Experience: Nick Opbroek, Juiz de Fora, Brazil

After I graduated I gave myself two options; look for work or gain more experience in an international environment. I focused on the latter and, through my university, got in touch with AIESEC. They provided me with one of the best experiences so far.
Soon after I applied and was considered suitable my LC coach of AIESEC Tilburg introduced me thoroughly what AIESEC is all about and how the database worked. In the beginning I was looking for a global internship to work for a company. However, the database didn’t contain many (related) internships regarding my field of study Real Estate and it was very hard for me to get a match. Together with my coach I then decided to look for a global community development internship to volunteer. Since the number of global community development internships is much bigger than that of global internships I could narrow my search to my preferred country Brazil, an emerging country in a continent I haven’t been before.
When I was in touch with several LCs in Brazil one of them pointed out a TN which would be more suited for me. The TN described a project called ‘Embaixadores Globais’ in which current global issues are discussed and presented towards Brazilians students and anyone interested. Since it was mentioned that I would work together with five other students all around the world, Portuguese wasn’t necessary and that I would learn more about the issues on a global scale I accepted the TN and applied. That Juiz de Fora, the city in which the internship took place, was only a three hour busdrive from Rio de Janeiro and that there would be at around thirty trainees during that time made the TN even more attractive.
Both my AIESEC coach in The Netherlands and the project coordinator in Brazil were very professional and helped me with any questions. So by the time I went to Brazil in July I knew what to expect and what they would expect from me.
One week before the start of the internship I arrived in Rio de Janeiro and stayed there for a couple of days to visit the city and to get used to some cultural differences. In general, life in Brazil isn't that much different as it is in the Netherlands. However, one of the biggest problems of Brazil is its poverty and especially the favelas which made a great impression on me. Even though I heard stories before and during my stay about mugging I haven’t seen it myself and I felt pretty safe during my stay. One thing that did happen to me and what foreigners should be carefull about is taxi drivers trying to rip you off. But of course, this is not typical of Brazil and apart from being a bit more careful the country has a lot of beautiful sights to offer.
When I arrived at the bus station of Juiz de Fora there even were three people of AIESEC picking me and another trainee up. One of them brought us to our host families. My host family consisted of a mother, her daughter and her son. They were very welcoming and friendly from the beginning and were very helpful with my questions. The only big barrier was the language since I don’t speak Portuguese and most of her family don’t speak English. Luckily the daughter spoke English fairly well and was very helpful to translate. She also gave me a tour around the city in the first couple of days which was very useful for my orientation and let me taste some great food at mobile food stands. When every trainee arrived in the city the project manager contacted us to meet everyone for the first time. The project and its schedule were pretty straightforward in that the project manager mentioned us that in the last week of our internship we had to present for five days and that the weeks before were necessary to discuss, prepare and promote the presentations. The project manager set deadlines in the first couple of weeks to make sure that the five different presentations would be ready on time. How to manage our time in between was up to us which made it easier for us as a group to plan trips to sightsee the country which happened mainly in weekends.
The project group consisted of three more guys from Northern Ireland, Egypt and Bangladesh and two girls from Russia and Pakistan. We were a close group and not only spent a lot of time together inside the city but also visited Ouro Preto, a former colonial mining town, and national park Ibitipoca. In addition to the ‘Embaixadores Globais’-project the project manager asked me and seven other trainees to give a presentation about our home country at a private school where they teach English.

This was very fun to do since I presented to ten Brazilian students in a small room which made it very intimate. There was great interaction and as requested by the organization I brought and cooked some typical Dutch food which they really enjoyed.
Since the people from AIESEC in Juiz de Fora like to have a good time as well, they created a Facebookpage to which every trainee was invited and posted activities to meet each other. We met most of the trainees of other projects mainly in weekends and in the last week of our internship when there were a lot of goodbye parties.
A point of critisism towards AIESEC Juiz de Fora would be that they could be more transparant in their communication since it wasn’t always clear to everyone when the next meeting would be and what promoting our project is all about. However, they did surprise me with their punctuality. I heard that Brazilians aren’t that punctual but in most cases the project manager was right on time.
After the internship I visited Ilha Grande, a largely undeveloped island which is known for its scenic beauty, to see more of the country and to have a relaxing end of my amazing internship and time in Brazil.
I really want to thank AIESEC and especially my coach from AIESEC Tilburg and my buddy from AIESEC Juiz de Fora for giving me the opportunity to meet a lot of great people from all around the world, learn from each other and visit beautiful places. The experience even exceeded my expectations and if I had the opportunity I would go on another AIESEC adventure.
Tchau, Nick 

