Ten Benefits of Traveling and Studying Abroad While You are Young
Going abroad is now easy to do for most Indonesians as the number of low-cost flight service (low cost carrier), flight ticket promo program, and the affordable accomodation rates increases. In terms of education, many scholarships are also offered, both from governmental and private institutions. More and more Indonesians are going abroad, both for traveling and studying purposes.
For the younger generations, going abroad is strongly recommended, especially for academic purpose. “(Studying-red) abroad will brighten your view and give you different perspective,” said Karen Vanessa C. Salamat, BINUS UNIVERSITY’s Library Manager, when opening a seminar entitled “Going Abroad” which was part of a series of event in BINUS Festival, Monday (7/12). In addition, traveling or studying overseas aims at broadening knowledge, opening up future career opportunities, and improving soft skills such as communication and problem solving.
In detail, Karen Vanessa explained ten benefits the younger generations may gain if they frequently travel or study abroad. Below are the benefits.
- Getting to Know New Cultures
By traveling or studying in a new country, we will have the chance to be directly in-touch with the local culture so that we can grasp the full picture of the country’s culture, with minimal bias stereotypes.
- Learning New Languages
Not every people in most countries speak fluent English. Such condition inevitably evoke the need to learn local language. “This condition trains our ability to survive because language is one of the ways to survive,” said Karen who comes from the Philippines.
- Value Added for the CV
Overseas activities, especially studying, will increase your bargaining power in the professional world. Many recruiters, whether foreign or domestic companies, tend to prefer employees with overseas experience because, generally, they have more ability than others in the same age.
- Developing Capabilities
Karen mentioned that traveling and studying abroad will develop skills because you have to adapt to new environment. To be able to adapt well to the surrounding environment, you must learn to do these well, such as communicating skill, ability to map places where you live and do your activities, and so on.
- Finding or Discovering Yourself
When you are in a foreign country far from comfort zone, you will have time to reflect and assess yourself. You will learn about yourself, how you can achieve the place and phase thus far, what you will do in the future following the completion of this phase.
- Changing Perspective about Your Origin
Traveling abroad exposes you to new things, driving yourself into comparation between your country of origin and the foreign land where you study or do other activities. This allows you to adopt new views or perspectives about the country you live in, whether its culture, natural resources, even its economic aspects. For instance, when you visit a country with minimal touristic or natural resources, you will realize how wealthy Indonesia is.
- Appreciating Difference and Diversity
Direct contact with a country’s local culture will enrich your view about it and reduce stereotypical biases usually raised by mass media. For example, media frequently views Islam associated with terror and violence. This makes countries with major Muslim population appear authoritarian and ruling their citizens with terror. Yet in fact, not every Muslim or country with Muslim majority is as described by media. Differences between views suggested in media and real situation will change those who get in-touch with certain culture to appreciating difference and diversity.
- Becoming Creative
Here the word creative is associated with creativity in problem solving. When you live in a foreign country, surely you must face many problems in your way to adaptation. Therefore your problem solving ability will improve.
- Becoming the World’s Future Leader
There are already examples of world leaders coming from Asia. For example, UN Secretary General from South Korea, Microsoft leader from India, and several others. The possibility to become world leader in many fields is opened wide in the future. Those with experience of traveling, living, or studying in other countries have higher opportunity to serve as team leader in various international organizations. For them as well, leading a team from differing countries and cultures is not so difficult because they have experience in establishing relationship with people from different backgrounds. “Working abroad is not only related to the level of intelligence, but also to the ability to communicate and socialize with other cultures,” said Karen.
- Life-Changing Experience
Studying and traveling abroad allow you the opportunity for life-changing experiences which may unpredictably reset your life direction.
