The Story of Exchanges officer, Mr. Karl

On 4th December 2017, PR15A have visited US Embassy and met Mr. Karl who works in exchanges office in Washington DC, USA. He is a fun and kind guy who love to shares his thought and listens to other people’s opinion. He shares about his life, his work, and everything about USA. All students from PR15A look really enjoy the conversations with Mr. Karl, proved by lots of questions that asked and laughing a lot with Mr. Karl.

Before he starts his career as an exchange officer, he was an army in USA for 25 years. He decided to retired from US army because he has family, kids, and dogs that need his attention. He has degree on psychology but choose to be an exchange officer rather than psychologist. “I love learning psychology, but to take it as a work, I don’t think it is enough. I love to try something new and I love to meet new people, therefore I choose this job” he said.

His job is to move people to USA, take them to their workplace, and meet them with people in the same field. “We move people to move ideas” he emphasizes. He works by moving from one country to other country, and he really enjoy it. He can always find something new on other country, because his life motto is ‘always try something new’. The hardest part works from one country to other country is the jetlag. He gets a little bit dizzy with the changes of time, because he needs to reschedule his sleep’s time.

He said that he never feel culture shock wherever he go. He thinks that ‘culture shock’ is more likely to be the negative way, so he prefers to use ‘different culture’ rather than ‘culture shock’. Different culture is something that can’t be avoided. To reduce it, all you have to do is smiling. He believes that wherever you go, as long as you are smiling, you will always find a good person there. For him, different culture isn’t always about different country. When you go to different place or city, there will be different culture event only a little.

He also shares his thoughts about USA and Asia. He tried to straighten the news about muslim ban and discrimination in USA. He tells PR15A students that it’s not like the news shows, the discrimination in USA is only in a small amount. Most of people in USA aren’t really care about other people life. There is also muslim community in USA so, it isn’t that dangerous to live as a muslim there. He also straightens the mindset about USA food is all junk food. USA people today want to have healthier life.  They start to love organic foods, vegetables, and doing sports. “You can make juice from vegetables or making an organic food and sell it in USA. You will be rich because of that” he said. He also thinks that technology in Asia is more advanced than USA. He even saw email the first time when he was in Asia. He feels that Asian people is more creative and innovative to make technology.

After sharing thoughts and opinion with Mr. Karl for around 2 hours, this visit is closed by took picture together. PR15A students also made boomerang on instagram with Mr. Karl which made all of people there are really happy. If you interest to visit the library in US embassy like PR15A did, you can make an appointment on myamericajakarta@state.gov. US embassy’s library is open for everyone on weekdays except in a big day and holiday of USA.

Reporter: Safa | Editor: Galih Perdana