Auslandspraktikum in Buenos Aires – mit Spanischkurs und Betreuung vor Ort

Hi, my name is Catherine Bright. I just completed a four-week internship here with Mente Argentina, working in social media for a club here in Buenos Aires and also for a network of luxury apartments based in South America. From everybody that I've met at work to just experiencing living in an apartment with everybody and experiencing all the sights and the nightlife, it was a great experience, and to be able to do it in a Spanish-speaking country as well was excellent. I really enjoyed my time at the internship as well. I definitely recommend Mente. They've been a great help throughout the whole process. They organized my internship very quickly, which was excellent, and there's just that ongoing support the whole time. To anyone considering doing an internship, I definitely recommend it. Something you won't regret.

Hi, I'm John. I'm from Northwestern University. I had a great experience here. I loved Buenos Aires. It's a great city, great culture, great food. I was working here for eight weeks in a startup. Being here with Mente made this experience way better. They made a lot of trips for us, a lot of activities that were awesome. Fuerza Bruta was really good. I really loved it. I recommend it to everyone.

My name is Erin, and I'm from Louisville, Kentucky, and I go to Western Kentucky University. I participated in a six-week-long internship program, and I worked for an NGO. My favorite part was that I've always wanted to work for an NGO, and I was super thrilled to have the experience while I was still in college. I was able to get the hands-on experience working in a villa, a shanty town of Buenos Aires, helping kids at school, helping them make sure they stay focused and get individualized attention. I also got to have the office experience, working with the fundraising aspects, donation aspects, campaigning, and all that kind of stuff. So I really got to see both sides and how the NGO operates and how it works to achieve its goals in Buenos Aires. And I think my favorite part was how much Spanish I was able to speak, speaking Spanish every single day, and I'm leaving Buenos Aires this time completely confident in my language skills. I'm really excited to see where my language skills and where this experience will take me as far as where I go next, what I do next, and how it will influence me. I had an amazing time.

Hi, I'm Thomas. I'm from Chicago. I've been here for eight weeks, and I had a great time, mostly thanks to Mente, with a lot of events on the plan. Especially my favorite was everything with the Argentine Experience, like the wine tasting and the empanada-making classes. I just love those. There are so many things that I didn't expect to be able to experience, because I came here to do an internship, but I had a great time thanks to Mente.

Hi, I'm Claire Peterson. I did the Mente internship program, and I lived in the shared apartment with three other girls in Recoleta. I really liked living in Recoleta, because it was really safe. We felt really comfortable walking around, and we got to know all the bus systems and stuff. There's fun places to go out around here. And I'd probably say that one of my favorite things about Mente Argentina was all the excursions that they helped promote. A lot of my friends that came here didn't really know what to do, but Mente was helping so much with all of the things that you do during the week. La Bomba was really fun, and the Tigre excursion. My favorite, I think, was the polo. We went out for the day, and we played polo and watched polo, and then had an asado and learned to play and ride horses, and it was really fun, and we got to get out of the city for a day. I really just love the energy of Buenos Aires. I'm from Colorado. I've never lived in a big city, and there's just so much to do here. So many fun places to go to, so many different barrios with different personalities, and lots of stuff to explore during the day and the night. And we went to Iguazú, which was really fun too. Beautiful, one of the most amazing things you could do. If I could change anything, I wish I had more time so that I could travel around. I really want to go to the salt flats and Patagonia and Mendoza, because the wine here is really good. But I loved Buenos Aires, and we made so many good friends, and I'm going to miss everybody. And I got the opportunity to learn about NGOs. I never worked for an NGO before, and it was very insightful into their process of how they do things, and way different than I ever expected. I had a big photographer here, and I got to do publicity for her. I really liked the company, because we all got to eat lunch together. We would take an hour, an hour and a half out of the day and just sit down in the kitchen and talk, and that's probably when I got my most Spanish practice. I just sit there and listen to everybody and talk when I could. And it was really fun. But my biggest recommendation is to meet more locals, because it's really easy to fall into the habit of hanging out with Mente friends that only speak English and meeting people at bars and stuff that only speak English. But some of my favorite experiences have just been meeting random people and just having random Spanish conversations, and you also get a local perspective. But yeah, I loved my time here. I wish I could stay longer.