Experience: Rick Luttikhuizen, YES, Shanghai, China

About the job
Together with two other guys from Holland I did an internship at Teckwin, Shanghai. The company of our internship was a manufacturer of large flatbed printers and ceramic tile printers. We had several marketing jobs like reviewing the website and brochures, participating with tradeshows but the main project was to investigate if and how the European market and the south American market could be expanded.
During the internship I discovered several differences in doing business in China instead of in Europe. In China the boss takes all the decisions without any discussion, they are very short term orientated and do not look back to the past.
About AIESEC
AIESEC supported us in advance, during our internship and with our reintegration back in the Netherlands. In advance there were several seminars about the culture, visa and entrepreneurship. During the internship AIESEC SISU organized several parties with other interns from all over the world, this was as great opportunity to discover several cultures but especially the Chinees culture. However AIESEC SISU is far less professional compared with AIESEC Tilburg, almost all the members were freshman and a lot of them were not from Shanghai. After a few weeks we knew the city center better than they did because they live the whole week on the campus.
About the culture
The Chinees culture is quietly different than the western culture, the first impression of the people can be that they are very rude. They spite of the ground, you can hear them eat and when you want to exit the metro everybody will enter the metro before you have the possibility to exit the metro. But when you know them better they are very friendly, it don’t mind what you ask them, they will help you. However most of the time it is quite hard to ask them anything because most of the Chinees people don’t speak English, but also with your hands and feet you can make yourself

understandable. Another important aspect in the Chinees culture is status and one of the most strange things how you can notes that on the streets, is that every man who doesn’t work with his hands has a very long pink nail.
Some other thing that are typical Chinees are safety, ambition and non creativity.
Personal Impact
It is hard to describe how this experience has changed me, but I am sure that it has changed me. You have to ‘survive’ in a complete different culture without any help of friends or family, because of this I think I am more self-assertive and increased my social skills.
Will you recommend a traineeship?
I will recommend everybody to do an internship abroad, it is a great experience and it will change your life. A great place to do your internship abroad is Shanghai. I think that the city is really unique, compare with Europe it is very cheap but it as modern as the biggest cities in Europe. This combination makes it a really good city to live. 

Experience: Joyce, Inda

With AIESEC I went to Kolkata, India to do an internship. At first, I was hired by Balcos Exports which is an exports company. My function was dealing with international customers and participating at several tradeshows around the world. Soon after I started I had to end this internship since it was not safe for me to work for this company. It turned out that the situation of this company was bad. Moreover, the company was chased by several customers for money and the CEO thought it was a good idea to give my personal contact information without my knowledge. This resulted in me getting phone calls day and night from customers chasing me for money. Together with some other
reasons I saw no other way then to end this internship. After being in touch with the Dutch Embassy in Delhi and the Indian Agency in The Hague it was decided that I could do another internship in India without returning back to The Netherlands. I got hired at Kariwala Industries Ltd which is an export company in bags: promotional, beach, and fashion bags. I was working in the merchandising department as a management trainee for three months. I was in charge of one order of a jute shopper of Ben & Jerry. Think about sending samples, providing feedback to the factory, making sure the factory has the required materials, prepare the export documentation and so on. Moreover, I did some work for companies such as Carrefour and Walmart. This related to making photo offers, sending samples and so on. 

