Aitna worries about the language barrier

Aitna Christofidou is a fourth-year student Logistics Management in Venlo. She moved to The Netherlands five years ago now, leaving Cyprus to study here. But not everything went without a fight.

“I just love The Netherlands. The people are really nice, and when I finish graduating I truly want to stay here. I don’t know if I will start working right away after graduating, to gain some experience, or choose to do a master. It is difficult you know? Because getting some work experience sounds great, but following a master is a really good choice too.

But those are worries for another day. For now I have to focus on my internship at this Dutch company, where I ultimate the processes of a warehouse. That’s something that I love to do. 

What I also love, is the life here. Venlo is a great student city and I can totally see myself working for a Dutch company in the future while enjoying life and gaining experience.

Where I see myself in ten years? No idea. And I don’t want to make these plans at this stage. However, there is a big chance that I will still be here, because The Netherlands has many more job opportunities in the logistics field. Cyprus is still trying to develop this field of expertise, while logistics already is a big part of the working environment here.

One issue that I do have trouble with throughout my time here, is the language barrier. I sure hope that it won’t become a bigger problem. Now I just do not have the time to study Dutch as well. The language barrier was already a thing while finding an internship as an international, so I wonder how this will go in the future.

But maybe it is only a worry for the near future. The fact that I want to find a job here, doesn’t mean that I will never return to Cyprus. At one point it will even make sense to go back, because that will put me in the right spot to improve the way of working there with my acquired knowledge.” [Noëlle van den Berg]