The Spanish spoken in Argentina is called Rioplatense, a dialect found mainly in the basin of the Rio de la Plata. While some influences from Amerindian languages exist, Spanish in Argentina has mostly been affected by European languages, particularly Italian (especially in the intonation, such as the emphasis on the last syllable of 2nd person conjugations: vos querés). ‘Voseo’ is so common in Argentina that “tú” is hardly used in common speech, and Argentinian Spanish is the only form that uses it officially.
“Vos” is a very important part of Argentine Spanish and has its own conjugation in the simple present tense. Although using “tu” is obviously understood here, we’d like to fill you in on this difference in Castellano.
Examples
Instead of “tu eres” Argentines say “vos sos”
Instead of “tu tienes” Argentines say “vos tenés”
Instead of “tu vienes” Argentines say “vos venís”
Instead of “tu puedes” Argentines say “vos podés”
Instead of “tu hablas” Argentines say “vos hablás”
With a verb, like “decir” for instance, you take the infinitive form, drop the “r”, and add an “s” and stress the last syllable= decís. Very simple, try it!
In December, Milhouse Hostel and Voluntario Global hosted a "futbol" match to celebrate the end of the year 2014. The money raised during the game will be used to buy toys and games for the art workshops at the Community Center in La Boca. We would like to thank you all for your donations and participation. Happy 2015!!
In October we had the pleasure to host a group of students from Portsmouth Grammar School, England. They visited Buenos Aires with his Spanish teacher, Steve Page —a Voluntario Global former volunteer and Ambassador—. This was actually the 3rd visit we receive from the school as they come and volunteer in Buenos Aires every 2 years. They take this chance to practice their Spanish and see a different side of the city.
According to the teachers “Students learn not only to speak Spanish but we also teach them about Latin American culture, as 80% of Spanish speakers reside in this part of the world”. Therefore, the school chooses Latin America, and Argentina especially, as a space for students to learn about the city, its neighborhoods, its cultural richness and diversity. Here they can also see social inequality and interact with different communities.
The trip crammed four days of tours and volunteer work. Voluntario Gobal made sure to organize this experience according to the interests of the students and the needs of our projects in Buenos Aires. Volunteer sites included a day of work at the kindergarten in José León Suárez, where they sang songs and shared art workshops and games; a day in the park with children from the orphanages; a dinner and open debate with youth from all our organizations; and finally a tour of the Isla Maciel organized with an association from La Boca, where the students also participated in a program at the Radio Station.
There are many ways to successfully adapt to your host culture. It is important to handle "culture shock" with adaptability, a sense of humor, and a lot of common sense. Give yourself time to become accustomed to the cultural differences. You may even find that many of the differences are a pleasant change from your way of life.
The following suggestions should help you make the most out of your volunteer experience:
- Learn as much as you can about Argentina’s social and cultural context;
- Be patient: volunteering is mainly an adaptation process. Know that any disorientation you feel is normal and keep in mind that given time, the effects you feel from culture shock will likely pass;
- Be flexible and open-minded;
- Be tolerant of ambiguity while taking time to be familiar with your surroundings. Realize that often the people in the country you visit have time concepts and thought pattern different from your own. This does not necessarily make them rude, only different;
- Work on increasing your language proficiency. Many of the misunderstandings and confusion you experience abroad are a result of the language barrier;
- Be commited and responsible. Stay motivated!
- If your Spanish is not good engough, you might feel that your contribution is small, but remember that your presence at the project is very important all the same: Provide EMOTIONAL support and be a role model!
- Cultural exchange requires interaction with locals: take the iniciative!
- Observe before acting;
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Dress accordingly. If you’re working in a slum, dress simply but with clean clothes. Cleanliness shows respect towards the people you are working with.
Follow me to the barrio of Barracas, Buenos Aires. Here the amazing women of the Community Center and Soupkitchen prepare food for the children of the nearby kindergarten and the people in the neighbourhood. It is a place where people can have lunch together and receive some extra food to take home.
