My Experience at GCC 2025 (Global Cyber Camp)
GCC Recap
Intro
I recently had the opportunity to attend GCC 2025, which took me on a trip to Taiwan. It was a great experience for me and I’ve learned a lot from there. So, I decided to write about my experiences and lessons learned to make sure I don’t forget them.
About GCC (Global Cyber Camp)
I’m not sure if this is globally well-known. However, I am confident that this is the best opportunity to learn various things from multiple perspectives.
Global Cyber Camp invites various students, speaker who come from different countries and it provides opportunities to learn about various fields like Reversing Malware, Car Hacking, OT Security, Threat Modeling etc…
This is the timeline of GCC 2025.
Memorable Moments & What I’ve learned
Day 1
We had a Ice-Breaking Party in resturant of the Fullon Hotel Taoyuan. That time was a session where trainees from various countries introduced themselves. It was obvious that people from English-speaking countries would be good at English, but I expected that those from non-English-speaking countries wouldn’t be very fluent. But it wasn’t.
I was surprised to see how fluent they were in English even if they are from non-English-speaking countries. They were able to use English as if it were their native language. As a non-native English speaker, I know how difficult it is to speak English like a native. Seeing everyone use English so fluently made me realize that I need to study even harder.
Day 2
One of main events in GCC is Group Work. The sponsoring companies select and provide topics based on the latest security trends. The trainees are then divided into teams, assigned a topic, and work on a project.
We were assigned the topic of “Quantum Security”, which is the hardest topic of GCC 2025. As you can see in the timeline above, there are only 3 times of Group Work so we had no time to make products, ready for presentation. So we dedicated all our available time and resources to our group work.
Day 3~5
- I was able to reflect on myself in terms of my English proficiency.
Since we didn’t have enough time to prepare for the Group Work presentation day, we attended classes from 9 AM to 6 PM and then worked on our project with our team from 7 PM to 2 AM.
What was even more challenging than this grueling schedule was communicating effectively about the project. I was quite confident in making friends and communicating in English. However, reality was different. Communicating about work-related matters required a vastly different set of vocabulary compared to everyday conversations. I also realized that I couldn’t fully express all my thoughts in English compared to native language.
Because of this, I felt a lot of pressure while preparing for the presentation. As you know, delivering a presentation requires the ability to articulate ideas fluently based on a script while incorporating thoughts on the spot. However, since I couldn’t perfectly express all my thoughts in English, preparing for the presentation was quite challenging.
And it was my first time meeting friends who didn’t speak American English. I know it sounds weird. But, since I was used to American English pronunciation, it was difficult for me to understand English spoken with a strong accent at first.
The best solution for someone like me, living in a non-English-speaking country, is to expose myself to an English-speaking environment as much as possible. So, I decided that when I return to school, I will make more foreign friends and spend time with them often to expose myself in an English-speaking environment.
- Through the project, I learned about the communication styles of students from different countries.
The biggest difference compared to students from my country is that they confidently express their opinions, even if they might be wrong. They aren’t afraid of being wrong and also no one criticizes them for sharing an incorrect opinion. Rather, they appreciate and encourage new ideas. This inspired me a lot, and I had a new viewpoint from this.
Day 6
Our team had the same goal: at least, we didn’t want to be one of the weaker teams. We put in an incredible amount of effort, and I take pride in saying that our team worked the hardest.
As a result, and thankfully, we were able to win first place in the competition.
Summary
- Communicating about work-related matters required a vastly different set of vocabulary compared to everyday conversations.
- It was a hard time to prepare presentation because I coudn’t perfectly express my thoughts.
- it was difficult for me to understand English spoken with a strong accent at first.
- The biggest difference compared to students from my country is that they confidently express their opinions, even if they might be wrong.
+) If you ever get the chance to attend GCC, I highly recommend taking it!