Will students benefit from studying abroad - Essay Example

Over the years, debates and questions have come up questioning the gains and losses that face by studying abroad. Because of the debates and arguments, as well as counterarguments, one side is bound to come up with the winning argument, which creates the basis of this essay. Intercultural development Students who get to study abroad stand the chance to develop on a massive scale in relation to intercultural development. Through their stay in foreign nations, students observe and understand the different cultures that people in the foreign country possess. This is concerning their total way of life in language, religion, morals, values and social relations (Dwyer and Peter 2). As such, these may be different from the cultural values from their parent country; thus studying abroad also the students to acquire new knowledge on how different people live, aside from the common knowledge that people live in different ways. This can be observed from a firsthand account as opposed to rote learning for the purpose of exams and common knowledge. The first hand experience adds to the knowledge of the students, on appreciation of other cultures and how to handle oneself, and watch his or her behavior and conduct in the foreign country and a new culture. In addition to intercultural development, students who go abroad to further their studies get an opportunity to share in the culture of new worlds and borrow aspects that may appear to appeal to the said students and inculcating them into their own cultures. This is a huge gain to the parent culture of the students and the students themselves, considering that they get a chance to choose the aspects they would like to see their culture adopt and implement. Through this, they become pioneers in their culture in creating reforms to improve their societies. In addition, to this, studying abroad allows students to share their own cultures with foreigner, a perfect opportunity to improve one’s skills in social relations. As such, they gain a higher sense of responsibility and possessiveness towards their own cultures as they get to share it. This is because they appear as experts in cultural issues from their mother nation, which builds self-esteem in the students a significant scale. In addition, studying abroad benefits students in that it acts as a revelation, where students get to see the world for what it is, rather than receiving guidance from others on how to perceive it (Crhanova 18). As a result, students become effective learners of the ways of the world concerning economic, political and social structures of both their host nation and their mother nation. Through this study-abroad experience, students gain by appreciating their own cultures and those of other s to the point that they can easily relate between the two cultures, or even more that they find between the countries in which they study. Appreciation of culture creates appropriate social relations between individuals as one comes to terms with the differences and similarities in the various systems found across the cultures. For example in the political culture of a nation, there are usually differences as different nations apply different systems of governance; thus students observe the two and adapt to the one belonging to the host country until they return to their respective nations. This allows students to build a culture of flexibility, where they can bend to fit into any society, meaning that intercultural development is a crucial development to the student studying abroad. Social relations created abroad are also observed to last for a long time, meaning that students who study abroad experience a wider clique of friends and acquaintances from a large social and cultural divide. Internships Students who go to further their studies in foreign nations, also known as abroad, have the opportunity to improve their careers through expanding the level of quality services and skills that they achieve in the foreign nations. As such, students abroad seeks internships in renowned companies, forms and other institutions that contribute significantly on their career development due to the services and products provided by the institutions. Students receive help from their campuses or respective institutions of learning in seeking employment, albeit temporary, as well as internships; thus reflecting well on their commitment to provide a solid future for their students. As a result, students are motivated to better abroad creating intrinsic motivation as they get a clear view of their future aspirations and current shortcomings (Tillman 7). Students abroad also get an advantage from their abroad experiences in that as they work during their internships, they receive recognition through different appraisal systems from the ones used in their home country. This means that if the appraisal system is lenient, then they end up receiving numerous accolades that add to the quality of their resumes. This is in addition to having international experiences, and abilities to handle international relations when they return to their home countries, or even get an opportunity to work in a completely new different country. A resume with international credentials stands a better chance against