Internship Report Acquisition of Knowledge and Skills

Question:-

Learning is more than the acquisition of knowledge and skills. The complete process addresses the application and reviews the effect of that knowledge and those skills.

Answer:-

In the hotel, I work at the front desk. My typical duties include welcoming the guests, assisting them to check in and check out and answering their queries. While doing my job, I experience different situations. Encountering the non-English speaking guests is one of the experiences. During the first days of my internship, I have to receive an agent guest who does not speak English. It was 5:00 a.m and the aged lady reached the hotel. She was fluent in Spanish and when I welcomed her at the reception, she started replying mostly in Spanish and used very little English. I do not have any knowledge of the Spanish language. So I was having difficulty to understand what she is saying. From her facial expression and broken English, she needs a room but, the language was a barrier for both of us.

As soon as I realised that I cannot communicate with this guest, I felt anxious. At our Hotel a couple of employees can speak and understand Spanish but as it was early morning, none of them was present. So, I had to do something to understand the needs of the guest and serve her properly. At that moment, I was thinking hard to find out the ways to overcome the language barrier. I realised that asking the questions slowly might help the lady also to understand my query better. So I slowed down the speed of my questions. The lady understood my question. She nodded and replied yes. I again asked her about what kind of room she wants. This time I handed over a catalogue to her. I used my finger to point at the packages and asked slowly what type of room she wants. She got my message this time without any difficulty and within a minute, she pointed at are single bed deluxe room on the catalogue.

I was relieved when the guest smiled after entering the room. I realised that I became successful to make the guest happy despite the language barrier. The whole time, I treated the guest warmly so that she feels comfortable. Later I informed the manager regarding the guest and he ensured that the employees who can speak Spanish serve her.

From the incident, I learnt that communication skill and problem-solving ability is necessary to work successfully as a front desk executive in the hospitality industry. Communication skill involves both verbal and nonverbal components (Patterson et al., 2017). As evident from the experience, in this case, the non-verbal communication skill such as hand gesture and facial expression helps me to communicate with the guest successfully despite the language barrier. The verbal components such as the speed of speech delivery and tone of the voice also helped me to deliver my messages clearly to the guest. I also realised that having the problem-solving ability is crucial for hospitality staffs. The staffs should be capable to identify the interests of different parties, evaluating the available options and finding out the most suitable option to solve a problem. For example, in this case, both of our interest was communicating with each other. So, I identified all available options such as using verbal, non-verbal and written communication. I used all types of communication skill to ensure a smooth check-in.

If the same situation occurs again, I would be able to manage it more confidently. The incident also helped me to understand the importance of developing a linguistically diverse workforce in the hospitality industry to serve diverse customer groups. If I would become a manager in a hotel, I would focus on recruiting interpreters to offer quality service. The incident made me more confident about my problem solving and communication skill.

The incident helped me to develop the below skills—

• Communication skill
• Problem-solving skill