These ladies you see in the video are amazing, doing great work for the community. I had a wonderful time, helping where I could and trying to speak some Spanish. Seeing a different part of Buenos Aires is something to never forget.
This is my goodbye present for them, they all love to sing and dance to 'cumbia' music, which you hear in the video.
Before class, children file in one by one to greet Sylvia with a kiss on the cheek and a cheerful “hello”. A sweet mix of English and Spanish fills the evening air in Pablo Nogues along with the scuffle of little feet to their classrooms.
Pablo Nogues is a small town on the outskirts of the city, an hour by train from Buenos Aires. Sylvia runs an extra-curricular English school for more than 80 students to help improve their language skills and make them more eligible for future job prospects. She opened the school nine years ago after burning out from a busy communications career. “My doctor said to start doing something to still feel useful, but to slow down.”
The children are always excited to practice their English…and to help the volunteers with their Spanish.
The children generally have demanding timetables from their state schools and come to the English school in their free time for four hours per week to improve their language skills.
The volunteer-student relationship is a strong one built on friendship and mutual learning. Alyssa from Vermont, USA has been volunteering at the school for more than a month now and already has a strong connection with the students. Her tasks at the school are varied but today she teaches her own class of 14-15 year olds whose wide grins mirror her own as they learn new food vocabulary. Alyssa is kind and patient helping students who stumble on grammar or pronunciation – and her students reflect that patience and help with Spanish. The class is run mostly conversationally but with the guidance of a course book, and it’s clear they have all become good friends.
Volunteers are more than teachers. They are role models and mentors for the students. They must be creative and enthusiastic with the kids so that they continue studying and strive to learn. The volunteers are teaching them so much more than just a language! More than just extra credit, the students are shown the value of continuing education and opportunities for their future.
“I had four teachers to start, but couldn’t afford to pay a full teacher’s salary,” Sylvia says. The school runs only on modest student fees and no grants or donations. The small fees make school accessible for the children, especially as many of the families in the area can not afford to pay for a full program with a professional teacher. Five years ago Sylvia started recruiting volunteers to teach the classes. Now, as the older students come through the ranks, they teach the younger classes – and they even earn a small wage
The model of kids teaching kids provides a sense of community at the school – a community the volunteers are welcomed into with open arms.
The school doesn’t just serve as an academic centre. It also offers the children a safe place where they can use their free time productively. They focus on pronunciation, literature, and for those who want to and can afford it, international exams.
The level of higher education among the children’s parents is minimal and therefore they support them in coming to the school to better the next generation’s prospects. Sylvia expressed some concern about the current federal school system saying that the kids come to her school to strive for a better education. “College and university is the goal. Law school, medical school – a better future. That is the main idea.”
Sylvia hopes her school provides a better start for the kids to help them become educated and contributing members of society and their community. “The most important thing a person can have is their kids.”
Prashanth, Sam, Patrick, and Alex, are four Australian medical center volunteers who account the ups and downs they experienced during their time in Buenos Aires. They shared their insight on topics such as, the professional impact of their decision to come here, some obstacles they came across in placement, observations about the industry, and advice for future volunteers.
Language Barrier
The presence of a language barrier is the most common apprehension about coming to Buenos Aires. Prashanth explained how the language barrier influenced his experience.
“It was tough. We did study Spanish before we came here, but it’s one thing to study Spanish than actually be in the heat of the moment. Dr. Navarro does speak a little bit of English, and because it’s medicine, the words are quite similar. The first day, he had all these bones in his office, and we were comparing the names in English in Spanish with the different landmarks in the bones. It’s like a parallel language. You can kind of understand. Drugs often have the same names.”
Regardless of how technical your language use may be in Argentina, finding a common linguistic ground is an exciting learning experience. Additionally, as Prashant leads to before, being among natives is significantly more useful towards learning a language than sitting in a classroom. Consider every conversation with a native to be like a private Spanish lesson.
