Amauta-Elebaires Spanish School

Placement organization

Name of organization: Amauta-Elebaires Spanish School
Town/city: Buenos Aires
Country: Argentinië
Website: http://www.amauta-elebaires.com/

Name of student: Marit Houben

Specialist area: ITTI
Placement period: 2014-2015

Information about placement organization

Type of organization: Spanish School
Organization’s activities: The school offers Spanish language courses, volunteer work and internships. During the week activities are organized for the students to get to know the city better and practice their Spanish outside the classes.
Target group of the organization: Everyone who wants to learn Spanish, but mostly students from 18-25
Company culture: The company culture is informal. Working here feels like a family and everybody is treated equily. Staff and teachers make you feel at home and try to get the best out of you. Everybody is very helpful and patiently.
Number of employees: 13
Dress code: casual
Did the organization meet the agreements you made beforehand? yes

Information about your placement

In which department(s) are you working? I am the activity coordinator and I organize all activities outside the school and in the weekends. I am the contact person between the student and the travel agency when someone wants to go on a trip outside of the city.
Brief description of your daily activities: Every day I post on social media, search for new activities and contact these. I write weekly blogs and news items and maintain of the school’s Whatsapp group.
Brief description of your company assignment: I am currently analyzing the student reflections of last year to find out what the strong and less strong areas of the school are and what they can do to improve even more.
Comment briefly on your supervision by the organization: The school actually consists of 2 different schools combined; Amauta Spanish School and Elebaires Spanish School. Jose is the owner of Amauta and supervises from the Netherlands via mail contact. Lara is the owner of Elebaires and is the primer contact in the school in Buenos Aires. With her you will have close personal contact.

Requirements for students on placement

What kind of personal skills are required for this placement? Independent, teamplayer, flexible, sociable
Additional company requirements for this placement? MS Office, social media, writing skills,
English: Advanced
Spanish: Intermediate
French:
German:
Italian:
Other languages:

The trip

Mode of transport to reach your destination: Airplaine

Accommodation

How did you arrange your accommodation? previous intern
How did you go to work every day? bus

Visa / work permit / vaccinations

Do you need a visa? No, tourist visa of 90 days. Afterwards, leave the country (day trip Uruguay) and your visa is renewed
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? Advisable to take certain vaccines 2-1 month 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, is provided by the school

The costs in euros

Travelling expenses (e.g. return ticket): € 800
Accommodation (monthly): € 300
Local transport (monthly): € 20
General costs of living (monthly): € 500
Costs of visa: €
Costs of work permit: €
What did the company pay for/to you? Four week Spanish course

Culture

How did you prepare for the country’s culture?
Read travel guides of the city and country and articles online. However, you cannot really prepare via books. the best thing to do is just go with the flow.
Did the culture of the country influence your performance during the placement in any way? Communication goes slow, you have to be persistant to when you need something from another person.

Future students on placement

Future students are free to contact me for further information: Yes
My e-mail address: 122572@edu.nhtv.nl

Other information

Recommendations on what to do and what not to do: Buenos Aires is a big, big city with lots of things to do and to see! Best advise is to not postpone things! Time goes by REALLY fast! Palermo and Recoleta are the nicest areas for shopping, eating and relaxing! As in all big cities, you have to take a close eye in your stuff. Carry your bags in front of you or close to your body and don’t walk with your smartphone out in the open. At night you have to be extra careful, besides Parlermo and Recoleta it is most safe to take a taxi back to your house. Money is an issue here, take cash US Dollars or Euro’s with you and change them here.
Leisure possibilities in the city/surroundings of where the placement took place: Colonia and Montevideo in Uruguay are very easy accessible by boat and can be done in a day or weekend (good to renew your visa!). Bank holidays are perfect to visit the provinces of Salta, Jujuy, Mendoza, Cordoba.

Media

Youtube link Youtube placement video link