With over five hundred million speakers worldwide, Spanish is the third most spoken language in the world, behind Mandarin and English. As the world becomes an increasingly interconnected place, knowledge of a second language is quite commonplace. Many students around the world are interested in improving their language skills through immersion. Because of this desire to achieve fluency, volunteering abroad has been an attractive proposition for adventurous young people around the world. Working everyday in a foreign language helps you pick up colloquial phrases while drastically improving your listening and conversational skills.

According to a recent survey by Voluntario Global, over 90 % of volunteers claim that their primary reason for choosing Argentina as the location for volunteering is to learn Spanish. But choosing Spanish-speaking destinations doesn’t imply that all the volunteers are fluent in the local language. In fact, many of the prospective newcomers and current volunteers have little foreign training. But regardless of your level of proficiency, it is only natural to be nervous about the language barrier.

Therefore, the logical question to ask is, is there a language barrier and how will it affect your experience? Of all the applicants that applied to work with Voluntario Global, 12% reported to have zero previous experience with Spanish, while 29 % reported that they spoke a basic level of Spanish. Obviously, a limited capacity to communicate yields some frustration, but that frustration can serve as a learning experience and an interesting opportunity for you to push yourself outside your comfort zone. The best time to immerse yourself in a language and culture is not when you are already fluent in the language. By choosing a country whose language you do not know well, you will be exposed to listening to it all the time: on the train, in the streets, in restaurants, in volunteer projects, etc. This constant exposure serves as thousands of hours of training because you get used to the sounds and cadence of the language.

Even by using your limited vocabulary with locals, every person you meet can become a conversation partner and an opportunity to practice. As a foreigner, showing that you have learned a few words of the language demonstrates to locals that you respect them enough to put in the effort to connect with them. Because of the respect you showed them, they feel compelled to help you learn their language. You can lean on the natives’ complete knowledge of the language when explaining concepts to absorb new phrases, slang, and cultural idiosyncrasies. That subtle student-teacher relationship that forms between you and your local conversation partners is a meaningful and rewarding human connection. Because even small successes, like someone understanding a simple request, can feel like colossal victories when done in a foreign language.

In addition to improving your abilities of verbal expression, you may also discover other effective and more universal methods of communication, such as body language, which can help enrich your experience. When you realize that even people in a different country understand that rubbing your stomach is a sign for being hungry, that universal sign language becomes another tool to lean on when you forget a word or phrase. And after recognizing what you are trying to communicate, your language partner will teach you the word or phrase for your future reference. Soon you will have acquired quite an extensive vocabulary without even realizing how many words you pick up.

To demonstrate some of these points, we interviewed some of our volunteers who  claimed to have a very basic or nonexistent level of Spanish prior to arriving in Argentina. Allison Tran Phan from Australia said, “Although at first, It was hard to communicate with the teachers, I had no trouble communicating with the kids because I use a lot of body language and hand gestures.”  While Tooka Zokaie of the United States said, “Just from shadowing my doctor, I've picked a lot of medical language, such as the names of diseases and medicine. The vocabulary that I've learned at the clinic has also come up in other places. It's been a great and fun learning experience overall."

As said before this teacher-student relationship causes strong bonds to form among the two people involved. One of the most rewarding experiences some volunteers have had is because of the fact that they do not speak the local language. Because it is difficult to explain the concepts behind cultural idiosyncrasies in simple terms, people try to teach the volunteers by using physical examples rather than explaining it in words. For instance, instead of verbally detailing the history and cultural importance of mate (typical Argentinian beverage), they may invite you to share a mate with them and their friends to demonstrate how it’s a physical manifestation of the trust that bonds people together.

The feelings of acceptance and connection to the local people and culture by speaking their language are both unique and gratifying. Although many people are friendly to tourists that travel to learn more about their culture, locals treat you differently if you have made a concerted effort to be an active member of their way of life. That acceptance and respect is greatly satisfying and may encourage you to be more adventurous in the future. Who knows? You may discover that you have a passion for languages or that you make lifelong friends of the people you meet. It takes a creative and brave person to take the risk of immersing yourself in an unfamiliar culture, but the benefits of doing so are both unexpected and valuable.