Building Professional Relationships
During this experience, the guys shadowed Dr. Navarro in the clinic. He was their local coordinator, mentor, and the lead Doctor in the medical facility. Sam explained his relationship with his mentor:
“It was good. The first time we got there he was quite open and friendly, he made us some mate which was nice. Mate was good! We’ve been making mate at home.”
Local coordinators are a great resource of volunteer placement, in this case Dr. Navarro was not only open and friendly a professional manner, but he also made sure the volunteers where settling well into the culture as a whole. Dr. Navarro is none for making volunteers feel comfortable throughout their experience.
Daily Tasks
While everyday can pose different obstacles and opportunities in a volunteer experience, some typical daily tasks remained the same. Patrick explained:
“We would shadow Dr. Navaro and see patients with him. The patient would come in he’d talk a bit to the patient, talk to us a little bit. If we wanted to have a talk with the patient we could try. We would look through the charts. If they had X Rays or stuff like that we could look through. There were different procedures that we could perform.”
So, daily tasks usually involve presence and engagement with the mentor. Observation hours are crucial in the medical field as you can note not only how diagnoses are made and carried out, but you can also learn about how the Doctor conducts his practice as a whole, including his relationships with his patients and colleagues.
Career Exploration/ Professional Development
Volunteering abroad can give you experience in your industry that both looks good on your resume, and helps with future decisions regarding your career. When asked if his time in Buenos Aires had provided any insight on his career path, Alex stated:
“Dr. Navaro is a Traumatologist and I think I want to be a Traumatologist now. Just like him. So he’s an inspiration to me.”
Clearly, an experience like this is rather professionally insightful.
The four Australians seemed to have had an amazing time in Buenos Aires and in their placement. They got to explore a new city while still furthering their career. Prashanth gave parting words to future volunteers….
“I would tell them go for it. You can have a great time in Buenos Aires or wherever you go, and you can always learn. It is possible to balance those interests. You don’t have to just lock yourself in a library and study the whole time.”
Seht hier: Arthur´s Erfahrungen im Medical-Center in Buenos Aires. Als Medizin-Student sammelte er hier erste berufliche Erfahrungen. Tritt in seine Fußstapfen und werde Volontär!
Founded by a group of locals, the independent sala de auxilio is located in the outskirts of Buenos Aires, only 40 minutes away from the city center. Its institution arose from the necessity, in the indigent neighborhood, of quick and efficient health care. The impossibility to undertake private health care, the unaffordable prices, and the extenuating times of Argentine public health were taken over by the independent organization. During the last economical crisis, the health center made it through thanks to the locals’ dedication and commitment. Today, the sala de auxilio offers small fees, devolving 70% to the doctor in charge and 30% to staff and maintenance. It provides its patients with a wide range of specialized medical services, spreading from pediatrics, to gynecology, dentistry, orthopedics, kinesiology, orthopedics, cardiology, clinical medicine, psychiatry and psychology. The center aims at improving professionally, possibly acquiring surgery and research facilities.
Like in a cooperative, the hierarchy within the members of staff, doctors, nurses and volunteers, is far from being rigid. The vibe of the center is welcoming and friendly, the Peruvian nurse, Ayde cooks lunch for everyone, and the doctor complains when she doesn’t cook and buys pizza instead. Rosario and Tina, two young psychologists, speak about the service provided as a very convenient option for the locals. Ayde confesses that she enjoys working with volunteers, getting to know their languages and cultures, and points out how they all contribute to the warm environment of the center.
One of the sources of the sustainability of the sala de auxilio is constituted by the work of Voluntario Global. The Voluntario Global team in fact helps, by means of its international channels, to furnish the center with qualified volunteers. Among these Arthur, 22, from Belgium, is a young medicine student that has chosen to embark on this project. Having departed over his summer break, Arthur left willing to gain professional work experience and improve his Spanish. Moreover, he states how this format of medical experience allowed him to be of help for a community, to undergo cultural confrontations and, doubtlessly, to travel.
