Amauta Spanish School

Placement organization

Name of organization: Amauta Spanish School
Town/city: Buenos Aires
Country: Argentinië

Student

Name of student: Ellen Goedegebuure
Website: http://www.amautaspanish.com
Name of student: Ellen Goedegebuure
Specialist area: ITMC
Placement period: 2012-2013

Information about placement organization

Type of organization: Spanish School & Volunteer Work
Organization’s activities: Spanish school & volunteer work
Target group of the organization: Everyone who is interested in learning Spanish & doing volunteer work, but mostly young people
Company culture: Everyone is very friendly and everything is very informal!Number of employees: 12
Dress code: casual
Did the organization meet the agreements you made beforehand? Yes

Information about your placement

In which department(s) are you working? Marketing and Organization
Brief description of your daily activities: I arranged the activities every day, since everyday there are free activities. Each week there is a special activity which you have to organize, which is very nice to do! Besides that, some marketing related tasks as making pictures, testimonials, searching for information for the website/facebook etc., administration and the general arrangements for the school. Besides that, you are mainly the first person who the students speak to, so I always try to answer all their questions. You also have to make sure that the students are having a nice time at Amauta!
Brief description of your company assignment: Competition Analyses
Comment briefly on your supervision by the organization: The supervision is good. If you need anything you can always ask her! She is always open for a conversation, which is very nice.
Connection with study program: Relevant

Requirements for students on placement

What kind of personal skills are required for this placement? You have to be a team player, open, flexible, social, independent, service-oriented and representative. You really have to be flexible since you also have to work during the evenings if the students would like to join the activities. It is therefore hard to plan something for yourself beforehand, so keep that in mind.
Additional company requirements for this placement? Word / Excel / Power point / Internet / E-mail
English: Advanced
Spanish: Intermediate
French:
German:
Italian:
Other languages: There are many Dutch, so it is useful, but not necessary

The trip

Mode of transport to reach your destination: Plane

Accommodation

How did you arrange your accommodation? http://buenosaires.en.craigslist.org/
How did you go to work every day? Or I walked, or I took the metro

Visa / work permit / vaccinations

Do you need a visa? No you will receive a tourist visa when entering the country. After 3 months you to leave the country. But this is very easy to do. You can go to Uruguay for example. Within 2 hours you are there!
Do you need a work permit? No.
How did you arrange the necessary documents: n/a
How much time did it take to arrange the necessary documents?
Did you need certain vaccinations? Yes. You should check it at the GGD. I already had all my vaccinations so I didn’t need anything anymore. Check it at least 3 months in advance.

Language course

Did you take a language course before you started your placement? Yes
Would you recommend to have a language course prior to this placement? Yes, it is better if you speak the language well

The costs in euros

Travelling expenses (e.g. return ticket): € 1200,00
Accommodation (monthly): € 325,00, but I shared an appartment with another girl
Local transport (monthly): € Local transport is very cheap, metro is not even €0.40 per ride and the bus is even cheaper.
General costs of living (monthly): € I do not know exactly the total costs of living, but it is quite expensive here (comparable to Holland). At this moment, the prices are increasing. A good thing to do is to take dollars or Euros to Buenos Aires and to change them. You will receive a lot of money for it! Of course I do not know if it will be the same next year, but you can keep it in mind.
Costs of visa: n/a
Costs of work permit: € n/a
What did the company pay for/to you? € I received 4 weeks of Spanish classes at Amauta. The classes were 5 days a week, 4 hours a day.

The activities which you have to organize, you don’t have to pay for it.

Culture

How did you prepare for the country’s culture? Not.
Did the culture of the country influence your performance during the placement in any way? No not really. I am only a little bit more relaxed now, since the atmosphere is more relaxed here than in the Netherlands. So doing my assignments at the very last moment is one of the effects. But furthermore there were no bad influences. I really like the culture here!

Future students on placement

My telephone number:
My e-mail address: ellengoedegebuure@gmail.com or search me on Facebook

Other information

Recommendations on what to do and what not to do: The most important thing to do is to respect others, be open to the Argentinean culture and just to be yourself!
Leisure possibilities in the city/surroundings of where the placement took place: There is so much to do in the city! You won`t get bored here. The lonely planet of Buenos Aires is very useful, and there are thousands of websites. You can also ask me if you want to know anything in particular, and of course you can ask your colleagues!

Media

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