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E-journal IBS Newsletter is devoted to Slovenian and foreign scientists, researchers, specialists, students and experts in the fields of international business, sustainable development, foreign languages and public administration. The most important part of IBS Newsletter is publishing of reviewed scientific, research, professional and popular articles that discuss themes like international business, sustainable development, organization, law, environmental economics and politics, marketing, research methods, management, corporate social responsibility and other topics.

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IBS International Business School Ljubljana

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2010 > September




Our new student, Dominique T. Braakman

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Dear readers,

First of all I would like to introduce myself. My name is Dominique Tereza Braakman, 21 years young and born in Groningen, the Netherlands. My mother is Slovenian and my father is Dutch. After 8 years of primary school I went to high school, where I found out that I am good in languages. I had chosen for the direction culture and society with three foreign  languages. Those were English, German and French. Five years of high school was enough to go to the Faculty of Groningen. The course International Business and Languages was something that I was attracted to, because of the languages. So again three foreign languages, with one different than in high school, I learnt also Italian. The best thing that was in that one year was the trip to Milan, Italy. One week in Italy with classmates was a good opportunity to learn better Italian. The inhabitants of Italy do not speak so well English, so you had to do your best if you wanted  to order in a restaurant. After this trip we had to go back to school and study for some exams  which I found really hard. I studied and studied, wrote big assignments about companies in the Netherlands. The assignment that was most interesting for me was that we had to write and put things into practice about exporting a typical Dutch product abroad. We put the theoretical matter on paper. At the end we had set up a market in school and tried to sell the typical Dutch product to buyers from abroad. Those buyers were our teachers and they came to us to talk about the product. They could also taste it, when it was for example a consuming product. We talked about it in the foreign languages we had in class. So my Italian teacher came to our stand and I had to sell my product in Italian. But in the end I had to do a lot of re-exams. I started the second year in English, but I was not motivated anymore. I decided to get all my credits from the first year and went only to exams. I had found a job in a home for the elderly, where I worked four hours in the morning as a cleaner. Meanwhile I already had found a new course, for Receptionist, Stewardess and Hostess. This was in Utrecht, three hours away from where I lived. Because the study took only one year, I decided to take the train every day. This was a study that I took quite seriously.  It is an expensive private school, double as quick, so I could finish this course in one year. One year may not seem a lot, but I have learnt so much, that I could not imagine. I'd always wished  that I could be a stewardess or a tour leader. Our teacher for the subject » airline« was also a stewardess, so she knew a lot of things. All our teachers are working part time at school and part time as the subject they were teaching. In the beginning the most difficult thing I found, was standing in front of the class. But almost every day we had to stand in front of the class, so I got used to it. We also went to the airport of Amsterdam, named Schiphol. It is a huge airport, where you can walk a half an hour to go from one side to the other. I got really excited and decided to have my internship at the airport of Ljubljana. Everyone asked me at school, why in Slovenia? Isn't it a poor country and war? I thought, my classmates really do not know anything about Slovenia. I held an assignment and a presentation about Slovenia. It was interesting to see how they thought after my presentation, when I talked about struklji, wine and let them see pictures of Bled, Bohinj, the Postojna caves and Lipica. After letting know my classmates and teachers about Slovenia, I had the opportunity to do my ten weeks  of internship in Slovenia. I wrote several letters of application in Slovenia, with help of my mother of course, to the airport of Ljubljana and several hotels, like Union, Slon, Palace hotel Portorož and City hotel Ljubljana in December already. I got a response from the airport and City hotel Ljubljana. I planned a week to go to Slovenia in February to apply for my internship. First I went to the airport; unfortunately I had to do a course there that started in April already while I had exams to half of May. So that was not an option. My only chance was then City hotel and with great excitement they said yes and started in May as a receptionist. I thought that it would be better if I would do my internship in Slovenia, because finally I would like to move abroad. In the end I finished school, got hired and contracted  for a year in City hotel Ljubljana. Meanwhile I also applied at the embassy of the Netherlands in Ljubljana for a three month project, which was called the Bilateral Focus and got the opportunity to work as a general assistant.  During these three months I had two jobs, but after the three months there was no work for me anymore at the Embassy. I stayed at the City hotel and work there now for a year and a half. At the moment I live in this beautiful village, called Kozarisce under the mountain Sneznik. I live here with my aunt and have my own space. Unfortunately I got to hear from the Ministry of Higher Education, that they only certified my high school. This is not something you can lean on for the rest of your life and decided to finish what I already started in the Netherlands. International Business School  in Ljubljana is the school that I would like to go and get my diploma. Now I am motivated again and I see a lot of new opportunities when I will finish this school.