Job Discussion Forums

[therealsupa]

http://www.road2argentina.com/seccionsub.asp?IdSeccion=18

Hey guys,

I found this company who offer ESL Volunteering with housing included. For someone who is new to BA and not yet any ESL Experience, do you guys think this would be a good introduction into the city? For the 2 months it will be about $2000 - but i feel like it would be worth it having somewhere to go as soon as i touch down... and also, i need to be in the country to apply for paid positions. I am thinking some bar work at nights to sustain me would be fine.

Just wondering who else have heard of this company.. and any advice would be great, thanks

Danielle

[spanglish]

Looks like a clever to get you to do free work AND pay them. I'm immediately suspicious of 'volunteer' programs that require payment.

"Road2Argentina places you as a teaching assistant at a high-quality private school."

Emphasis on the private school part.

If you want a way to network I would recommend looking into couchsurfing or live mocha.

[parrothead]

Don't pay to volunteer. That's nuts. Take the 2 thousand dollars and just enjoy your time in Argentina. If you want to teach, perhaps you can find short term work.

[sarahg]

Be careful of volunteer programs that require you to pay beforehand.

Once they have your money, they can demand that you do anything, upon threat of being kicked out of the housing you were counting on for "not doing your work." It happened to me in Costa Rica -- the girl running the sea turtle project at the same location didn't have enough volunteers one week and told me that I had to work for her project as well, though I had been told by the central office that I only had to teach, even had a note specifying that on my paperwork. I called the home office to complain and when the girl found out I was kicked out for being "disrespectful." Luckily I had gone directly through the NGO and only prepaid a small fee for room and food, but if I'd gone through some agency I could have been out hundreds of dollars per week. And this was a legit, national NGO accepting both local and foreign volunteers. There were also rules about how we couldn't go to local bars or restaurants and basically had to either be at the beach or in the house at all times.

Bottom line...don't prepay anything. You'll do more good for the communities by spending your money at local businesses anyways (and probably have much better housing and more fun). If you find a smaller community, know some spanish, and hang out long enough, you can find people who need your help just by asking around. If you don't know spanish or you want to "do" something while you're there, sign up for Spanish school, it should be a comparable price and you're less likely to get taken advantage of.