Cosmolingua / Easy Languages

Placement organization

Name of organization: Cosmolingua / Easy Languages
Town/city: Antwerp
Country: België
Website: http://www.cosmolingua.be / www.easylanguages.be

Student

Name of student: Demi Horrocks

Specialist area: ITTI
Placement period: 2011-2012

Information about placement organization

Type of organization: Language travel
Organization’s activities: Offering language travels all around the world, offering Dutch language courses to Walloons in the school next to the office.
Target group of the organization: Anyone interested in language travel with an age of 18+
Company culture: Very informal, working with my boss felt like working with a colleague. The communication is good and the company feels like a family. I had to deal with the creation, promotion and sale of the language trips.
Number of employees: 10
Dress code: casual
Did the organization meet the agreements you made beforehand? Yes

Information about your placement

In which department(s) are you working? No specific dearptment since the company is really small.
Cosmolingua has a joint-venture with Easy Languages (Brussels). My boss works for Easy Languages and is responsible for the Flemish part of Belgium. So I have been doing tasks for both Cosmolingua and Easy Languages. They are both selling language travels, but their focus, mission and target group are different.
Brief description of your daily activities: – Creation of promotion materials
– Contacting language schools and clients
– Creating and sending brochures
– Promoting on fairs
– Selling language trips
– Give advice to customers
Brief description of your company assignment: Researching the market strategy of Cosmolingua. Since they decided to come up with new products, I had to research the market and write a report upon the implementation of these products.
Comment briefly on your supervision by the organization: Good supervision, they always asked how I felt about doing things and they gave me feedback so that I could improve myself.

Requirements for students on placement

What kind of personal skills are required for this placement? Being independent as well as being a team player. Take a lot of initiative. Be social and enthusiastic. Communication skills are handy to have, but they will absolutely improve during your placement.
Additional company requirements for this placement? Word, Excel, Internet, HTML (not necessary but good to have), Publisher (not necessary but good to have).
English: Advanced
Spanish:
French:
German:
Italian:
Other languages: French is recommended, because Belgium is bilangual. Dutch is not required if your English is good

The trip

Mode of transport to reach your destination: Car

Accommodation

How did you arrange your accommodation? The company arranged accommodation for me.
How did you go to work every day? Bicycle / public transport

Visa / work permit / vaccinations

Do you need a visa? No
Do you need a work permit? No
How did you arrange the necessary documents:
How much time did it take to arrange the necessary documents?
Did you need certain vaccinations? No
How long in advance?

Language course

Did you take a language course before you started your placement? No
Would you recommend to have a language course prior to this placement? n/a

The costs in euros

Travelling expenses (e.g. return ticket): € 10,00 (gasoline to go from the Netherlands to Antwerp)
Accommodation (monthly): € 310,00
Local transport (monthly): € 0,00
General costs of living (monthly): € 100,00
Costs of visa: €
Costs of work permit: €
What did the company pay for/to you? EUR 250,00 per month and I got a pass for public transport

Culture

How did you prepare for the country’s culture?
I did not.
Did the culture of the country influence your performance during the placement in any way? No

Future students on placement

Future students are free to contact me for further information: Yes
My e-mail address: 103663@edu.nhtv.nl

Other information

Recommendations on what to do and what not to do: –
Leisure possibilities in the city/surroundings of where the placement took place: Antwerp has a lot to offer, it is an exciting city, especially in the summer with all the bars/clubs and terraces! You have to visit the Zoo.

Media

Youtube link Youtube placement video link