Five Challenges of Studying Abroad

Top five Challenges of Studying Abroad

For those of you who dream of learning abroad, you’re probably thinking it will be a simple transition. Therefore for those of you who commit to studying overseas, here are 5 challenges of learning abroad to be prepared for when applying, transitioning to, and living in a new country.

1. Dealing with cultural misunderstandings

As a foreigner, you do not apprehend the native culture and all those unwritten rules (hopefully you've got a plan of the written rules) of your host nation. Let's get one factor straight: you'll create mistakes, and many may be awkward. Don't be embarrassed; learn from cultural misunderstandings and don't make them again. Again, given a year roughly, you'll get to recognize know all these very little unspoken agreements.

One example is that the quantity of pressure you must place into a handshake; this varies considerably from country to country. In the US, a firm if the not painful handshake is customary. An individual with a non-bone-crushing handshake will be seen as weak. An equivalent doesn't work in many parts of Europe or Asia, wherever somebody with a vice-like handshake may be perceived as rude or overbearing.

An easy way to avoid several cultural misunderstandings is to look at what others do, and how they are doing it. If in any doubt, simply ask! You'll realize the general public is happy to talk about their customs and can relish sharing their insider information with you.

2. Getting used to currency differences

Getting used to currency variations is additionally a difficult method.

Make sure you work out a fast conversion system for yourself; therefore you'll mentally make out prices when shopping for things, and get to know the "normal" value for staple things – that is. Ask locals what proportion they might expect to pay.

Like most of the challenges of studying abroad, currency variations are one amongst those things that don't extremely hurt if you're only visiting for a short time, however, will have a giant impact if you're staying for a semester or more. Don't pay Euros as if they were dollars!

3. Feeling like an outsider

Regardless of what country you're from, and what country you're attending to, it's nearly sure that you'll find yourself feeling like an ‘outsider' at least a number of the time. You'll end up questioning why your coffee invariably appears to price more than the locals', or why everyone's laughing when you didn't realize anyone had told a joke.

In most countries it's unlikely that you'll be deliberately made to feel uncomfortable or unwanted, however, it will still be exhausting initially, trying to induce to grips with new cultural norms.

Don't let this discourage you. Nearly everyone I have ever met while learning abroad has been terribly encouraging and friendly, and whereas I'll never become really "one of them", eventually this drawback becomes smaller and smaller.

4. Being far away from your support network

Living abroad is awesome… when everything goes well. However, when the heavens appear to conspire against you, you'll extremely feel on your own. Your usual ‘support network' of family and friends are lots of if not thousands of miles away. Even though you weren't previously aware of how necessary they were, now is when you'll conclude.

This challenge is likely to be felt most importantly true for the primary few months of learning abroad. But then, you'll build up a replacement support network and after a year about, everything will be OK!

5. Overcoming the language barrier

This is probably the most obvious of the challenges of learning abroad. Overcoming a language barrier could mean you're struggling to learn a new language pretty much from scratch, or it may simply be that you thought you were fluent, however, realize you're unable to grasp the strong local accent.

Even if you're studying in a country where you speak the same language, there are alternative hurdles to clear. Let's say, slang phrases that are popular or hip will seem strange. For non-Americans (or non-Californians) the words "insane", "balling", "radical" and "intense" have nothing in common. Except for locals, all can be used to mean "awesome".

So the words that students use are planning to be tough to find out, however, the barrier drawback conjointly goes away pretty quickly, once you're immersed.

This might sound like an intimidating list, however, don't worry! It sounds considerably tougher than it truly is. The phrase "having failed your way to success" comes to mind. I feel all the people that have studied abroad will relate to that statement. From university applications to finding an area to stay and identifying the social norms, we have all been unsuccessful in some if not all of those respects.

But when you come out the challenges, everything will work out.

Have you encountered any of those challenges of learning abroad? Share your expertise within the comments below.