The last part of the job was sending proactive bag proposals to potential customers in Spain.
The working culture in India is a little different than what we are used to. Everything goes at a much slower rate. There were many times I was very bored waiting to do something. In the beginning I showed a lot of initiative by asking every time I had nothing to do if there was something I could do. The thing is that Indian people freak out when you ask those questions. They find it really hard to say no or anything like that so basically when there is no job for you at that moment you keep quiet. For me that was really hard. Since part of my job was to send proactive bag proposals to customers in Spain, I

extended that to Europe so I could do a little more. Moreover, I was the only trainee in this company at that moment, but they had previous interns via AIESEC before. This also means that the language spoken in the office is Bengali although the official language in the office is English. I can only say that you get used to it, but it is not always nice to only hear a language you do not know, since you miss out on all the conversations.

As you read I had some major issues in the beginning and I appreciated the help of AIESEC Tilburg so that I could do another internship in Kolkata, India. I am not so enthusiastic about AIESEC Kolkata though. I had some serious issues with them regarding the fact that they wanted me to pay for quitting the first internship while they should have screened this company. Moreover, I met many other interns and they faced similar situations: some had to do illegal practices, some were threatened like me, others thought they were matched but on arrival there was no job for them and so on. Furthermore, I and the other interns faced situations in the house we were staying in that someone of AIESEC Kolkata would show up unexpectedly and trying to steal what they like. This resulted in the fact that we had to lock our closets for AIESEC Kolkata which is really ridiculous in my opinion.

The culture of India is off course very different. A lot is going on in the streets. There are many people and there is a lot of trash. Moreover, always someone is watching you wherever you are. Especially, in the beginning this can be a bit frustrating because we are not so used to people staring all the time or clicking pictures and so on. Kolkata itself does not have many cultural highlights to visit; you basically need one or two days. Places to go to are for example: Victorial Memorial, Kali Temple, Birla Mandir, St. Pauls Cathedral, and Mother Theresa House. Moreover, the best place to go shopping is new market.

What you should not do in this culture as a girl is dress inappropriately. This means that your shoulders should be covered and that you should not wear skirts or dresses. When you read the travel information about this country they tell you that as long as you wear dresses and skirts until your knee it is fine, but trust me that when you wear those clothes the men will stare even more. It off course depends on how uncomfortable you feel, but in a country like this it is best to avoid this kind of attention from men. To give an idea that you really have to be careful is that even when I was fully covered I got followed to the house I was staying in several times.
Finally, what you see in this culture is a big gap between the poor and the rich. It is easily to see the difference since the rich are very fat and the poor very thin. There is no such thing as doing sports in India and eating and gaining weight is to show how good you are doing financially. Hinduism is the religion most people follow. Many festivals are there according to that religion. Moreover, most people are vegetarian. This means that when you order a dish with chicken the amount of chicken you get is very little. But the vegetarian dishes are very nice so you will not miss the meat as much.
What I learned is that I am able to adapt to a totally different culture. Moreover, I learned to be much more flexible. I lived 5 months in India of which 2,5 months were without water. AIESEC Kolkata did provide us jars with water, so the only possibility to shower is with a bucket. Moreover, you can only flush the toilet with those jars, you cannot wash your clothes, clean, cook, or do the dishes. This is a big change of what I was used to but when you have to deal with it is not even that bad. The stay definitely changed me. Indian people lie about everything, it is in their culture which can be a bit frustrating, but for me it was good, because I always see the good in people and by living in this culture you become less naïf. When I compare my expectations to the real experience I am disappointed with the internships AIESEC Kolkata provides. 9 out of 10 are bad internships just because they are collecting money instead of screening the companies. This is something I really did not expect. Still I am happy that I did a second internship since the second company is a very good company. Off course, you know when you go to India that everything goes at a slower rate and that often you have nothing to do, but that was also my expectation.

For future participants wanting to go to Kolkata, India, please keep in mind that AIESEC Kolkata already lies to you when you are still in the Netherlands. Therefore, try to figure out as much of the company from them keeping in mind that it may not be true. Secondly, I would advise you to only accept 3-6 months internships. If you like the internship you can extend your stay, but it is more difficult to get out of one. Thirdly, keep in mind that on arrival you may have no place to stay or they will tell you to sleep on the floor or share a single bed. Moreover, they promise you things like closets, TV, cooking things, hot water, which is probably not in the house they put you in. Finally, I never regretted going to Kolkata, India, because you learn a lot about yourself, but internship wise be careful and prepare yourself. 

