A lifetime experence
Spanish immersion, internships abroad & study abroad in Argentina
Press and testimonials of our spanish programs
DIARIO CLARÍN, 18 de Septiembre 2005
MUNDO ESPAÑOL
"Me venir a aprender el espaniol"
Cecilia de Castro.
cdecastro@clarin.com
¿Qué pasa cuando se juntan dos estadounidenses —uno pro Bush y otro anti Bush—, un iraní y un israelí? Nada, se ponen a hablar amigablemente en castellano.
Al menos eso es lo que sucede en Mundo Español, un instituto para que los extranjeros aprendan la lengua en la que reina la eñe.
Todo empezó en 1995 cuando la profesora de inglés Mariela Tort Gaillaguet (34) abrió el instituto de idiomas Executive Training. Gerentes y directivos de YPF, Renault, Siemens y Fiat, Holiday Inn y Wal Mart, entre otros, se sentaron —y se siguen sentando— en sus pupitres para ir más allá de la conjugación del verb to be.
"Varios de estos clientes nos mandaban empleados extranjeros que venían de Italia, Francia y Alemania a trabajar acá y debían aprender castellano. A raíz de esta demanda y de la crisis se me ocurrió abrir un departamento de español. Hasta que en 2001 directamente fundé Mundo Español, que es una empresa aparte y se dedica exclusivamente a enseñar castellano como lengua extranjera".
Los que asisten no son sólo profesionales. La mayoría son estudiantes universitarios extranjeros que se quedan un promedio de un mes aunque no faltan los que vienen por unas semanas y terminan instalándose durante un año.
Llegan de Oxford y Princeton, entre otras universidades. "El 80 por ciento son alumnos de los últimos años. No sólo vienen de Europa y los Estados Unidos. También de Africa. Y los vecinos de Brasil vienen para que su portuñol sea cada vez menos "portu" y más "ñol".
Hay cursos para todos: los de nivel Tarzán, los que chapucean el spanglish y los que buscan perfeccionarse para después hacer un posgrado en alguna universidad argentina.
Sin dejar ningún cabo suelto, Tort Gaillaguet tiene convenios con universidades nacionales y privadas. "Recibimos a los alumnos, hacemos la gestión administrativa, les damos las clases de español y luego los inscribimos en las facultades".
Tort Gaillaguet vivió dos años en París y no perdió el tiempo. "Allí hice contactos con universidades. También viajé a los EE.UU. y firmé convenios".
Está todo calculado. Los aprendices del idioma pueden hacer prácticas profesionales en empresas argentinas. La mayoría de ellas, clientas de Executive Training.
"Algunos también quieren ayudar. Nosotros les conseguimos la entidad donde pueden hacer el voluntariado y los asistimos durante su permanencia. Es un servicio ad honorem".
Ningún detalle se descuida. ¿Necesitan un celular o un seguro médico? Mundo Español se los consigue. ¿Una niñera? También. ¿Quieren recorrer el país? "Nosotros les buscamos la agencia".
Muchos chicos quieren conocer cómo es la vida de una típica familia argentina. Por eso la empresa tiene acuerdos para que los chicos puedan vivir en casas como la de la señora de acá a la vuelta.
"Además podemos ofrecerles departamentos amoblados o pensiones para estudiantes".
Los precios de los cursos arrancan en los 150 dólares por semana para programas de veinte horas semanales y pueden llegar a 500 dólares por el mismo período, según la especialización".
Los alumnos no sólo aprenden a conjugar los verbos en el pluscuamperfecto. En el instituto hay profesores de historia, de tango, de fútbol y de tenis.
En el programa Español y tango estudian castellano y el profesor les explica la historia del dos por cuatro y les enseña a bailarlo. Lo mismo pasa con el fútbol.
Por si fuera poco, "abrimos un programa lenguaje de señas argentinas destinado a los sordomudos extranjeros pero también les interesa a psiquiatras y psicólogos".
Los veinte a cuarenta alumnos que cursan cada mes generan una facturación anual de medio millón de pesos.
Después de unas semanas de entrenamiento los estudiantes empiezan a dominar el idioma. Y ya no le dicen "no lluevas" a una compañera que llora porque se vuelve a su país.
MUNDO ESPANOL - « Me Venir a aprender el espaniol »
Diario CLARÍN, 18 de octubre 2005, Buenos Aires.
