knowledge in business. In addition, the Secretary and business English courses helped me a lot. Thanks for the knowledge I could compose some business texts, letters and documents for

customers in both English and Vietnamese. In PSO, Virtual customers are not in PSO frequently so PSO plays the role of an intermediate between them and their customers. In this way, using notifications is one of working procedures of PSO. I usually did this task to contact with virtual customers; these notifications were sent to them via email every day. There were many kinds of notifications I made, but no matter what the notification was, it has to be formal and effective. In fact, the knowledge I studied in university is quite different from the one I get from the internship. Therefore, the chances for me to apply what I studied were not much. However, I consider that knowledge is a stable basement, which will enable me to adapt to any practical working environment. III. EXPERIENCES AND LESSONS

1. Experiences and lessons from the internship The internship brought back to me a lot of useful experiences and lessons, which I hardly get in my university. The first lesson is how to remember effectively. When doing my tasks in the internship period, I was usually perplexed because I could not remember completely what I had been asked for. Perhaps I had not got used to the quick working process here so I sometimes forgot one of the tasks that I was required to do. Once, a foreigner asked me to help him scanning some pages from a document. At that time, I was busy so I delayed this tasks a bit, finally when I had free time to do it I forgot what pages need to be scanned in the document. It seemed to be a tiny problem and I could ask him again. Nevertheless, my mistake lost the pride of a professional office in customers view. Consequently, I knew the importance of remembering not only in interpreting but also in every work. To overcome this weak point I took note the tasks I had to do immediately when I was asked. In addition, when I was doing everything evenly the tiny task I always concentrate on it. Day by day, I made a progress in remembering, I did not need to ask the manager or customers to repeat their requirements for me anymore.

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Another lesson is about the importance of observation. I used to think that I was just in an internship job so I was not care so much to all of people in PSO. Moreover, it is quite hard to remember faces because there are so many people in this center. However, I finally regarded that if I had observed everyone and everything in my work better, I could have saved my time and got easier in my job. For instance, I could not give out an answer quickly if everyone asked me a question like Is Mr. A here. Is there any meeting room available? I usually asked the others to get the answer. I gradually knew that having a good observation skill could impress myself in other view and help work procedure more easily. Therefore, I tried to remember all the name of familiar customers in PSO, took notice of what was happening in this centerThus, I aided the office manager in managing this center better. Working style is also quite important especially in PSO where is called as a professional office. Quick and effective tempers are what a personnel need to have here. Besides, always smile and bring comfortable face to work were PSO style of work. Looking at working style of the staffs here, I myself got experience in wearing formal and elegant in a professional office where you has to welcome many visitor every day and because you could be the general face of many companies in this business center. It was the fact that the dynamic working environment made me more active and agile. I used to been afraid of communicating with people. However, during this internship, because I had to contact with many people frequently I had many chances to improve my communicating skill in both English and Vietnamese. Consequently, I am afraid of communicating with people anymore. Truly, in an internship, no one could avoid some mistakes and I was not an exception. However, thanks for these mistakes, I could get experiences for myself and enriched my practical knowledge. The knowledge I got is about office business, about communication in a work environmentBesides, when came to contact with reality of working I found out my weak points which are lacking of vocabularies, communicating

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skills and even working style. Especially, I knew clearer about myself, what environment I want to engage in after my graduation, what job I really love...

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IV.

SUGGESTIONS

For PSO Business Center After a time of working with the staffs at PSO Business Center, I have a plan to address the companys difficulties related to the use of English at the workplace. An English document with common sentences used for office should be shared out for all of the staffs. Although English is required for all of the staffs of PSO Business center I regarded that most of them are not good at using it. For this problem, the manager arranged a staff who can use English well at each branch. However, this solution is not perfect. For instance, the office at district 1 is a new branch and there is just one PSO staff can use English there. When the staff was not in the office, I would be asked to move to there to support the others. Thus, just a member knowing English in each center is not enough. If all the members of PSO can use English well, I think the company will attract more foreign enterprises to move in PSO center. Therefore, I think the manager should push up her plan in supporting English skill (especial communicating skill) for the members. I told my idea about an English document for the staffs and she agreed with it. This plan is in progress to be done. PSO is a convenient place for communication; the staffs always have many chances to practice English so I believe that they can make a progress quickly. For Department of English Linguistics and Literature During the time I was working at PSO, I regarded that I lacked some knowledge that is needed for actual working. Therefore, I hope that my suggestion to the Department about having some courses that are more practical for students will be done. Catching a same problem, my college and I were usually perplexed when translating with economic or legal documents. Because we did not have many chances to translate texts involving economic or legal fields in class, contacting with these texts in the internship made us perplexed and we usually could avoid making mistake in translating them. Therefore, I get a suggestion that our Department should have more courses, which

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support students in translate economic or legal texts. Thus, we will have enough knowledge to translate documents in economic or legal fields.

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V.

CONCLUTION

Overall, the experience of working and learning at the same time in such professional business center is great. It will be an unforgettable time of my life when I learnt the way to behave and use all my abilities. I knew more about some fields of business such as signing a contract, making business letters and some other procedures. Besides, I was able to apply my studies of English knowledge in the reality and got experiences and lessons from it. In addition, I got more confident when contact with everybody in work environment. Being confident make me communicate with everyone more effectively either English or Vietnamese. Moreover, I built myself a work style, which presents effectiveness, profession, and flexibility in working. Knowing well about my personality is one of my achievements I gained after this internship. I defined that I always want to take part in an active and creative work environment as well as English is really indeed my favorite major. Actually, I am trying to overcome my weak points day by day after the internship. The internship met my expectation about a convenient working environment; However, I have a suggestion to PSO with the hope that this company will better in English usage. PSO should have an English document to support the staffs in using English. By this way, I believe that the company can attract more foreigners. Moreover, after passing a time of practical working, I consider that Department of English Linguistics and Literature should have more courses that are practical for students like Study of translating in legal or economic fields. Thus, we can avoid some mistakes and being perplexed when working in reality. Finally, people in the working environment gave me useful experiences in and outside working, the chance to work with them is unforgettable. I really hope that all the experiences I collected in the internship would support to me in the career afterwards

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VI.

REFERENCES http://www.pso.com.vn/index.php

VII.

APPENDICES

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The outside of PSO Business Center

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The inside of PSO Business Center

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I HC QUC GIA TP. H CH MINH Trng i hc Khoa hc X hi & Nhn vn KHOA NG VN ANH
____________________________

Cng Ha X Hi Ch Ngha Vit Nam c Lp T Do Hnh Phc _________________

u 1:

uc

c Tp. H C g y t g .... 2012

EVALUATION SHEET
(Phiu chm im dnh cho GV hng dn) Student name: ................................................. Student ID: ................................................. Grading:
Grading Criteria (Tiu ch nh gi) Internship process ( c p qua qu tr trc t p g d S v p u xt ca g trc t p g st S t c tp t c g ty/c qua ) Oral presentation (K g tr b y ca S v k t qu, k g t c tp v xu t t g k t tr g b c ) Quality & Content of the portfolio (N du g b b c ) Total scores (Tng s im) Thang im Ti a 2 im im t

Ti a 3 im Ti a 5 im Ti a 10 im

Other comments: ........................................................................................................................................................................ ........................................................................................................................................................................ ........................................................................................................................................................................ Suggestions for improvement of the internship portfolio: ........................................................................................................................................................................ ........................................................................................................................................................................ ........................................................................................................................................................................ ........................................................................................................................................................................ Evaluator/Instructor (Signature & full name)

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