Experience: Sanne Klifman, Delhi, India

After my graduation I wanted to go abroad and a Development Traineeship with AIESEC seemed to be a great opportunity. I planned to do a traineeship in Delhi during the first two months of my stay and afterwards I wanted to travel. Some of my relatives were surprised when I informed them that I wanted to go to India because India is crowded, poor, dirty, extremely warm (I went in summer period), smelly, noisy, polluted and so on.., but even though this is all true, India is an incredible country! I had a great time in India; it was a great experience and I had a lot of fun!

My traineeship..

I agreed to participate in sessions about HIV/AIDS in order to inform youngsters about this subject. First of all, I was supposed to be trained by an NGO and afterwards I was supposed to be able to educate about HIV/AIDS. This DT was a project organized by AIESEC Delhi University (DU) and they arrange the NGOs and sessions. By the time of my arrival in Delhi the project was not really organized, or maybe I should say not organized at all… I decided to accompany some other AIESEC trainees who were having a similar project. We were able to speak to doctors about HIV/AIDS, went to a slum area to see the projects of harm reduction (e.g. drug addicts can get free clean needles and are informed about the risks of using drugs) and went to a women’s rehab centre.  After two weeks their project was finished and I had the opportunity to spend some more time in the women’s rehab. There were about 10 women staying in this rehab and during the day they were having activities like Yoga, making jewelry and post cards, literacy classes, and of course sessions with a counselor. In addition to the rehab there was also a crèche and a small school for poor kids from this neighborhood. I spend almost one month at this place and most of the time I was joining the women with their activities or I was helping in the crèche. Although I didn’t really have my own tasks I tried to help them whenever I could and gave a lot of attention to the women and kids.

My personal experience

Going to India for a traineeship was a great experience! This traineeship affected me a lot. I learned that life is good in the Netherlands; we don’t have to worry about money that much, we are able to choose what we would like to do in life (work/study) and we are able to choose who we love (we don’t have arranged marriages). These things are often taken for granted… This trip also changed me on the personal level. For example, I’m well organized but my traineeship wasn’t at all! I didn’t panic and decided that I didn’t want to wait for AIESEC (because they were not responding to my request to find something else) and waste my time, so that is why I arranged some work by myself.

AIESEC Delhi

During my stay in Delhi, I met my AIESEC coach twice and he is the only person of AIESEC DU that I met! AIESEC DU didn’t really organize activities, drinks, trips or anything.. I have to admit that they organized a meeting once, but they only informed the trainees a couple of hours in advance so everyone was already gone for the weekend of having other plans! To my point of view this doesn’t really work out this way… Although AIESEC DU is not what it should be, the AIESEC trainees were great! I lived in an AIESEC apartment and my flat mates and I were going out for dinners, drinks, sightseeing, parties etc with other AIESEC trainees. There are always many trainees in Delhi and these trainees are having a lot of fun together! So if you are planning to come to Delhi, focus on the trainees instead of the LC…

Incredible India

India is a huge country with a lot of different regions, habits, climates, subcultures etc. There is a lot to see; like beautiful places in the mountains and the Himalayas, the desert, national parks with wildlife, beaches and of course huge cities! Like many Asian countries there are a lot of temples and historical buildings in India but besides these cultural places of interest there are a lot of other things to do and so see. Travelling in colorful India is a must!

I recommend everyone who is thinking of going abroad to go for an AIESEC traineeship. AIESEC gives you the possibility to combine doing something good (a DT) or practice what you’ve learned during your studies (MT) with having a great time abroad. So don’t hesitate and arrange a traineeship…J.  When you are still hesitating or having some questions, feel free to contact me for more information: sanneklifman@hotmail.com

Experience: Sebastian Zweiphenning, Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Internship description

From the 3^rd of July until 31th of August I taught English to young adults in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Part of my job was to prepare the classes by creating new teaching material, preferably digital material with a lot of multimedia features. Also, I took off intake interviews to determine the students speaking and listening level and was a test controller. The focus of my classes was mostly on pronunciation and increasing  the student’s  vocabulary level. By focusing on pronunciation and increasing vocabulary, the students become more accustomed to the western (perhaps European English) pronunciation and increase their listening skills. As welcome side benefit, students become less shy and more eager to talk to western (or Caucasian) people.