What happens when two North Americans- one pro-Bush and one anti-Bush-, an Iranian and an Israeli come together? Nothing, they start to speak amicably in Spanish.
At least this is what happens in Mundo Español, an institute where foreigners come to learn the language in which the eñe reigns.
It all started in 1995 when the English teacher Mariela Tort (34) opened the Executive Training language institute. Managers and directors of YPF, Renault, Siemens and Fiat, Holiday Inn and Wal Mart, among others, sat down and are still there at their desks to get further than the conjugation of the verb “to be.”
“Several of these clients would send us employees of foreign branches who came from Italy, France and Germany to work here and thus had to learn Spanish. As a result both of this demand and the economic crisis in Argentina at the time, the idea occurred to me to open a Spanish department, until 2001 when I founded Mundo Español, which is a separate entity and is directed exclusively to teaching Spanish as a foreign language.”
Those who enroll in the Spanish programs are not only professionals. The majority are foreign university students that stay on average one month although there are those who intend to come for a few weeks and end up staying on for the year.
The students come from Oxford and Princeton, among other universities. “80% of them are in the final years of their degree. They don’t only come from Europe and the United States, but also from Africa. Our neighbors in Brazil also take these Spanish immersion classes so that their “portuñol” will be more “ñol” than “portu.”
There are courses for everyone: those at the Tarzan level, those amateurs who get by barely with their Spanglish and those that are looking to perfect their Spanish to go on to pursue a postgraduate degree in an Argentine University.
Not leaving any ends undone, Tort has agreements with national and private universities. “We receive students, do the administrative work, give them Spanish classes and then enroll them into the university faculties.”
Tort lived in Paris for two years and she didn’t waste time. “I made contacts with universities there. I also traveled to the United States and signed agreements.”
It is all planned. The Spanish students can do professional internships at Argentine companies, the majority of them being clients of Executive Training.
“Some of them also want to help. We find a place for them to do a volunteer program and assist them during their time there. It is a service ad honorem.”
No detail is ignored. Do you need a mobile phone or health insurance? Mundo Español will arrange so you get them. A babysitter? That too. Do you want to travel in Argentina? “We find a travel agency for you”
Many students want to get an idea of the life of a typical Argentine family. For this reason the company has arrangements for the students to live in homes like the lady who lives around the corner.
“We can also offer them furnished apartments or student hostels.”
The prices of the courses start at USD $150 per week for Spanish programs made up of 20 hours of classes weekly and they can reach to USD $500 for the same amount of time, depending on the area of specialization.”
The students do not only learn to conjugate verbs into the past perfect tense. In the institute there are also tutors who give football (soccer), tennis, history and tango lessons
In the Spanish and Tango Program, they study Spanish and the teacher explains the history of the two by four and teaches them to dance it. The same thing is done with football.
As if that weren’t enough, “we have started a Spanish language program of Argentine signs, tailored to deal foreigners but that also might interest psychologists and psychologists.”
After a few weeks of training, the students start to have a good command of the language. And they no longer say “no llueves” (don’t rain) to a friend who is crying because they are going back to their country.
Tango – Business for Tourists
Revista MAÑANA PROFESIONAL, Noviembre - Diciembre 2008
Motivated by the demand of Europeans and North Americans wishing to learn and have a good command of Spanish, the former classical dancer Mariela Tort created in 2001 Mundo Español, a centre for foreigners to learn to speak Spanish with personalized classes that include tango lessons, business Spanish, Argentine history, football and tennis.
The company offers all of its services with rates in US dollars, and since it was established, it hasn’t stopped growing, becoming a very profitable business. The company has been declared of tourist and cultural interest by the government and has the support of the Ministry of Culture and of several universities in Europe and the United States. “Tourists want to come to Buenos Aires because the city is the vedette of Latin America for learning Spanish,” the entrepreneur explains.
Mundo Español started to develop as a small business in 1995. At that time, Mariela Tort was 23 and studying for a degree in English in the National University of Cordoba. It was then that an acquaintance recommended her to give English classes to an executive of YPF in Buenos Aires. A month later, the young woman had more than 60 students, among them, managers and directors of big multinationals such as Fiat.
“I couldn’t keep up with that many students on my own and that’s why I had to take on teachers and I founded in the province of Cordoba the language institute Executive Training with a small family investment. As I lacked management experience, I started to study General Management in the National University of Cordoba,” she recalls.