In summation, your experience is shaped as much by your attitude and open-mindedness as it is by your prior knowledge of the language and culture. As Jimena Rodriguez, Volunteers Coordinator at Voluntario Global, said, “It's more about the personality or attitude of the volunteers because there are many different ways to connect and communicate.” Sharing a cultural connection is not only about language because there are universal aspects of being human that help us all connect. No matter how fluent you are, you will encounter difficulty in some capacity. But your resilience and willingness to humbly allow others to teach you will enrich your experience in more ways that one.

Lujan Zoo, located an hour and a half outside Buenos Aires, is not like most zoos. The zoo’s remarkability does not come from the animals inside its property, however. The zoo’s exhibits do not fare from the standard selection (lions, tigers, bears, etc.), and the property itself is run-down compared to many zoos in the United States (dirty footpaths; ducks, geese, and even llamas wandering around the property). What does separate Lujan Zoo from other zoos, however, is the fact that the zoo allows visitors the opportunity to get up close and personal with the animals.

Obviously, danger is one of the first concerns on peoples’ minds when they become aware of this unique policy. How is it possible that patrons can pet lions, bottle-feed tigers, and even allow bears to eat food directly from their mouths without getting mauled? Apparently, it is due to the zoo’s method of raising the animals, which revolves around constant interaction with people. The big felines receive the most attention; as soon as new cubs are born, trainers employ a variety of methods in order to reduce the animals’ violent instincts, including using vocal commands to teach the animals to recognize the difference between food and human body parts, as well as raising them in the presence of dogs in the hopes that they model the dogs’ peaceful and obedient behavior. In addition, trainers are always present when guests are interacting with the animals, and the animals are kept fed so that they remain satiated. The training seems to be working: since the zoo opened in 1994, there have been no attacks or other violent incidents involving the animals.

However, not everyone believes allowing humans to interact with the animals is in the best interest of either groups. The Born Free Foundation, an international animal rights group, has started an online petition asking authorities to launch an investigation into the zoo’s practices. The petition states, “No one wants to see animals forced to behave in ways which are abnormal and degrading to them, and no one wants to see Luján Zoo (or any zoo) putting its visitors at risk.” In addition, the Association for the Defence of the Rights of Animals (ADDA) and Association SOS Vida (both animal rights groups) have criticized the zoo for allowing close contact between humans and animals, saying its puts people at risk. Finally, the animals’ unintuitive behavior toward visitors has prompted many to accuse the zoo of sedating the animals.

These are all legitimate concerns, and I’ll admit that I harbored some of them myself when I visited the zoo with a group of friends. I couldn’t believe that it was possible such dangerous animals could act so calm around humans. However, after looking more into the Lujan Zoo’s practices, I believe it is at least plausible the animals’ behavior is due to training and not sedation (although I am of course not an expert). Admittedly, it would be ideal for the animals to be living in the wild. However, according to representatives of Lujan Zoo, many of the animals there are sick, undernourished former house pets people brought into the country illegally and discarded once they became bored with them. Although it would be ideal for the animals to be living in their natural habitat, they can no longer survive in the wild due to being born into captivity. The zoo is their last form of protection.

When I first heard about Lujan Zoo and its unique hands-on policy, any concerns I might have had about its ethical practices were momentarily cast aside in favor of a chance to interact with lions, tigers, and elephants. However, walking around the zoo, my concerns about whether or not the animals were being treated well kept popping back into my thoughts. Although I was satisfied by the zoo’s explanation, others might not be. It is up to you whether or not Lujan Zoo is a must-see attraction, or a cause for concern. http://voluntarioglobal.org

We all sat around the living room this afternoon and spoke about social enterprise in the sense of cooperatives and capitalism. One of the volunteers presented in English while there was a director translating in Spanish in order for everyone to understand and contribute. It is meant to help the people from different backgrounds to discuss on a personal level how different government systems affect our growth. It is all based on ideas, not facts, but it was stressed that everyone has to think for him or herself. It is our responsibility to critically analyze the world around us. There are positive and negative elements to every economical system. Capitalism is based on incentives that influence growth – which the presenter believed was different from development. In a competitive environment, it is obvious that someone may gain money but not necessarily a fair way; thus the person is not developing. Imagine a multinational company creates a branch in a developing country.