Hi, my name is Whitney Bradford. I'm doing Mente Argentina for the 10-week internship program. While here, I was working with a nonprofit organization that helps kids and elderly that live in the streets, and I really enjoyed it, because I got to be a part of both aspects: on the office side, working with fundraising, and on the personal side, working with the kids and elderly. Mente did a really great job placing me in a program that was very specific to me, and they incorporated things that I had already done in my background that I didn't even ask for, which was perfect. Living here, I chose to stay with a host family, and they put me in one of the nicest areas in Buenos Aires, in Recoleta, and it's a gorgeous area, and I was close to other Mente people, so I was able to form strong bonds and friendships. As the activities go, Mente offers really great activities. I think you should take advantage of all of them, because for some of them they're free, and they really let you see the culture and experience it, and the activities range from dinners to concerts to polo games in the countryside. And there's a lot of things that you can do, and the country itself offers so many different activities, like Iguazú or Ushuaia. I would say come here with an open mind, because the city is like no other city, and it's a culture very different, and it's fun and offers so many things, but you have to be willing to let yourself be immersed, and the Spanish here is different. Thank you so much, Mente, for this wonderful experience. I love you guys so much.

I interned at a law firm for a month, which is really cool. The people are so nice. The accommodation is amazing. I was in a huge house with loads of other students. Everything is great with the accommodation. Mente is good at organizing loads of trips and stuff, like a boat trip, which is really cool, and you can go to the zoo. That's really cool. I love Buenos Aires. It's a great city. I'd just go on as many of the events in this office as possible, because most of them are free, and you meet loads of other people. It's a great way to meet other students.

Hi, my name is Dara Kolahi. I'm from California, the United States. When I came to Argentina, I wanted to do it in a way that I could find a lot of good people and do cool things. And especially since I didn't know exactly what to do, having a little help, having people that were close to our age helping us out with everything, made the experience so much better. And I found exactly the program that was specific for me, and I couldn't have asked for a better transition into Buenos Aires.

Hi, my name is Ishmael Perez. I'm from Greensboro, North Carolina, in the United States of America. And my program is the internship in film and photography. I came here in Argentina wanting to do something great, and it helps me with my career in animation. I helped out with a promotional video, and that re-enhanced my skills so that way I can be useful in the future for bigger projects. But my experience in Argentina has been so great, because it's my second time here, from November to January. It's such a wonderful experience being here in Argentina. And I think that this country has that power to bring people together from Brazil to France, even as far as Angola. And I love the coordinators that have been providing us with not only the humor and the protection of the participants, but also the safety and the nice spirit of what it means to be in Argentina, that you can be as adventurous and also knowing that you're with people that have the same and different experiences. And that's all mixed into a country where I believe that has one of the best Spanishes in the Spanish-speaking world. Because except for high school, I wasn't really utilizing another language as far as Spanish. But now that's my second time using castellano constantly, and I get enticed when I use it, and it's just so empowering, and I want to keep on using it. I don't want to forget it. That's why I had to come back here the second time. I felt that the first time was not enough for me, because I wasn't using the language as much as I needed to. I was slowly using my ability to speak Spanish, but now I can, and it brought me the confidence that I needed to just push forward. And the experiences helped me realize that I can do that in Argentina. I thank you so much for my second time here.

My name's Gabriel, and I've just completed the Mente internship program. It was a lovely opportunity for me. Mente made it very easy for me to get accommodated in the city. They were a great support system for an otherwise fairly insulated traveler. My experience with the internship was only positive. It was a good learning experience for me in terms of the human rights network here in Argentina. I got good experience working with grant research and trying to network with other NGOs to provide a better system for human rights here in Argentina and abroad. My Spanish improved noticeably. With all the programs that Mente had, it made it much easier. I went on an excursion with Mente to Tigre, which was a great suburb outside of the city. Beautiful. I hope to be back very soon. Mente did a great job helping me get comfortable here in Argentina. My favorite thing about Buenos Aires is probably the structure of the city itself, the parks, the different neighborhoods. It's such a cosmopolitan city. There's so much to see. I spent most of my time lost and wandering around the streets, and I really couldn't have asked for a better place to be lost in. It's a wonderful city.

