My name is Tom van Ruiswijk, I am 23 years old.
In 2019 I went to Málaga in Spain. Before that I already had one year of Spanish lessons at the university of applied sciences Fontys, in The Netherlands, where I study International Business and Languages. Spanish is a mandatory course for my study.
My university has an agreement with a language school in Málaga. It is a great school and I had my own apartment. I made my own meals, but I could also take meals in the restaurant on campus. We had cooking lessons at the school and we did all kinds of activities. There was a pool on campus and we went very often to the beach and had excursions in the weekend to Andalucía.
I went for two months to the language school in Málaga and I took 26 hours of classes per week (20 grammar and spelling lessons and 6 hours conversation lessons). When I went to Málaga I improved my knowledge of the Spanish language rapidly and I started to speak quite fluently. After two months I ended up with more or less a B2 level of fluency.
After that, as part of the study program of my university, I did a 2,5 months internship in Málaga. My Spanish was good enough to take up important tasks. After a couple of weeks I could do calls and mailings for the company and at the end of my internship I could do all correspondence without guidance. The last month of my internship I also helped organize an event with a Spanish speaking group. I could guide the group on my own and I could do many organizational tasks.
Nowadays I use my Spanish knowledge on a regular basis at the electronics shop in Eindhoven, where I have a job. Many expats buy electronics and I speak Spanish with some of them. I even could help an Italian client, because we could understand each other in Italian-Spanish. At this moment I just have finalized my graduation thesis. I hope to get my bachelor’s diploma at Fontys University of Applied Sciences in July 2020.
I made a list of pros and cons. That’s when I knew I had to go to California.
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