My classes were scheduled from 5.30 until 7.30 pm. I taught classes with an average class size of twenty students.  The classes were taught in cooperation with Sjuul Coenen and most of the time a Cambodian teacher. In total I cooperated with four different Cambodian teachers and taught four different classes.

Internship experience

Before my first day of real teaching, which occurred on July .., I was extremely nervous. I had never been one for public speaking, and so didn’t know how I would do positioned at the front of the classroom for the whole period. But, as soon as I began my first class, it became clear to me just how nervous my students were about speaking English. When I realized this, that they were more nervous than I was, I felt more at ease and my apprehension was replaced with a desire to see become better and less shy.

           

 From that first day on, each class period was a test of my creative skills and ability to work around language barriers. Although sometimes, the Cambodian teacher had to jump in to translate whole sentences I put on the blackboard.  I had no prior information about my students, except that I was teaching the “young adults”. In the first week I asked every student in every class I taught to introduce his or herself. “Young adults” apparently means the age of ten up to twenty-three. In the last two weeks we even had a student who was at least thirty-five years old.  However, this did nothing to help me assess their English abilities or give me any foreknowledge of what to expect. When I first addressed my students, I was met with a roomful of blank looks. I realized that I couldn’t speak as easily and quickly as I would with a native English speaker. I also employed more body language than I normally would in everyday conversation. The combination of these adjustments made for smoother communication and also caused me to reevaluate my own speech patterns. 

The classes were meant to be conversational with only a little emphasis on writing, in order to build the students’ listening comprehension and fluency.  Sjuul Coenen, the student with whom I taught together, received three books: Takeaway one, two and three. He also received a one week schedule wherein it said which page (only one or 2 pages) we had to teach to which class. After the first week, it was up to us to create lesson content  and choose appropriate lesson material. As long as we incorporated the general idea of what they were learning in the textbook. We decided to choose themes for every week and build lessons around those themes. Examples of themes we used are: the zoo, packing for holiday, sports, etc. For the classes that we had to teach about Time for example, we combined conversations about the zoo with different times and made games wherein they had to guess the time. The lack of a real schedule made the class more informal than what I was accustomed to in the Netherlands. But, on the other hand, it helped to strengthen my organizational and creativity skills as well.

The first question that popped up in my head when preparing classes was: “how can I entertain them for hour?”. I thought back to the numerous classes I had attended during my schooling, and had a sudden appreciation for the preparation those teachers put into their own lessons. Students with similar internship experiences had advised me to just be creative and have fun with my students. Using this advice, I searched web sites for interesting activities and lesson ideas. After the first few weeks, however, I resorted to the Internet less and less, as I was able to find inspiration within my students and myself. By assessing my students’ weaknesses, I was able to plan my lessons around improving them.

    Specifically, I noticed that my students had trouble using the tenses correctly. To address this issue, I did several activities with them. During another class, one student asked me to explain the differences between could, should and would. This was one of the most difficult concepts for them to grasp. But, fortunately for me, such difficulties gave me a focus for my lesson plans. In another class, I noticed that the large majority of the students didn’t pronounce the s to make the plural of words. I addressed this issue by making “the snake game” out of it. When you use the s on the correct moment you are still in the game, when you do not use it at the right moment you are out. The last person in the game wins. Sometimes, even the Cambodian teacher asked me what certain words meant. By translating these words into Khmer I picked up some Khmer vocabulary along the way. My students really appreciated it when I addressed them by their Khmer names and when I tried to use Khmer words sometimes.