I volunteered at a hospital here at Hospital de Clínicas, and I worked in pediatrics, and I played with kids and helped them with any other needs, or their parents. I had a really great supervisor who helped answer any questions I had, but while I was there I also got to interview a lot of parents, kids, doctors, nurses, and learn about the healthcare system here, which was really interesting to compare it to the United States, because their healthcare systems are really different. So that really helped me get a more worldly view of how medicine is practiced in other countries, and I'm applying to medical school, so that really helped me for my interviews and writing, because I have all this great experience of what the healthcare system is like here and how hospitals function and the pros and cons of the two systems. I really enjoyed being in Buenos Aires. There are a lot of fun things to do for people my age, a lot of great nightlife. There's bars and clubs, but there's also nice restaurants. There's a lot of great touristy spots. I really recommend going to the Recoleta Cemetery and the San Telmo Market, which is on Sundays. If you get a chance, go to Uruguay. It's really close by, really cheap. There's a lot of cool things you can see there, so it's cool to get another stamp on your passport. Try to go to the interior of Argentina so you can see gaucho life and riding horses. Go see a polo game. See a soccer game, or at least tour the soccer stadium. That was really cool. It's really big here. The food here is amazing. Try everything new, because it's all really good. All the pastries, called facturas, they're really cheap. I highly recommend it. Also the parrillas with all the different kinds of meats, and they're really cheap and so delicious. You can't get anything like that in the United States. I went to a great restaurant called Siga la Vaca in Puerto Madero. You should definitely go there and check it out. All you can eat meat and salad and wine. It's great wine here too. Try all the different kinds, because it's really cheap and made local in Argentina. Mente Argentina did a great job of organizing events so I could meet other participants, which really changed my program, because even when we weren't at Mente events, I still hung out with the friends I made there. If you get the chance, go with Mente Argentina to Spanglish. It's a great chance to meet locals. You speak for five minutes in Spanish and five minutes in English, and then you switch tables and meet new people. It was a great way to not only meet locals but also I met English speakers from around the world. If you get the chance to meet locals and hang out with them again, I highly recommend that. They're really cool. They could show you the best parts of town. But you make a lot of great friends through Mente Argentina too that you can hang out with. The best part of Mente was the people I met through it, both the participants and the staff. They're really supportive. They're there whenever you need them. If you need help organizing a trip that isn't on the calendar, just let them know and they'll help you do it. If you get the chance, go on the graffiti tour. You learn so much about the street art scene of Buenos Aires, and it gives you a whole new appreciation of street art and graffiti, and Mente helps organize all that for you, so it's free, and it is an excellent tour, probably one of my favorites here. And then my Spanish improved. I definitely picked up more of the local slang and the pronunciation that they use here, which is different from other countries of South America. But I do wish I took a Spanish class, because I think that a lot of Argentinians know English and they prefer to speak to me in English when they hear I'm an English speaker, because they like to get their practice too. So I don't think I got as much exposure to it as I thought I would, so maybe taking a Spanish class would have helped me. But I still think I improved, and a lot of people complimented me that my Spanish was pretty good. So that made me feel good. I should say about my roommates. I lived in a shared apartment, and it was a great idea. I have amazing roommates from all around the world, all over Europe. It has been a great way to make friends. And my apartment was really nice, and I lived near other Mente participants, so we could meet up to go out beforehand. And it was a great meeting spot for all of us, especially some students who were living with a host family, so they didn't want to invite people there. So it was really great to have a shared apartment. I had the freedom to invite some friends over here, and it was a great location. The owner of the apartment was really nice. If I have advice for incoming Mente participants: every day do something new, do something exciting. If it's raining, go to a museum. Go to the horse racing track. Try something new. Don't stay in, because you're in Buenos Aires and you want to experience and enjoy an amazing new city.