Secrets of Study Abroad

This is an article I wrote for the newsletter of the study abroad office. It didn't make it in time to get published but I enjoyed writing it. I've come a long way this year and I wrote this in 15 minutes (it was longer) because I felt like I had ALOT to share. 

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After studying abroad in Argentina, Peru, and Spain, I’ve gathered some knowledge about study abroad. I’m definitely not an expert on the matter but I do have some advice, some of which I need to take myself. These tips are not revolutionary but they come from abroad and are well worth repeating.

10. Learn a new language or skill. This is an obvious one for study abroad but I feel it’s worth stating. Learning something new while you’re abroad is one of the best ways to expand your mind and measure your progress.

9. Immerse yourself. This seems like something easily done. You’re in the country right? Sometimes it’s really easy to find things from home and cling to them because they’re familiar. I’m not saying drown in the culture and forget your own, but study abroad is about trying new things and getting out of your comfort zone.

8. Be honest with yourself. This is something I struggle with constantly. At certain points in every study abroad experience there comes a point where you feel like you’re not improving as fast as you thought you would even though you’re doing everything right. This feeling comes for me almost every week. I have to ask myself if I’m being honest because If I am then maybe I’ll realize that I’m not giving 100% by speaking too much English with friends or watching too many American tv shows on line.

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7. Forget your friends. It’s a scary thought but I don’t mean your friends at home. I mean the American friends that you meet abroad from your program. This goes along with immersing yourself. It’s great to meet new people but don’t hang out with your new friends all at once all the time. I’ve made great friends with people of my programs but I try to keep the groups small and hang out with people with similar goals as mine i.e. people who speak Spanish.

6. Resist the temptation to jet set. This is especially important to those of us on the European continent. Europe is so popular with study abroad because every country is the gateway to all the other countries. Be careful with this though. While it does seem easy and harmless to travel somewhere new every weekend, you risk not forming a bond with your homestay family and others you’ve met. I have plans to travel within Spain but I try to resist the urge to go to Italy, Greece and other dream destinations because I prefer to stay in the city. My philosophy is this: This is not the last time I’ll be in Europe but I may never get to experience living in Sevilla, as a sevillana, again.

5. Remember the beginning and reflect often. Learning Spanish, in spanish, has been one of the most challenging things in my life. Last semester I didn’t feel like I was improving and I felt like my spanish was only getting worse. But then I thought about how far I’ve come from the beginning. When I left Argentina I needed help to write a thank you paragraph. In Peru, people had to speak slowly and clearly for me to understand and repeat often. Now I’m in Spain taking classes in Spanish and I’ve even had to do a presentation. I can relax a little bit when I think about my progress on a larger scale and not just weekly or daily.

4. Cut yourself some slack. I used to be really timid when speaking Spanish because I can’t roll my r’s and sometimes I can’t conjugate verbs fast enough. I wasted a lot of time trying to think sentences perfectly before speaking them. I realized that the Peruvians and Spaniards don’t expect me to be perfect. They understand and respect that this is not my first language and that I’m going to make mistakes. Once I realized that they accepted this, I accepted it. Sometimes it’s good to think before you speak but for me it’s better to just speak, even if I tell a story about last year completely in present tense.

3. Make a commitment. So you’re immersed, honest, and learning, you would think the commitment has been made. I don’t speak Spanish all day, every day (the mind needs a break) but I’ve committed myself to speak Spanish as often as possible. It’s really easy to be studying abroad and not improve because you only speak english with friends and haven’t made the effort to speak Spanish at other times. I don’t want June to get here and know that I didn’t reach my maximum potential because English is more “comfortable.”

2. Don’t be afraid to adapt. This goes for everyone and everything, especially food. In the states I’m a picky eater and don’t eat a lot of meat. In Peru and Spain both of my  host moms gave me compliments about what a great eater I am because I always finish my food and don’t complain. Fat jokes aside, I’ve adapted to food customs. It’s not that I love the food but I’m adapting. Some of my favorite foods are foods that I looked at and didn’t think I would like them. Adapt. Even walking down the street can be difficult. In Peru my friends and I were confused about how to walk on the sidewalk. We thought Peruvians were “rude” because they didn’t walk on “their” side of the street so we thought that eventually we would collide. Once we adapted, we realized that there would be no collision and that many people would smile and say hello as our shoulders brushed. They move a little and you move a little to accommodate each other on the street.

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