     This internship experience brought with it many minor obstacles. My initial lack of confidence and dislike for public speaking was the first hurdle. Because of these two things, I was proud of how well I adapted to the role of being a teacher. By expressing outward self-assurance and filling the room with creative energy, I was able to successfully lead my classes. As a student, I have always enjoyed a passionate, active teacher and so wished to bring that to the classroom.

  Another obstacle, due to my inability to speak Khmer, was the constant language barrier that accompanied each class. If my students lacked the English vocabulary to understand something, I couldn’t translate the word into their own language. The existence of this difficulty forced me to supplement my speaking with hand gestures and body language. As a result, I implemented body language to a degree never reached when speaking with a fluent English speaker. When this did not help, I asked the Cambodian teacher to join in.

           

 As with any experience, the internship had both positives and negatives. The main downside was the lack of guidelines for teaching material. Since I had no prior experience with teaching, I had little idea of what to expect. Furthermore, without any schedule, I sometimes doubted myself and wondered what I might have been overlooking. Luckily, the use of a textbook in class gave me some foundation to build upon. On the other hand, I generally thrived in the freedom with which I could construct my classes and enjoyed the unique responsibility. Another point that often annoyed me was the transport arranged by the school. We were supposed to be picked up at 17.00 everyday but sometimes, there was no tuktuk-driver at all and sometimes he was just late half an hour late. I had the same problem on the way back.

            I also liked that the internship was a great opportunity for me to improve my communication abilities and tactics. I was also able to gather a better understanding and appreciation for intercultural communication. Interacting with my students and Cambodian Teacher taught me about the Cambodian culture as well as my own, since I was able to look at my cultural practices from the viewpoint of my students. For example, I noticed a lot of non verbal communication: Cambodians never say no, they will just evade the question or give a vague answer.

My presence in the form of public speaking has grown more confident and capable.

The most enjoyable part of this experience, however, was the fulfillment of it. It was

satisfying to not only see my students make progress, but to know that I had been a large part of the source of their growth. Learning others to communicate in English is the most worthwhile thing I have done so far with my English knowledge. I had the idea that it will greatly benefit them in the future to get the career they want. 

Experience: Thomas Hannes, YES, Shanghai, China

P  About the job

I Worked with two fellow AIESEC trainees at Teckwin in shanghai. The subject was mainly tot do research for the possibility for Teckwin to enter the Brazilian market. This subject required a lot of searching on the internet. Next to this subject we also had to review a lot of translated documents to see if they were written in proper English.

The working culture at the job was not comparable with the working culture at dutch companies. In my experience the Chinese are not flexible, for example: when we finished a job before the deadline it took our employer a long time to give us a new project. Because of this it was not uncommon for us to spend time at Teckwin without a project. The job also did not really challenge me as most projects where really easy. In my point of view Teckwin missed the opportunity to optimally use my and my colleges expertise.

P  About AIESEC

When I talk about AIESEC i want to differentiate between AISEC Tilburg and AIESEC SISU. First Tilburg, the start of the project was not as it should be. AIESEC had a lot of problems finding suitable companies but this was mainly due to bad cooperation with AIESEC SISU. The rest of the activities that where planned before the internship where good. During the internship there was some trouble with AIESEC Tilburg mainly due to miscommunication. The reintegration was good and all miscommunications were resolved.

AIESEC SISU was in my opinion especially helpful with getting to know Shanghai. They organised a lot of gatherings and activities which enabled us to get to know interesting people and experience Shanghai. AIESEC SISU had little to do with our internship at Teckwin which is possible room for improvement.

P  About the culture

The Culture in Shanghai not surprisingly differs a lot from the culture in Holland. People have entirely different values and this influenced my experience a lot. It is very interesting to see that people can live as differently as the Chinese do and I learned a lot from this.

P  Personal Impact

The internship impacted me a lot, my main goal was to know if I could manage myself in an unknown metropolis as Shanghai. When I look at the overall experience I think I succeeded in my initial goal, I am even planning to go abroad for a longer time as I really liked the experience.

P  Will you recommend a traineeship?

I would recommend a traineeship to everyone who is a little bit adventurous. It is a great possibility to learn a lot and to develop yourself.