Globalization is changing the way the world works, and employers are increasingly looking for workers who have cross-cultural competence and cutting-edge technical skills.
Have you
considered studying abroad, but are not sure whether it's worth your
time? If you ask anybody who has studied abroad, he or she will most certainly
tell you that it is a life-changing experience and one of the most rewarding
things he or she has ever done. Perhaps you're not certain what benefits you
can reap from an extended stay in a foreign country. Here are 10 very excellent
reasons why you should take the plunge:
1. Study abroad is the optimal way to
learn a language. There is no
better and more effective way to learn a language than to be immersed in a
culture that speaks the language you are learning. You're surrounded by the
language on a daily basis and are seeing and hearing it in the proper cultural
context. Language learning happens most quickly under these circumstances.
2. Study abroad provides the
opportunity to travel. Weekends and academic breaks allow you to venture out and explore your
surroundings - both your immediate and more distant surroundings. Since
studying abroad often puts you on a completely different continent, you are
much closer to places you might otherwise not have had the opportunity to
visit. Some more structured study abroad programs even have field trips planned
in or around the curriculum.
3. Study abroad allows you get to know
another culture first-hand. Cultural differences are more than just differences in language, food,
appearances, and personal habits. A person's culture reflects very deep
perceptions, beliefs, and values that influence his or her way of life and the
way that s/he views the world. Students who experience cultural differences
personally can come to truly understand where other cultures are coming from.
4. Study abroad will help you develop
skills and give you experiences a classroom setting will never provide. Being immersed in an entirely new
cultural setting is scary at first, but it's also exciting. It's an opportunity
to discover new strengths and abilities, conquer new challenges, and solve new
problems. You will encounter situations that are wholly unfamiliar to you and
will learn to adapt and respond in effective ways.
5. Study abroad affords you the
opportunity to make friends around the world. While abroad, you will meet not only natives to the
culture in which you are studying, but also other international students who
are as far from home as yourself.
6. Study abroad helps you to learn
about yourself. Students
who study abroad return home with new ideas and perspectives about themselves
and their own culture. The experience abroad often challenges them to
reconsider their own beliefs and values. The experience may perhaps strengthen
those values or it may cause students to alter or abandon them and embrace new
concepts and perceptions. The encounter with other cultures enables students to
see their own culture through new eyes.
7. Study abroad expands your worldview. In comparison with citizens of
most other countries, Americans tend to be uninformed about the world beyond
the nation's boundaries. Students who study abroad return home with an informed
and much less biased perspective toward other cultures and peoples.
8. Study abroad gives you the
opportunity to break out of your academic routine. Study abroad is likely to be much
unlike what you are used to doing as a student. You may become familiar with an
entirely new academic system and you will have the chance to take courses not
offered on your home campus. It's also a great opportunity to break out the
monotony of the routine you follow semester after semester.
9. Study abroad enhances employment
opportunities. Did you
know that only 4% of U.S. undergraduates ever study abroad? Yet, the world
continues to become more globalized, American countries
10. Study abroad can enhance the value
of your degree. While
abroad, you can take courses you would never have had the opportunity to take
on your home campus. In addition, study abroad gives your language skills such
a boost that it is normally quite easy to add a minor in a language or even a
second major without having to take many more additional courses after the return
to your home campus.
If studying abroad is a good idea for you, then read about where to study and check our list of scholarships that can finance your study abroad.
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