BBC Radio One blares from the radio. I sit at a desk with my back to the window, typing. I type e-mails, press releases, and blog posts. I make the phone calls my boss wants to avoid. I make tea. I am a typical intern. I am also the only American in the room.I didn’t really anticipate a great deal of culture shock when I started my internship in London. I’d already been living in England for seven weeks. What shock was there left to experience?

Quite a bit of culture shock, it turns out. I na?vely assumed that any differences I did encounter wouldn’t be significant enough to throw me off. But even small differences in behavior and language make me dizzy. It’s one thing to understand intellectually that other people do things differently than you do. It’s another thing completely to be confronted with those differences almost daily.

I never thought that I’d have trouble understanding a native English speaker, but when my coworkers start talking just a little too fast or use a turn of phrase I’ve never heard, I’m completely lost. Lesson number one: never underestimate the difficulty of comprehending someone speaking very rapidly in an English accent.

Humor complicates this barrier even more. British humor often seems to revolve around saying one thing and meaning another. I, in my earnestness, sometimes cannot tell what to take seriously. I was shocked when I first heard the personal jabs my coworkers make at each other, until I realized that none of them really meant it.

The British appear to approach their work with a much more casual attitude than Americans. Swearing is perfectly acceptable, and so is making fun of your coworkers. Jeans and tennis shoes are acceptable work-wear every day of the week. Tea is brewed almost on the hour. No one is shy about expressing how ready they are for the weekend.

My boss often makes sarcastic, deprecating remarks about her work. I’ve yet to see anyone inflate the importance of their work to make themselves feel more important. The British deal with the same mundane stress and office politics, but they never take any of it too seriously.

Now, this doesn’t mean that no one cares. Everyone in the office works hard. The prevailing attitude seems to be: take work seriously, just not too seriously.

The internship experience has opened my eyes to a lot of things that I’d missed my first few weeks in London. I realize that I’ve made some sweeping generalizations about both Brits and Americans. I don’t want anyone to take this as definitive rules of behavior. On the other hand, the cultural differences are undeniable.

It’s disconcerting to put yourself in a foreign environment. I find myself exhausted after a day of trying keep up and not to embarrass myself at the office. On the other hand, I’ve come to appreciate the British attitude towards work. I’ve come to envy their sense of humor. I’m certainly going to miss the laid-back dress code.

Ultimately, I think I’ve learned that there is no one, right way to approach things. I’ve learned to respect and adapt to the way other people work. Personally, I think we could all use a smidgen of British humor and perspective in our lives, especially when it comes to work. I know I’ll never look at it the same way again.