Studying Abroad

I headed to the United States of America, for my master degree in Information Assurance at the Wilmington University in August 2015. Though my course was for a short span of time, I got enough time to understand the culture and the environment of a student life abroad.  To begin with, living and studying abroad is any adventurous in itself, which teaches you many things in life beyond the course one is studying. A sense of responsibility along with independence and freedom is what studying abroad brings in every student. With the passing of each day, new lessons are learnt which helps the student be more open to diverse ideas, diverse cultures (Llanes & Muñoz, 2013).  Living in a foreign country can teach you how differently a routine thing can be done in a different cultural environment. A student who has received education in a foreign country will have a better understanding of different cultures and ideas and will be more comfortable working with people of different cultures and backgrounds compared to a student who has just learnt about different cultures from books and internet.  Another benefit here is when students studies abroad, they express their cultural ideas to the locals in another country, which makes the student reflective about both his homeland culture along with learning a new culture. A student who has experienced life abroad will have a better and a broader perspective on life. Learning different customs both the local and regarding education of another country leads to different experiences, exposures and personal development in the student. Involvement and interactions with people of different race, colour and creed, help the student to be a better team-player and a more efficient problem-solver (Stroud, 2010).

Another significant benefit of studying abroad is an opportunity to learn the local language of the concerned country in which the student studies.  The best way to learn the language is to observe the locals and communicate in the local language with them. In my case, the Wilmington University offered a separate language program to students who were from different countries. I joined the same program, and as I improved my hold in the local language, I got my first job in America (Kinginger, 2011).

 The student visa in America allows part-time jobs while you are studying; therefore, I was selected for an “ON-Campus” placement as an assistance to a profession who was writing a book. My job was to research the material he needed to complete his book. As the book was related to the course I was pursuing, my academics helped me with the job and in benefited both financially as well as academically through this job.  Although working while studying can be quite hectic, it teaches a student the importance of time management when a student balanced between studying and working. However, my academic goal was to excel in my master degree, and my first job just helped my get closer to that goal as while researching for the professor who I assisted, my knowledge increased immensely along with the guidance of the professor which made me a better student with increased grades (Cottrell, 2011). 

However, my personal experience in studying abroad tells that different educational systems have different ways of training the students. It is for the student to overcome the diversity which studying abroad brings with it and to adapt and observe the different culture, language and ideas of the new country to help the student grow in every aspect of life, learn new languages and have a broad outlook of the world (Pedersen, 2015).

Reference List

Cottrell, S. (2011). Critical thinking skills: Developing effective analysis and argument. Palgrave Macmillan.

Kinginger, C. (2011). Enhancing language learning in study abroad. Annual review of applied linguistics, 31, 58-73.

Llanes, À., & Muñoz, C. (2013). Age effects in a study abroad context: Children and adults studying abroad and at home. Language Learning, 63(1), 63-90.

Pedersen, P. B., Lonner, W. J., Draguns, J. G., Trimble, J. E., & Scharron-del Rio, M. R. (2015). Counseling across cultures. Sage Publications.

Stone, M. J., & Petrick, J. F. (2013). The educational benefits of travel experiences a literature review. Journal of Travel Research, 52(6), 731-744.

Stroud, A. H. (2010). Who plans (not) to study abroad? An examination of US student intent. Journal of Studies in International Education.