The fact is that people have more jobs and income, which is positive, but it is not the right way to think about development. The working conditions and rights of the workers are not necessarily “fair”, and in practice the people may not be improving their standards of living. Productivity and incentive of innovation allows for growth, however, productivity and efficiency are not the same as well. Efficiency is different, for we produce in a short-term perspective, with many elements ignored such as the environmental repercussions of our actions. In order to be efficient, we need to be aware of how our production impacts the future. Social enterprises are business that trade to tackle social problems, improve communities, people’s life changes, or the environment. They make their money from selling goods and services in the open market, but they reinvest their profits back to the business or the local community.

And so when they profit, society profits. They set out aims at the beginning of they year which they try to complete, and they work toward completing those goals despite their profits. The idea is of a never-ending progress (democracy and capitalism). People must identify the good and bad of a system and work to improve it. If school is something important, in a ranking system, that would be valued as something to improve. Should schools be something that the government funds and monitors, or should they be run based on a means of making money for private organizations? Also, are schools better based on the competition between institutions offering them?

These are some of the questions we discussed as a group, and were relevant to many of the volunteers working with child education while in Argentina. An argument is that people will become lazy with their education if it is free, for people may not take their studies seriously if they do not have thousands of dollars on the line. When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, many organizations worked post-hurricane, many of the schools did not re-open. There is not centralized city government running schools in New Orleans anymore. This was based on one of the volunteers’ observations from Louisiana. The students go to charter schools and do not need to pay for their education and it is working better for the students without the government involved. I still find it amazing that we are all young adults, from various areas of the world, coming together to not just volunteer, but think critically about the areas we come from. We do not discuss this to fulfill a General Education class for our major, but because we want to understand where we live.

Par Jéremy Guérin et Christine Rivest

Alors que le taux de chômage dans l’Union Européenne atteint les 10.9%, ce ne sont pas moins de 26% des jeunes européens qui sont à la recherche d’un emploi. La France détient un taux de chômage très proches de la moyenne européenne, tandis que le taux de chômage dépasse les 25%  pour l’ensemble de la population et s’envole à plus de 54% pour les jeunes vivant en Espagne et en Grèce. (“Unemployment Statistics.” Eurostat. European Commission 2013)

Dans ce contexte, la compétition pour décrocher un emploi se fait dure et il faut trouver un moyen de sortir du lot pour que son CV soit retenu parmi tant d’autres.  Parler plusieurs langues est très souvent un atout pour se faire remarquer auprès des employeurs ainsi qu’acquérir de l’expérience bénévole ou associative.   Alors pourquoi ne pas combiner les deux et faire du bénévolat à l’étranger?  En effet, le bénévolat à l’international constitue une très bonne arme dans la bataille des CV.   Une expérience dans le monde du travail en tant que bénévole permet de tester ses intérêts pour un domaine particulier, sans engagement.

‘’95% des volontaires à Voluntario Global avaient comme motivation d’apprendre l’espagnol tandis que 70% voulaient accomplir cette expérience afin de gagner de l’expérience de travail.’’ –Statistiques Voluntario Global

De plus, si trouver un emploi pour un jeune n’est pas aisé, trouver son premier emploi l’est encore moins. Les entreprises exigent de l’expérience et pour avoir de l’expérience il faut travailler. Les ONG peuvent alors constituer une bonne opportunité d’avoir cette première expérience professionnelle.

Généralement, le travail en ONG est bénévole, sans rémunération.  Il y a donc beaucoup moins de candidat pour le même poste que dans une entreprise et la sélection se fait donc moins rigoureuse.  Pour les mêmes raisons, une fois dans l’organisation, on se voit attribuer beaucoup de responsabilités.

