You are here: Home / Archives for France

Take The Chance To Study Abroad!

Studying abroad is an experience that you can’t fake or replace. There are very few people who get the chance to learn a trade or study their major in a foreign land amongst a new culture. You may have heard about this at your university and thought about doing it, but haven’t for one reason or another. You should consider changing your tune. There is a lot that can be accomplished by studying in another country.

Even if you are planning to go on to get an MBA after getting your undergraduate degree, you should look into this once in a lifetime experience. You can always return later and focus on getting into a business graduate program. Those days will be full of stress, studying things like payday cash advance, taking GMAT prep courses and finding ways to afford your MBA program. That is why you should enjoy the chance now to travel and study abroad.

The other advantage to going abroad for a semester or more is that you can learn a different take on your perspective career. Even if you are looking into finance and a MBA in finance, you could possible find that you wish to focus in international finance. And if you want to study abroad and still start preparing for taking the GMAT, you can now take many preparatory courses and practice tests online while you are abroad.

The other thing has to do with the extra credit your university will sometimes give you to spend a semester abroad. They realize that the experience is worth more than just the in class credits. They will be more than willing to give you credit towards your major. It’s an opportunity you don’t want to miss. So do not let future worries about your graduate degree deter you. You can do both.

Filed Under: Foreign Exchange Programs, Online Education Tagged With: , ,

Things to Learn While Studying Abroad in Europe

A study abroad program offers opportunities for international learning and collaborative learning that other venues, such as online learning, cannot hope to provide.  While study abroad programs are often touted for their ability to expand a student’s worldview, the small things that have a great impact on how students live while abroad are often overlooked.  Here, then, is a short list of things U.S. students rarely expect to learn – but always do – when studying abroad in Europe.

  • Learn to live with strangers. Many students decide to study or travel abroad in Europe on a budget, so they often book space in student hostels.  Hostels are often a major culture shock for Americans, who are used to having a great deal of personal space.  Fortunately, hostel living – no matter how exciting or frightening it may seem at the time – always provides a student with great stories to tell when he or she gets back to the states.
  • Figure out public transportation. Nearly every U.S. student learns to drive a car as a teenager.  However, unless a student is from a major metropolitan area that relies on public transportation, such as New York City, he or she may find the public transportation systems in Europe baffling at best.  There’s a special learning experience to be had in traveling among several European countries via Eurail, which seems to have different rules in each country – from pinpoint punctuality in Switzerland to laissez-faire “oh, sometime today” service in Italy to efficient but regularly on-strike – and therefore nonexistent – service in France.
  • Try “American” food in other countries. For better or worse, globalization means it’s now possible to eat McDonalds hamburgers in France and drink Starbucks coffee in Germany – and in many other European countries.  Often, study abroad students try these chains out of homesickness as much as curiosity, yet they’re never quite the same as they are in the United States.
Filed Under: Specialty Studies, Traveling Abroad Tagged With: , ,

Choosing a Destination for Travel – Can you Communicate Well?

ContentMany people would like to experience another culture and travel internationally, but they are unsure where they should go. Your obvious choices would include countries in which you can speak the language. There are many countries where the people can speak multiple languages. For instance, you are from France and speak French, you may be more comfortable traveling to Canada than to China because French is a very commonly language in Canada.

If you are hoping to gain college credit while traveling you will want to make sure that classes will be offered in a language you can comfortably learn. It can be extra hard to learn a new subject, in an unfamiliar environment without adding the pressure of not being able to fully understand your teacher and fellow students.
If you want to travel to a country that speaks a language that is not native to you, you will want to spend significant time and effort in learning their language before visiting. It isn’t always necessary to know every grammatical rule so much as learning how to speak basic conversational phrases and understand what people may be saying to you. You may also want to study words having to do with food, especially if you have allergies or religious food restrictions.

Another option is visiting a country that may not speak your language natively but that a great majority of the residents can speak conversationally. In many Asian countries, English is learned in school so most of the residents can at least carry on a conversation with someone who speaks English well.

Communication is very important, and will make the difference between an enjoyable trip and one where you constantly feel stressed out. Don’t let your desire to travel make you choose a destination where you will spend the entire time being uncomfortable and not having your basic needs met because of communication barriers.

Filed Under: Foreign Exchange Programs, International Credits Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

To the Top