Why Argentina? Reasons more students should study in South America
Alana Victor | Daily Trojan
“Why Argentina?” This is a question that I have been asked over and over again since I applied to study abroad in Buenos Aires last September. For me, the answer was always an easy one.
I am an international relations student with a regional emphasis in Latin America, which I selected because of my Spanish language abilities and also because I am interested in the young, constantly changing democracies that have developed within this region. One day, I want to work in this part of the world and I know that studying here would give me a good taste for what that might be like.
So after explaining my academic background to people who ask me this, I would then also explain that above all I wanted to become fluent in Spanish. The next question I would just about always get would be, “So then why not go to Spain?”
While I did consider Spain for a little bit when I was first looking at study abroad programs, I always knew I did not want to be the traditional USC student studying abroad in Europe. No, I have never been to Europe. And yes, someday I would love the opportunity to explore that part of the world. For me, however, studying abroad is an opportunity to fully immerse myself within a country and a language, which means going to a university where I take classes with a majority of local students, make local friends, and live and spend a majority of my time within that city. I have luckily been able to do all of this and more through my program in Buenos Aires.
I am currently studying at the Universidad de San Andres, where all of my classes are conducted in Spanish and with local students. I will admit that taking Foreign Policy Analysis in Spanish is not a cakewalk and does add an emphasis to the “study” of study abroad. But I would not have things any other way. This program has allowed me to make several friends from Argentina and who have been able to give me the local’s insight into the city.
Additionally, I am one of four students from USC in my program (none of which I knew prior to my program). I am also one of seven students from the U.S., so rarely am I with fellow Trojans or Americans, which means I am constantly speaking less English and more Spanish. This has been great in that it has pushed me outside my comfort zone, and allowed me to make friends from all over the world.
To give you a taste, I found my own housing where I am living with people from France, England, Brazil, Venezuela, Honduras, Denmark and Germany. What is the common language of the house you may ask? I’d say we speak Spanish 50 percent of the time, English 40 perent of the time and then French 10 percent of the time (I didn’t know any French before coming here but I am trying to learn!).
Judging from the stories of my older friends who previously studied in European countries and many of the stories of my friends who are studying there now, my experiences in Buenos Aires are not the norm in their programs. Many of the European programs have lots of other USC and American students with preset study and living arrangements that aren’t always in the language native to the country. For many, studying with other U.S. students isn’t a drawback (like it was for me) and studying abroad in Europe gives the incredibly special opportunity to easily travel all over the continent.
I will admit that for a while I was disappointed that I wouldn’t have this mobility in Buenos Aires but knew I would be reaping the many other benefits of my choice. I have been pleasantly surprised at the amount of traveling outside the city I have been able to do. Traveling by bus in South America is inexpensive and surprisingly comfortable. Additionally, with my student residency, I am able to get local discount prices on flights within Argentina.
Since arriving in Buenos Aires at the end of February, I have been able to travel to five different cities. I started with the National Park of Iguazu where I saw the most incredible waterfalls. I then backpacked through the famous Patagonian mountain region where I hiked the W Trek in Torres del Paine National Park of Chile, camped in El Chalten, Argentina — home of Fitz Roy, the mountain scape that many would recognize from Patagonia’s label — and saw the Perito Moreno Glacier in El Calafate, Argentina. Additionally, this past weekend, I took the ferry across the Rio de la Plata to Uruguay where I spent the weekend exploring Colonia and Montevideo. My next trip will be to Mendoza, the wine country where the famous Argentine Malbec wines are produced.
Though I will by no means be able to explore the entire South American continent during my time abroad, I will be able to explore five different countries. These include Chile, Uruguay, Bolivia, Peru and, of course, Argentina. It’s true that I’m not covering as much ground as students in Europe, but I do feel like I have been able to find a strong balance between immersion in Buenos Aires and exploring the rest of Argentina and the neighboring countries.
From my experience so far, I think students should really take a second look when choosing a study abroad program and consider South America. I always want to be sure I am as tactful as possible when saying this because I have many friends who made the decision to go to Europe and have absolutely loved it. For me, however, Buenos Aires was the perfect fit and a much different experience than the traditional USC study abroad student. In the future, I hope more and more students will consider going further outside their comfort zones and study in a South America.