“As the months passed, we had more and more students because we started to work with other companies, but in 1997, as a result of the economic crisis that the country suffered, there was a lot of restructuring within companies and suddenly, the 90 students dropped to 8,” Tort explains, and tells how in the midst of that desperation, she had to go out to look for new companies and offer them English courses in company, a training method that had already starting expanding in Buenos Aires but that was still new in Cordoba. Within a few months, the company started up again until another crisis struck. We had problems yet again because the devaluation forced many firms to stop investing in employee training,” the ex-dancer relates.
Crisis and Opportunity
According to a Chinese proverb, crisis is always a synonym of opportunity, and this is exactly what happened to Tort. While she was trying to survive the crisis post-devaluation, companies from Europe and the United States, attracted by the exchange rate, such as Fiat, Siemens and Renault started sending their managers and directors to Executive Training to learn Spanish in Argentina, and with that grew increasingly the number of foreigners coming to study Spanish abroad at the institute.
“I realized then that there was a big unfulfilled demand that could be a business opportunity and I decided to create Mundo Español in Cordoba,” Tort remembers proudly.
One of the entrepreneur’s trips was to Paris, where she stayed and lived for 2 years. From there she continued managing Executive Training, while she built a new network of contacts in the French capital as well as in the rest of Europe. Then toward the end of 2003, Tort reached the conclusion that Mundo Español was a much more profitable project than Executive Training and decided to set it up in Buenos Aires, which led her to close the first institute that she had opened in 1995.
Executives and Retirees
The students that study Spanish abroad at Mundo Español are foreigners belonging to the upper middle class, with an average age range of 21 to 35 years. Retirees, professionals and students also enroll in the Spanish immersion programs, principally from the United States, Germany and Brazil, which are the strongest markets with which the institute works.
The director comments that the most popular courses are Intensive Spanish, Spanish and Tango, Spanish and Sport and Business Spanish. The rates vary accordingly with the duration of the Spanish program. “The Brazilians usually comes for two weeks, with a total cost of $570 for a package that includes 40 hours of Spanish, accommodation with breakfast and cultural activities,” affirms the owner of the institution in which a total of 20 people work, among them teachers, coordinators and management. They also employ collaborators on a temporary basis who give tango lessons, business classes, etc.
The most expensive Spanish language programs can cost up to $1000 and include a super intensive program with 8 hours of classes daily. Many professionals choose the Spanish for Business course because of job requirements, as well as university students who take it to fulfill a requirement of their faculty. While some are interested in cultural exchange and traveling in Argentina, others travel to Latin America and come to Argentina to study Spanish in order to have a tool that will facilitate their communication in the rest of the countries in the region that are on their agenda.
“The enterprise is profitable because it established its place in the idiomatic tourism market, especially because of the favorable exchange rate, the interest that tourists have in the Argentine tango, and the European charm that distinguishes Buenos Aires along with its extensive cultural offer,” Tort adds.
A Requested Tool
The director highlights that foreigners’ interest in learning the Latin language is also due to the fact that the language has gained great importance in business and trade markets since the creation of Mercosur. “Having a good command of Spanish is one of the most solicited skills in the labor market. Second to English, it is the most requested language by multinationals globally,” the director explains.
The former dancer also recalls that on various occasions they have been invited to Germany and the United States to participate in conferences, seminars and international language fairs where they represented the Argentine school. Driven by her entrepreneurial spirit, Tort founded the Argentine Association of Centers of Spanish as a Foreign Language, whose objective is to spread and guarantee excellence in the teaching of the country’s language.
According to official figures, the idiomatic tourist stays an average 60 days in Argentina and spends around $100 per day. In general they come from the United States, England, France, Israel, Australia and Germany. Thanks to its wide diversity of climates and landscapes, Buenos Aires has become over the last few years the principal market of idiomatic tourism in Latin America, ahead of Ecuador and Chile.
Everything from scratch
From the beginning this enterprise was established without many resources and this is why we couldn’t invest as much money into marketing as perhaps bigger businesses do, but we’re lucky that our own students recommend us,” the director indicates. In this sense, the teacher points out that word of mouth and the personalized service that the language centre offers played a key role in the growth and success of the company. “The special details in our offer are the warmth and familiarity that the client receives during his Spanish immersion program. The students feel very happy here and we all know the name and situation of each one. For us, the student can never be just another number,” Mariela Tort explains, and adds that the Spanish classes are given in small groups that to not exceed 7 students.