“J’ai des amis en France qui font des stages dans de grandes entreprises et ils n’ont presque aucune responsabilité.   Ils exécutent ce que veulent leurs patrons et puis c’est tout. À Voluntario Global, je me suis tout de suite vu assigner la politique de communication française, alors que je n’avais encore aucune expérience.”  -Jéremy Guérin, France

Ses tâches apparaitront sur son CV et feront très certainement la différence lorsqu’il cherchera son prochain emploi.

“ Voluntario Global a été mon premier stage, et la première fois que je travaillais tous les jours pendant plusieurs mois. Mon temps à VG avec l’équipe de communication est la partie la plus importante de mon CV et dans chaque entretien on m’a posé des questions sur mon travail là-bas et sur mon espagnol.”  - Andrew Furnes, Angleterre

Si le fait qu’il y ait moins de volontaire pour le poste aident à avoir plus de responsabilité dans l’organisation, il faut souligner que la structure des ONG joue aussi son rôle. En effet, le travail de groupe y est très important et la hiérarchie des rôles y est beaucoup moins marquée. Si les entreprises valorisent l’initiative, les ONG l’exigent.

“Durant mon bénévolat, j’ai vraiment senti que je faisais partie de l’équipe, que mon avis comptait et qu’on m’écoutait.” –Jéremy Guérin, France

Lorsque les employeurs regardent les CV, ils sont souvent à la recherche de signes de motivation, de volonté chez les candidats. Quoi de mieux qu’une expérience de bénévolat pour montrer votre motivation?  L’employeur comprendra que vous avez donné gratuitement de votre temps pour une cause humanitaire.  De plus, le fait de vous être aventuré loin du confort de la maison, dans un pays qui ne parle pas votre langue fait ressortir votre capacité d’adaptation et d’apprentissage, deux autres qualités très recherchées sur le marché du travail.  Tous les éléments que l’employeur veut entendre  à propos d’un candidat peuvent être énumérés grâce au bénévolat; la confiance en soi, l’intégrité, le désir d’apprendre, la volonté de se donner des objectifs, l’ouverture aux changements, la créativité et la capacité de travailler en équipe.

Une expérience à l’étranger est également l’occasion de rencontrer des gens du monde entier, et ainsi créer de précieux contacts qui pourront certainement être utiles un jour. Même s’il est difficile de s’en rendre compte, les liens tissés aujourd’hui peuvent s’avérer de beaux tremplins demain.

Faire un volontariat à l’étranger permet également de développer des qualités et des compétences qui pourront être utiles dans les prochains emplois. Une expérience hors de son pays, permet de comparer les aspects du travail sous plusieurs angles;  voir les ressemblances et les différences,  prendre du recul sur la situation actuelle et sur sa mentalité permettant de développer une meilleure capacité d’observation et d’analyse. Une plus grande ouverture d’esprit vous aidera à relever les prochains défis que vous réserve la vie active.

Le bénévolat est aussi une bonne occasion de mieux se connaître, de savoir réellement quels sont ses intérêts et parfois de savoir ce que l’on veut ou ce que l’on ne veut pas faire dans la vie. Il arrive parfois que des personnes commencent un volontariat en ayant une idée bien arrêtée de ce qu’ils veulent faire, et repartent avec une idée totalement différente.

‘’ L’expérience est excellente pour ma carrière parce que ça m’a inspiré à faire ce que j’aime.  Être entouré de tant de gens travaillants et passionnés, faisant ce qu’ils font pour créer une différence m’a vraiment fait réaliser  quel est le vrai pouvoir du travail communautaire. […] Le bénévolat m’a fait réaliser que j’aime enseigner et que je voudrai être une enseignante pour la vie.‘’  -Arpine Hovasapian, États-Unis

Pour conclure, il ne faut pas sous-estimer l’expérience d’être bénévole, d’autant plus si c’est une expérience à l’étranger. Ce que vous y apprendrez, vivrez et ressentirez, vous rendra service dans les futurs recherches d’emploi. http://voluntarioglobal.org/

An interview with our volunteer Charlotte from Denmark

Our volunteer Charlotte Braas, speaks a little bit about her time as a volunteer in Buenos Aires. Originally from Denmark, she came to Argentina to volunteer for five weeks in the soup kitchen project, where she describes her challenges of integrating to a culture vastly different from her own. She speaks about her struggles with the Spanish language, as well as highlights the importance of having initiative in her project, despite the challenges she faced day to day.

