by Khairun Nisa Aziz

Created on: May 01, 2007

I am an international student studying in the United States. This is an awesome experience of studying abroad for me and I would like to share my experience with everyone, especially those who are interested to pursue studies abroad, anywhere in the world.

I have seen many people making the common mistakes when they were studying abroad and regret them later. When they return to their own country, their experience is pretty much the same as everyone else's. These mistakes are but not limited to:

1. They focused too much on studying and do not mix around or travel.
2. They traveled too much and did very bad in their studies.
3. If there are a lot of people from the same country, they tend to stick around with their own buddies.

Study abroad gives students the opportunity to learn others' culture, study in a different environment, see the world from a different perspective, make connections and of course, travel.

So, how to actually learn and live others' culture?

Usually in every country, they have an international student bodies which offer international student to join and attend cultural events. Go and join for at least once! Besides that, you could even visit your friends' houses during their traditional customs celebration and celebrate it too! During Thanksgiving last year, I went to my coach's house to celebrate Thanksgiving with her family-in-law. Since we didn't celebrate Thanksgiving in my country, it was a whole new experience for me. And there was such a HUGE turkey too!

How to study in a different environment?

Make some local friends and form a study group with them! From here, you could learn how differently they think from your own people. Share views and opinions with them and all of you will get benefit from it.

How to see the world from a different perspective?

Read the newspapers daily and subscribe to some magazines that you like! More often than not, newspapers write stories based on the country's point of view. So, you could compare the news written in the country you're studying in and the one you originate from. Try it and you'll see the difference. You could also join debate club if you love to talk and share your views.

How to make connections?

The hardest thing for an international student is to make connections. There are several reasons - language barrier, shyness, etc. Since the local people might be a bit shy to start up a conversation, you have to be the first one to say "hi!" and this will help you to build lasting friendship. Besides that, you could also join organized groups such as varsity athletes, choir, bands and clubs. As for me, I joined my university's fencing team and choir and I managed to make a lot of friends. Since we meet up almost everyday for training and prctices, we became very close!

Going travel!

Go travel! Don't lock yourself up in your room. But don't travel too much until you ruin your studies. Go travel during holidays and maybe one outing per month will not hurt your wallet. Besides, if you join varsity athlete team, you could go traveling for free! Since I am a fencer for my university, I have visited a lot of places in the United States such as Boston, Philadelphia and Virginia.

All in all, studying abroad is fun! We just have to know how to make the best out of it.

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