Are you looking for an internship abroad? Do you want to learn Spanish and discover the world? Come to Chile and explore a whole new culture!
The good news: You don’t have to arrange everything yourself, because there is Chile Inside, founded in 2003 by German Marion Ruhland!
Chile Inside is an agency that promotes intercultural, linguistic and educational exchange programs. They arrange and manage personalized programs within Chile for a market of foreigners of all ages, professional backgrounds and from all countries. The most relevant services include Spanish Courses, Internships, Volunteer Work, Working Holiday, Farm Stay and the intermediation of Accommodations for foreign executives.
The cool thing is that whatever you want to experience in Chile will be organized especially for you! You tell the team of Chile Inside what you are looking for and they will do their best to make your dreams come true.
My own experiences
That is exactly what I did myself. Within my studies at university of “Language and communication” it is required to do an 8-week internship. It didn’t take me long to decide that this would not be realized within Germany.
Since I wanted to improve my Spanish and had already seen quite a bit of Spain and its culture, it was obvious that I wanted to explore Latin America. So I applied to an agency in Germany who then started collaborating with Chile Inside in order to create my dream internship in Santiago.
Seriously, it was great to be able to count on Chile Inside, because it found it harder than I initially thought to find an internship in Santiago that I could apply for that would actually be accepted by my university, because – por supuesto – it must have to do with languages/communication.
Within just a few weeks Chile Inside had already connected with AndesBeat to make my dream of a translating internship in Santiago come true!
Personally, I think Chile Inside really does a great work, simply by connecting people: Graduates with work places, students with businesses, thereby being a great help in supporting the entrepreneurship ecosystem in Chile.
The benefits for both sides
Marion herself says that doing e.g. an internship abroad is very interesting and enriching for both sides, the intern and also the company in which the intern works.
Of course, the intern gains important experiences abroad, getting to know a different culture, mentality and maybe even a different way of working whereas also the company can profit from new innovative ideas and techniques.
Most of the companies that work with foreign interns highly appreciate them and their work, because their way of working might be different and in most cases they work reliably and thoroughly, according to Marion.
Besides, interns can finally apply the theoretical knowledge they learn in university and at the same time learn new things that are also relevant for their studies.
But nevertheless, also the intercultural aspect is very important. Not only for the intern, as he or she has to adapt to a new culture, but also for the company. A “Gringo”, as we call a foreigner here in Chile, might be able to loosen up the atmosphere among the team, bring in some new habits or values. Team members can learn a whole lot of new stuff, maybe even develop a different perspective on a lot of issues, expanding their horizon in many ways.
Of course, here in Chile, the aspect of learning spanish (or better: Chilean, as I noticed) is probably most important, but also the company can profit a lot from a person speaking a different native language than they do, because with the respective language the company is enabled to reach a new target group, expanding their market.
“So we see, such an internship abroad is a give and take among the intern and the company and both sides are definitely able to profit lots from this in their own way”,
says Marion.
Don’t hesitate!
I, personally, can definitely and with no hesitation recommend an internship abroad. It is so enriching, such a great once-in-a-lifetime experience that I would not want to miss. I guess and hope, that also for AndesBeat it was a huge opportunity and experience working with a “Gringo” in their team.
Thank you a lot, AndesBeat and Chile Inside for making it possible for me to come to Chile and do this internship, gaining loads of unforgettable experiences and memories!!