Your project was in the soup kitchen, so what did you do before you were a volunteer?

“I have been working for the last year, before that I finished university I did three years where I studied physical education and Spanish. I finished that but decided that I wanted to do something else because I was supposed to be a high school teacher. I didn’t really know what I wanted to do, so that’s why I decided to do some volunteer work.” So you studied Spanish in school? “Yes, I studied for three years in high school and one year in university.” Was it easier or harder, the initial process of integrating when you first came here? “It was quite hard because the things you learn at school are mostly grammar and the history, and I realized that I can read Spanish much better than I can understand it verbally, because we don’t talk as much at school, I only had one subject that was actually speaking Spanish, and it wasn’t even mandatory it was voluntary if we wanted to do it, so you don’t speak as much Spanish as you do reading and learning to write with correct grammar and things like that. So that made it more difficult because I thought my Spanish was good because I was good at reading it, but it’s a different experience hearing it, and hearing the locals talking and not just a teacher who knows they have to talk slowly and pronounce their words clearly.” What were your initial expectations, being that you have never been to South America, what were your preliminary view on this part of the world?

“I had the same views, sort of, as I do of Southern Europe in that it´s a much more open society, but I didn´t have too many expectations because I wanted to have an open mind because I thought, well you´re going to be there for four weeks, so I didn´t want to come with any prior opinions. I thought the first week was very difficult, not just at my project but trying to figure out where things were and trying to catch on to the pace of the city. Its such a different mentality here; I went to the introductory meeting with Jimena and she told me, well I have to take a bus, so I asked is there a bus schedule? And she said no, there is no such thing, the buses just kind of go and you need to be there. Which is very different for me because in Denmark, all the buses run on a schedule,  they´re always on time, and if there is ever a demonstration in the street here they just close down like 5 blocks and the bus goes another way and you're like where do I go now? You just have to get used to a different kind of structure.”

Do you think your experience in the soup kitchen helped you integrate a little better as well as help your Spanish?

“Yes, I would definitely say so, especially because they were very open to me, extremely nice, and a lot of them invited me back to their homes to eat with them or invited me to do things with them after my hours at the community center. Some people tried to talk to me in English, and one day I actually sat down and tried to teach a few people who wanted to learn the Danish alphabet that has letters that don’t exist in English or Spanish, like “Ø”. I think even though I thought my Spanish would get a lot better, which it has but not as much as I hoped, but I think it’s because I had the idea that I was better than I really was. Like I can sit down and read a paper and understand all of it, but when someone is talking it´s so much different. If they speak slowly and address me, I can understand, but when two native speakers are having a conversation I pick up very little.” So since you have integrated between two cultures, what kind of tips do you think you would have for anyone else who is going to start such a completely new experience?

“I would say the big thing is to be open minded, to have the mentality that i'm here, I want to do something, I want to help, and just do it. Because its so easy to just sit around and wait for someone to tell you what to do, but if you try and take initiative for yourself, they'll appreciate it more and they'll make you a bigger part of it. I learned that throughout the first week, because the first few days just sat there, but I took initiative and they appreciated it and made them understand that I wanted to be there, not just because I wanted the experience but because I wanted to do something and wanted to be a part of their project.”

What are you going to do when you go back?

“I really don’t know yet, but I'll probably start a whole different education after this summer. I just think that you learn a lot about yourself when you go far away from home, and so far away from your own culture. You learn a lot about them, but you learn more about yourself.”