a local one, which means that students studying abroad gain significantly in their careers in regard to experience, formal and informal work relations, as well as skills in handling foreign relations with partners from the study-abroad host nation (Johnson and Mulholland 7). Independence Students studying in foreign countries gain independence from staying for long periods away from their comfort zones around their parents and guardians. Studying abroad takes students to unfamiliar territory in foreign lands away from what they believe to be a convention. By getting away from their families and friends, students learn to handle everything by themselves; starting from their needs to the problems and expectations of society. Through studying abroad, they are expected to provide for themselves and even find means of sustaining their stay in the foreign country if they are not on scholarship. Partial scholarship, especially, creates the need for independence; thus, students do not get the convenience or luxury of choice on independence. They strive to sustain themselves and meet their basic thanks to lack of comfort and a shoulder to lean on, creating a proper environment for independence. In this case, Independence referred to can be seen by students jobs for themselves where they seek to establish financial and career independence to create a solid base on which to stand on in the future. Independence can also be seen through the ways in which students come up with means to handle and cope with the troubles they face, where they do not have friends or known people with whom they have a guarantee of help. As a result, they are forced to create new social and economic relations with the people of the host nation in order to cater for the loss of ties with their mother nation, such as parents, friends, family, and even mentors. As a result, students studying abroad gain substantially in regard to independence and coping with everyday issues. Brain drain On the other hand, students do not entirely gain from studying abroad following the numerous challenges they face in the foreign lands. Studying abroad affects the student negatively, in respect to offering and rendering services to their mother nation, following the difficulty involved in finding their way back to the home nations. This is because they spend extended periods away from home acquiring and perfecting their skills to the point that the host nations turn into their new comfort zones. As a result, the urge to resume their normal lives with new skills and abilities to serve their fellow citizens diminishes, as they are tempted to continue their comfortable lives in the foreign nations. In addition, some countries develop or hone the skills of students with the goal of retaining them to suit their purposes of developing their own nations rather than releasing them back to their homelands (Oosterbeek and Webbink 341). Participating in educational programmers that require students to travel abroad deprive students of a crucial sense of patriotism as they lose an enormous amount of pride by working for a foreign nation while their homeland remains languishing in lack of skilled labor and even specialists in areas with a limited workforce (Parey and Waldinger 194). From studying abroad, students lose their cultural appreciation, which is in contrast to the earlier mentioned cultural appreciation as living for long periods away from home degrades cultural values in favor of new values from the host country. Students are sucked into the new culture entirely or borrow aspects that they see as appealing while forgetting their own. This contributes greatly to moral degradation amongst students who go to study in foreign lands, once they resume their normal lives in their homelands. In addition, some students are denied the chance to resume their normal lives by companies that recruit them from the time they enroll in educational intuitions. As a result, they are bound legally denying them a chance at independence and living their lives as they find appealing by serving their fellow citizens in the home nations. In conclusion, students who study abroad stand a chance to gain and lose at the same time, but it all depends on the perspective from which one views it. As such, by studying abroad, the gains are more than the losses, meaning that overall, they stand to gain, rather than lose. Works cited Dwyer, Mary and Peters, Courtney. The Benefits of Study Abroad: New Study Confirms Significant Gains. n.d. Web. 5 Dec. 2012. Johnson, Victor and Mulholland, Janice. Open Doors, Secure Borders: Advantages of Education Abroad for Public Policy. Front Lines. 2006. Web. 5 Dec. 2012. Crhanova, Irena. Some of the Main Benefits of Study Abroad. MASARYK UNIVERSITY. PDF file. 2007. Web. 5 Dec. 2012. Tillman, Martin. Impact of Education Abroad on Career Development: Volume 1. n.d. Web. 5 Dec. 2012. Oosterbeek, Hessel, and Dinand Webbink. "Does Studying Abroad Induce A Brain Drain?." Economica 78.310 (2011): 347-366. Business Source Premier. Web. 5 Dec. 2012. Parey, Matthias, and Fabian Waldinger. "Studying Abroad And The Effect On International Labour Market Mobility: Evidence From The Introduction Of ERASMUS." Economic Journal 121.551 (2011): 194-222. Business Source Premier. Web. 5 Dec. 2012. Read More