Mexico City, Mexico

Hi my name is Paola Tafur, I am from Colombia and I am doing my traineeship in Mexico city for one year. I have been here for almost nine months.

I want to share with all of you my experience and my expectations… when I was in AIESEC one of my dreams was to do what we preach and go on a traineeship. For me I knew that it would be one of the most incredible experiences in my life… and now I am here, making my dreams come true. I know that for each one this experience will be so different, each one of us knows what we want to learn, and how we can take advantage of the situation.

Here I have lived a lot of things that I could never have imagined I woul live in my country because I am in a different environment learning new things and meeting new people. You learn about tolerance and respect, you discover the meaning of these two words. You see yourself in many situations that help you to know how you can confront new responsibilities when you are living alone in a country that you did not know before. I have learned about myself, and about my strengths and weaknesses.

"Knowing others is wisdom; knowing the self is enlightenment; mastering others requires force; mastering the self needs strength." Tao te Ching.

I have had some funny situations with the double meanings of some words. Allow me to explain... In Colombia some words have different meaning that in Mexico (it does not matter that we speak the same language, Spanish) for example the word "catch" that in Spanish is "coger" in Mexico has double meaning connected with sex. Of course if you want to use this word there are a lot of synonyms but in my country you use "coger" a lot. For me it was difficult when I started my traineeship to avoid saying this word. I remembered some people were in shock when they heard me using this word as they were not aware that it meant something different in Columbia. I had to learn about the different meanings of words and to avoid saying these words because it is embarrassing to say to the taxi driver "please catch for here" (when translated in spanish means "take me here") because this innocent phrase could be completely misinterpreted!

In all honesty, an Aiesec traineeship will give you experiences that you are not going to forget. The traineeship gives you the opportunity to learn about a culture different from your own and also teaches you how to accept some things that are weird for you because you did not grow up with them. You break stereotypes knowing that all people are different because they are coming from distinct cultures. If you want to understand them , you should know about their culture and also accept them even though they grow up with different customs and habits than you.

Paola Tafur, Columbia

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