His merging in the job, he explains, has been smooth and gradual. He started by simply listening and following the doctor, and has been progressively given responsibilities, never without the guide of a professional. By the end of the placement, he was proficient with the instruments provided in the center, such as X rays, electrocardiograms, and ultrasounds. His tasks also entailed cleaning and draining wounds, make and remove sutures, removing casts and bandages, apply injections, make suitable auscultations and physical exams.
The center offers the opportunity of trying several different medical fields, which is a great opportunity for a non-specialized student to try himself in different tasks and grasp his own areas of interest. Furthermore, Arthur mentioned how the placement has been very motivational towards the prosecution of his university career, which is completely detached from the professional practice.
Arthur tells of the center as a place where you are very much helped and welcomed. He explains how his colleagues with an elementary Spanish are also helped and never fail to communicate. He jokes with the members of staff, drinks mate in the kitchen in his breaks, and is by now fluent in Spanish. He tells about the relationship with his patients, who are curious to know about his nationality, his origin, and always want to chat.
The focus on the medical formation and interchange is successfully met by the project, as the volunteer acknowledges. The message Arthur left to future volunteers is to leave with an open mind, ready to embrace what they are offered to learn. As a matter of fact, the encounter with community members, the establishment of professional relationships and human boundaries contribute to shape an experience which is comprehensively professional, cultural, and personal.
Last week, twenty-three high schoolers and their three teachers from Portsmouth grammar school came from the United Kingdom to Buenos Aires to enjoy a week of responsible tourism and cultural exchange. This visit was one of many professor Steve has done. This time rather than being presented filtered culture, they explored the real Buenos Aires by visiting different Voluntario Global projects and non-touristy locations that became hidden treasures to the open mind responsible traveler.
Their first stop was a full day discovering La Boca, one of the most antique neighborhoods known for it’s fervor for tango and it famous football team, Boca Junior. This time they did not go to Caminito, the typical colorful housing that is seen in all the tourism brochures. They decided to walk along Isla Maciel with the new tour guides in town, a tourism cooperatives run by locals that works in the area helping residents to show the world how beautiful simplicity can be. Isla Maciel is a real residential neighborhood crossing the river that surrounds La Boca and it is just as beautiful, if not more than what is offered in the tourist zone of La Boca.
The tour starts by crossing the river through the Nicolas Avellaneda Bridge, constructed after 8 years of intense fighting between the government and the neighbors who asserted a secure way to cross. Through a walk painted with the colorful houses, an incredible mural in the church, and some spooky urban story, the guides were able to tell the group about the struggles of the neighborhood. During this cultural experience, they also learned about the community development. The guide told them about cooperative projects, reaching for sustainable growth. These cooperatives give locals the chance to study tourism and sports, while fostering general education.
After a long morning of experiences, they gathered for a big lunch, made by the co-op coordinators. Everyone seemed to know each other and be a team, holding a sense of pride in the community. They could really feel a sense of community in the way everyone interacted with each other.
To conclude this day trip, the group visited the Community Center at La Boca where they were invited to participate on the afternoon Radio Show. The students practiced their Spanish skills, telling the audience how much they have learned during their visit to Isla Maciel and how they recommended the visit.
The itinerary of the trip also included visiting the kindergarten in Suarez and a weekend picnic with the children from the orphanage. The boys show their passion for football while some of the girls create a craft station for the little ones to create noodle necklaces and works of art worthy for any volunteer museum. At last, teachers and students were able to know not only the beautiful city of Buenos Aires, but also the heart of some of its people who shared with them the love they have for what they do. This was a genuine cultural experience not influenced by commercial tourism. The group left Argentina taking home the best souvenirs, the feeling of knowing you've touched an entire community.
VOLUNTARIO GLOBAL
Voluntario Global helps local communities by being available to discuss anything that local organizations need, and offering ideas for further change and development.
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CONTACT
Location: General Pacheco. Buenos Aires. Argentina
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