If you go to Argentina to learn Spanish you will likely come away speaking not Spanish but Argentinish, and be branded ever after among Spanish speakers for your distinctive weirdness in pronunciation, lexicon, and morphology. Come to Argentina with dollars and quickly learn that life involves working those dollars through the black market. After Argentina, few countries will ever appear to be truly dysfunctional or corrupt. Remember that Argentina’s inflation was somewhere around 40 percent last year and the rapidly increasing costs of goods and services accelerate at a rate greater than the increased valuation of the US$ vs the ARS. Come to Argentina and learn why the UN crime figures place this country as number one in theft rates in the entire western hemisphere. And yes, I did my MS at USC.
Sabe, it sounds like you are secretly missing Argentina!:) The author has hit it spot on with the write-up, and the fact that Argentinian spanish is the most beuatiful spanish in the world (ask anybody non-spanish-speaking person) , it will be blessing to the student who takes it back home. You don’t have to exchnage your dollars on the black market here, but everybody does it when they to, including high level government officials ( a fact since the 70’s or before) . Actually the “black market” is most often the hotel concierge (lol). After living though Argentina’s mixture of technology and customs ranging from the 1950’s to the 21st century, one comes away with very intense pleasant sensasions of having been to an exciting and mysterious place like no other. I could go on and on. Hope you make it back soon!:)
No, it is not “beuatiful spanish” at all. In fact if you knew your Argentine history you would recall that for a time the government here (Argentina) even proposed adopting the castellano-criollo-rioplatense as a language distinct from Spanish, which over the years it has effectively become.
You talk about Argentine “technology” but there is no such thing. Argentine industry is nothing more than the assembly of products that have been designed elsewhere, in the modern countries. Argentine manufactured products have no market outside of the Mercosur region because they are of such poor quality.
If you know someone who has studied economics in Argentina you can ask them why the government penalises private economists who dare to publish economic statistics that differ from the “official” (politically blessed) numbers. This is a country that curiously blends Stalinist overtones with an enduring admiration for Mussolini, and still can’t find a way to make the trains run on time. (In fact some of the railways are in such terrible condition that it takes longer today to make some inter-provincial runs than it took back in 1890).
Come to Argentina, where incompetence wears a pretty face, here where you find the southern hemisphere’s capital for crime, corruption, economic mismanagement, and perpetual arrogance.
Sabe, that’s a nice pile of bulls**t you’re talking there. First of all our accent is fine, there is simply nothing wrong with it and it’s not any weirder than every other Spanish accent in Latin America.
Also, a lot of the things you commented are far from being true. What in the holly **** does the accent of a country have to do with politics and crime?. Good job at bringing two totally unrelated topics to this article, you tool. And if you hate the Argentine culture so much, then why not go live somewhere else?. Good luck finding a country with 0 crime rate and no corruption at all in the Americas.
Yes, definitely Peru and Colombia are far better choices than Argentina. Especially the latter. Sure, If you don’t mind the guerrillas and the whole drug cartel thing.
For some positive advice, I would recommend you to quit spreading misleading lies about a country that you obviously know little or nothing about. It only just makes you sound like a complete ignorant chimp.
Let’s take those assumptions and review how the national (Argentine) and international media have characterised these conditions.
On the subject of the extremely high rate of robbery in Argentina, we are seeing more of more media references to “lynching” — in fact so much so that this English word has become “linchamiento” in Argentinish, and now very much a part of the Argentine vocabulary, as ordinary citizens, disgusted with the Kirchner government’s handling of the high crime rate, are taking matters into their own hands.
Here are some Argentine media observations on the high robbery rate, acknowledging that it’s the highest in the western hemisphere:
“….Argentina tiene la tasa de robos más alta de América: 973 cada 100 mil habitantes. Según precisó, en cuatro de cada diez hogares de centros urbanos del país, fueron víctimas de al menos un delito durante el último año y que hubo un homicidio en ocasión de robo cada dos días en
Capital y provincia de Buenos Aires….”
And the BBC coverage of lynchings can be found in the article entitled “Lo que hay detrás de los linchamientos en Argentina.”