The World is Waiting

So, apparently, this was supposed to be a half page blow off assignment. I didn't know.


The World is Waiting
Three Reasons to Study Abroad

In recent years it has been stated to exhaustion that knowledge of foreign cultures is particularly important to maximize the financial earnings of business dealings abroad as globalization speeds up. This point is not to be discarded. However, I would urge anyone who is considering studying abroad on such terms alone, or who has rejected the idea because such terms are not in his case applicable, to reconsider all of the positive effects that such an experience can have on a person’s life.
In the movie Pocahontas, the title character says, “If you walk the footsteps of a stranger, you’ll learn things you never knew you never knew.” This quote is very true about studying abroad. Students who study abroad overwhelmingly report that they gain a new and more global worldview, learn more about themselves, and develop as people; even as they increase their career skills and marketability.
Spending a good length of time in a foreign country, particularly as an ordinary inhabitant (in this case, a student) develops an undeniable connection with that place. A student who has studied abroad will carry their memories and experiences their whole lives. They will immediately be set apart from the stereotypical American who can hardly find his own country on the map – they will be able to find both of theirs. By spending time in a second culture, and often a second language, they have learned a lot about what is universal and what can vary across the world, and why.
If getting to know only one additional way of life was not enough, in most situations, students studying abroad have the opportunity to live with other foreign students, therefore immersing themselves not only in the culture of the host countries but of their new classmates as well. As they go through their daily lives in such an environment, they learn far more about these other countries and cultures than they ever would in a classroom.
Anyone who has ever had a close friend from another country knows how much even one personal relationship can reshape one’s mental map of the world. My experiences with foreigners both in America and abroad have put a face on Mexico, Chile, Iraq, Finland, China, Japan, Costa Rica, Norway, Iran, and many other countries; faces that help me to understand that the interactions between nations affect real people, whose hopes, dreams, and beliefs are not mindlessly and definitively altered by national boundary lines, but are unique to each individual the world over.
Ask most adults whether they studied abroad in college. Most will sigh wistfully as they admit, “I wish that I had.” Perhaps they have learned in the years since that such an experience would have broadened their horizons or helped them adapt to globalization. If you let them continue, however, they will speak of friends who did study abroad, and came back different. Studying abroad changes people, and, according to a survey from IES, overwhelmingly for the better.
The voluntary survey of students who studied abroad (including semester, year, and summer programs), reports that 96% of such students believed that the experience increased their self confidence, 97% believe that it served as a catalyst for increased maturity, and 95% believe it had a lasting impact on their world view. I can say from personal experience that even a shorter experience abroad can change your life.
When someone travels, they take a break from their ordinary routine, and their minds expand. In another place, they are so far removed from everything they know… including those things that held them back from reaching their full potential. . If you had asked me, from my safe St. Louis home or even from my comfy dorm room, how I would react to sitting in a room heated to 195 degrees, and then jumping into the fifty degree waters of the Baltic sea, or to being dropped off at a rural Norwegian house to wait six hours for a lady I had never met, or to taking a Costa Rican bus alone in a community with no addresses... I wouldn’t have been able to imagine it. But these things happened, I survived, and I grew.
Studying abroad affords many opportunities unknown to the average tourist. Another thing which differentiates the experience from common tourism is that it can also be immensely beneficial to the student’s career. Many interviewers for jobs are particularly interested in any time a student has spent abroad. This is because such an experience gives capable students the chance to flourish under unusual and often more difficult situations – a skill that is richly rewarded in most career tracks.
If the study abroad experience involves a language other than English, then it also serves as an excellent chance to become fluent in a second language. In today’s job market, applicants with more than one language are a top commodity. Learning a foreign language in your home university is certainly worth the effort, but your ability to use the language in normal situations and conversations will improve drastically if you give yourself the chance to be immersed in it.
It’s also worth mentioning that not only is the general study abroad experience extremely beneficial, but that valuable lessons can also be gleaned from the ordinary classes attended at the host university. Their way of teaching American history, for example, may give an aspiring journalist an entirely different perspective. And perhaps they will show a young artist a fresh new way of looking at the world.
Some students study abroad to learn valuable lessons about the world they live in. Others hope to find themselves in a place far away from home, or to increase their career prospects. I would suggest that any study abroad experience would inevitably incorporate all three of these legitimate motives. Regardless of their initial motives, all of them will have stories for a lifetime.