Intern

For the use of the verb 'to intern' in British English, see Internment - interment. This article is about the noun, which is sometimes used as an adjective. In British English, the verb 'to intern' is pronounced with the stress on the second syllable, 'in-TURN' IPA: /ɪn ˈtɜː^rn/. The noun/adjective, which is more common in American English, has the stress on the first syllable: 'IN-turn' IPA: /ˈɪn tɜ^rn/

The American English noun intern is becoming common in British English. It means a person who is working, often without pay or with only token amounts, as form of apprenticeship, usually at a professional level. The position is called 'an internship'. Some specific uses are:

• "an assistant resident physician or surgeon in a hospital, usually a student or recent graduate, acting in the absence of the attending physician or surgeon." (OED, which quotes Whitney's Century Dictionary of 1889-91 saying "A recent use from Fr[ench]"). It continues "Now usu[ally], a recent medical graduate who is working under supervision in a hospital (and often living there) as part of his training, prior to entering general practice or becoming a resident. (Broadly equivalent to a houseman in Great Britain.)" This note, with our emboldening, shows the traditional British equivalent.
• The word has since been transferred to equivalent professions "(esp[ecially] teaching) who are receiving practical experience under supervision. Chiefly U.S." (OED). Those in schoolteaching are usually called student teachers in Britain; they are doing their teaching practice.
• Many politicians in the USA have interns working for them, of whom the most famous may be Monica Lewinsky, who began her career at the White House during Bill Clinton's Presidency with a four-month unpaid internship. Many British students ambitious for a political career put in a stint to gather experience as an intern with a US politician.
• In journalism, an unpaid internship may be the first step on the ladder for those who have not succeeded in obtaining a paid post.
• What in Britain is often called 'the year out' for students of languages is a 'foreign internship', where students may be placed in schools or universities as assistants to the teachers of English. The benefit to them, of course, is that they will improve their mastery of the language of the country where they are placed, through working and living there for a year.
• Some internships are periods of placement with commercial organisations in 'the real world' for students during their courses. These are designed, inter alia, to give practical experience; to allow students to apply their theoretical knowledge in real practical circumstances; to allow students to sample work in one branch of the subject's practical application; and to encourage networking and the student's initiation into the ways of the profession. This process is most often called a placement, sometimes a work placement, in the UK.
• At the level of secondary education, a short period (usually a week during term time, or up to a month during holidays) when a student attends a commercial business or public service institution such as a hospital, in order to learn about the 'real world' is usually called work experience. Many schools in England organise work experience fro pupils in year 10.
  • The phrase work experience has been extended into many areas. It can be used by people seeking to change their careers, and by those currently unemployed; and it can be used about most of the forms of US internship listed above.