To increase its productivity the institute, which promotes its services through its website, works with cultural exchange agencies in the United States, Brazil, England and Germany, with whom the director developed contacts during her many trips. “This year we are going to make an investment in marketing of about €20,000 that includes new brochures and trips through the U.S and Europe. Within the institute we are doing work to increase the number of classrooms, but in such a way that we grow without losing the personalized attention that attracts foreigners, many of whom are so happy with their experience in Buenos Aires that they say goodbye to us crying,” she concludes.
The Business of teaching to speak with the eñe
Revista PARA TI, 21 de Octubre 2005
Mundo Español is an institute that is dedicated exclusively to teaching Spanish to foreigners. The clients are professionals, university students and even families. Andrea Cativa, assistant director of the institute, talks about how everything began.
In the movie Spanglish, Adam Sandler hires a Mexican woman who doesn’t speak a word of English to take care of his house. The problems that this barrier causes are countless. And although the movie treats it with some humor, being in a country without having a good command of its language can be a real problem. To avoid such occurrences, Mundo Español was established, an institute dedicated exclusively to teaching Spanish to foreigners. “Everything started in 1995 with the Executive Training Language Institute under the direction of English teacher Mariela Tort Gaillaguet,” explains Andrea Cativa (35), assistant director of Mundo Español, founder and spokesperson of the project. “Several directors studied there, from the companies YPF, Renault, Siemens, Fiat, Holiday Inn and Wal Mart, among others, who came from Italy, France and Germany to work here and thus had to learn to speak Spanish.” So many companies with people who did not have a command of the language of the “eñe” made Andrea realize that there was a niche to be filled in the market. Then she started to take action: “In 2001 I founded Mundo Español to teach Spanish to foreigners exclusively, whether they be professionals, families or university students. At this time the country’s currency no longer enjoyed parity with the American dollar, and so coming to study Spanish in Argentina become a lot more affordable.” The students began to come mainly from the Universities of Oxford and Princeton, among others. “Today, 80% of the students are in their final years of university and come from Europe, Germany in particular, the United States and Africa.”
Andrea explains that the variety of courses offered is wide: “There is conversation and Argentine culture, Spanish for business, university students and professionals, for translators and for the hotel and tourism industry.” Furthermore, they have agreements with national and private universities: “We receive students, do the administrative work, give them Spanish immersion classes and then enroll them into the faculties,” she affirms.
Everything is very organized: “When a student arrives, a coordinator picks him up at the airport and this person becomes his tutor.” The following step is to find accommodation and the company takes care of this: “Many students want to know what the life of a typical Argentine family is like and so the company looks for homes for them according to their preferences- with dogs, with children, or with homemade meals. Other options that we offer them are furnished apartments or students hostels.” But Cativa could not do all of this if she didn’t have a team of professions of an excellent level. They are, in total, 16 bilingual teachers plus her colleague Mariela Tort Gaillaguet (36), director of the institute, who is always traveling: “She is in charge of making contacts for us with universities in the United States and making agreements with them,” she points out.
Extremely meticulous, Cativa is aware that the secret to success is to offer a complete and efficient service: “If they need a cellular phone, medical insurance, if they want to travel in Argentina, whatever it may be, we are at their disposal. Some stay for a month although there are those who plan to come for a few weeks and end up staying on for a year.” Why do they stay for that much time? Because the students don’t only learn to conjugate verbs to the past perfect tense: in the institute there are teachers who give history, tennis, football (soccer) and tango lessons, which makes learning much more enjoyable. “In the Spanish program Spanish and Tango they study the language and the teacher explains to them the history of the two by four and teaches them to dance it. The same thing happens with football,” she says proudly. “The idea of each activity is to teach our language through an educational offer combined with a broad tourist program that covers many different aspects of our culture,” she explains. And that’s not all. Mundo Español also thinks about foreigners with learning disabilities: “We have just started a sign language program destined to deaf foreigners as well as a program of neutral Spanish designed for those students who wish to work in call centers.” To keep growing the company is already starting programs in different provinces.
Reliability, service, a team of suited professionals and a personalized method are for Andrea Cativa the keys to this enterprise. She concludes: “Mundo Español is like a big house, and this is what our students like best: everyone’s warmth and friendliness.”
Chacabuco 649
San Telmo
Buenos Aires info@mundo-espanol.com
