In recent years, there has been a lot of negative news about international students: campus bullying, excessive display of wealth, lavishness, contamination with drugs, suicide by jumping into the sea, “sea turtles (return) to kelp (waiting)”, the declining age of studying abroad, and the weak ability of some international students to withstand pressure, etc. , which makes people doubtful about studying abroad. In recent years, social problems such as shooting incidents in the United States and the dark cloud of terrorist attacks in Europe have made the environment for studying abroad even worse.
However, none of these can stop the pace of Chinese studying abroad one after another. China has become the world’s largest exporter of overseas students. “The world is so big, I want to see it” is still the wish of many young people and their parents.
Therefore, in popular countries for studying abroad, whether it is a metropolis or a large rural area, you will find the immature faces of many young compatriots.
Excessive praise or excessive devaluation of studying abroad is demonizing study abroad
Too much touted or too much depreciation of the United States is actually demonizing the United States. In response to the Zhang Yingying incident, some media put forward the argument that “don’t bring the sense of security of domestic late-night stringing to the United States”. The article focuses on mentioning, “Let students who are going abroad know that the United States is a country completely different from China and has a very high crime rate.”
It is believed that the original intention of writing this article is to provide safety experience for international students. However, I really disagree with this bold statement. Is “Late Night Squeeze” really a measure of safety?
Similarly, over-praising or over-denigrating studying abroad is actually demonizing studying abroad.
Although the image of some international students who are ignorant and madly showing off their wealth is surprising, but in a diversified society, no one can speak for a group. If there is, it is also “represented”. There are also all kinds of students in domestic colleges and universities, but it is always the magnifying glass that observes international students.
Studying abroad may seem glamorous, but there are many unspeakable hardships behind it. For most students, studying abroad is equivalent to “jumping the queue”. Many people have learned to be strong and courageous in the process. Of course, the most important thing is to have a sense of responsibility.
The moment they leave the Chinese customs, they should realize that they can only be responsible for themselves in the next road.
In China, they walk while looking at their mobile phones. After going abroad, they learned to observe the surrounding environment, and even went to learn taekwondo to protect themselves. Introverted and timid people are uncomfortable without friends. Later, they traveled around 20 countries in Europe alone. In the past, they spent a lot of money. , work in restaurants to earn living expenses; willful and reckless, slowly learn to talk about “sorry”, “cheers” and “no worries”; stubborn and self-reliant, gradually learn to listen to different voices and accept different opinions… Through “foreign jumping in the queue”, many pampered Chinese students have become social people with independent spirits.
Do you think studying abroad is like traveling? Naive!
In the past, many people called studying abroad “gold-plated”, but now it may not even count as gold-plated, at best it is travel!
In fact, studying abroad is by no means easy. Academics, language, interpersonal relationships, living habits, and cultural shocks are all “four hundred blows” that constitute various pressures for international students. There is a saying in the study abroad circle: “Sleep, study, and social interaction, you can only have two.” And the most terrible thing is that if you want to overcome all of these, you can’t be in a hurry.
The language challenge is a fatal blow to all international students. In China, you may be a student who easily scored 8th grade and 8th IELTS score, but when you first come abroad, let’s not talk about debating with locals in class, just order an order at a fast food restaurant and quarrel with the landlord. All will find that their English proficiency has been reduced to slag. The obscure accent, the common local slang, and the various usages of many words will make you feel like you have opened a new world in minutes, and at the same time make you soberly aware of your proud “specialty”, in fact, Just sit back and watch the sky.
There are of course many academic challenges. Those who only play games and do not study will really be expelled because of poor grades; plagiarism? That is the death penalty of “killing without forgiveness”. Don’t imagine that two bottles of Maotai and two pieces of Zhonghua will be able to solve the problem for your mentor.
But don’t think that as long as you silently answer the questions and write the paper, you can live a quiet life. Foreign classrooms attach great importance to the “classroom discussion” link. If you can’t say why because you haven’t read the reading materials or have no ideas, you will feel ashamed even if your teachers and classmates don’t say anything. What’s more, your foreign classmates are not like the movies at all, they are all very real “grinning goblins”.
In such an environment, even if you just study abroad with the idea of having fun at first, in order to live up to your parents’ expectations or just get a diploma, you still have to work hard – read the material day and night, and you can’t understand it. I have to look up the dictionary while stammering; I eat three cups of coffee a day, so that after graduation, in order to live a hundred years, I dare not drink coffee again in my life; after class, I just squat in the library of an unknown century and write a paper , do assignment. These are the real “normal conditions” for international students.
When you get through all this, when you chat with your best friend, it’s Feuerbach and Foucault, and when you find yourself speaking in a pretentious British or American accent, you will find that studying abroad really “forces” you Learned a lot. This is also the main reason why many Chinese students do everything possible to study abroad. Only by throwing yourself into that unfamiliar environment can you constantly break through yourself.
Studying abroad can provide you with “another possibility”
Of course, studying abroad is good and bad, but there are many experiences that you may not really appreciate if you don’t study abroad.
Students in a class may come from more than a dozen countries around the world (if you are a business or media major, I didn’t say that), want to know about Iraq and Azerbaijan? The class meeting is the “General Assembly of the United Nations.” Going to Africa to do fieldwork (field research), sitting on the ground with the villagers, chatting and laughing with the officials… It’s not a problem.
As soon as the weekend arrives, domestic friends are still debating whether to go to Suzhou or Hangzhou. You have already clicked the mouse and bought the air tickets to Paris tomorrow, Berlin next week, and Rome next month. Go to Iceland to watch the aurora in winter, go to the Cote d’Azur to sunbathe in summer, go to the fashion circle when you have time, and go to UNESCO to pose for photos when you are in a good mood… If you send it to your circle of friends, you will get countless likes.
Studying abroad will make your world map bigger and bigger. Although it can’t guarantee that you will find a better job after returning to China, and you can’t use mathematical formulas to calculate investment and return, it can provide you with “another possibility” – making you a world person with an international perspective , a man with an open mind.
Traveling around 30 countries in the world is not as good as studying in a certain country for a period of time. Only when you have really studied and lived in “elsewhere” will you really have all kinds of profound connections with the local society: apply for bank cards, pay rent, shop around to buy things, and all kinds of unavoidable misunderstandings and disputes… Only In this way, we can clearly understand all aspects of the world.
Of course, if you have read so much of the above, the reader father, you are still eager to ask the tacit “old-fashioned talk” – is it worth it to sell a house to study abroad?
Then I have to report the mysterious smile: then you should keep the room!
