How Studying Abroad Changes the Personality of a Student

Acknowledgment

This research was proudly supported by Emirates National Schools, the researcher is grateful and thankful for the opportunity they had provided with this research that astoundingly gained a lot of more knowledge for the researcher. The hard-working researcher would like to acknowledge with respect and appreciation her mentor Ms. Rana for helping her through the obstacles that she faced throughout choosing her topic wisely and guiding her through the whole process from the start till the very end. As well, the researcher would like to acknowledge and thank her friend in class, for helping her write the questions properly and in a good format. In addition to that, she would also like to acknowledge and thank all the participants and students who answered her questions which worked perfectly well for gaining the information the researcher needed to write her essay, for that the research had an outstanding amazing result.

Introduction

“You will depend less on other people and start believing in yourself” (Fabian). Nowadays, considering the circumstances of globalization and the exchanges that are happening more and more certainly regularly. All kinds of different information that someone may look around for the world can be easily accessed than before with technology taking over the world. However, as far as it gets studying outside the home nation still remains the most effective way. Through the learning experience students can directly sense and see what their country has done and likely approach to a new state of mind. During studying abroad students live in the real environment of the country they went to study in and sense directly how things are operated. There are many various different aspects of studying abroad. The first and one of the main reasons for studying abroad is learning, gathering, and gaining knowledge. Moreover, while studying abroad is a huge chance to consider in exploring and looking through in detail more about people, their culture, landscape, the world of a foreign country that the student is studying in.

An important period that could be in a person’s life is studying outside their home country. This experience of studying abroad mainly contains lots of personal development and exposure. Accordingly, during research that was conducted by expert researchers, they have mentioned that it can have a deep effect on the students because students from different countries around the world all came to one specific place with having different backgrounds, cultures, and diverse schools of contemplations. They manage to discover new methods and ways of research and study when they study together. While studying abroad the student must be prepared in all such cases as it is a fun and exciting experience to go through however the student must be very cautious of all types of dangers that they may face. During the process of studying abroad at some point it would change a person’s view, but with how it would change depends on each student since everyone is different from the other, of how they think, what they already maintained in their lives, their skills, and a range of different standards. Another major effect that can happen to students in developing themselves. While traveling alone they experience the feeling of living alone and independently. By then, they will learn without their family support how to make their own decisions and choices. They tend to see new places all around which causes their thoughts to be broadened. In addition to that, they would usually experience a whole new different education system than the one they were used to. It leads to having a successful life when all these things make them more powerful, strong, and confident. New places always tend to provide new research facilities where students can do their own personal research work and create a lot of possibilities for themselves. Sometimes a few practical and theoretical contraptions that are not available at a student’s home nation can be provided at a new institute where it helps students in their research.

Furthermore, another skill student learns when they share interests with the other students is learning new languages. As stated by the Pol Research Center, they found that resentfully only 28 percent of the American adults were found out that they can speak another language other than their own language which is English and only about 6 percent of those specifical adults learned that language in school rather than their own homes. Compared to the 88% of the Asian students who are studying and learning the English language, U.S. students are sadly unprepared to interact meaningfully interact with other competitors and colleagues from all around the world. Along with that, some studies have outstandingly shown that study who study outside their home country made a greater gain in language accomplishment and proficiency than those students who have studied the exact same language in schools or any learning places domestically. Besides, there also still remain many difficulties for studying abroad, namely the differences between two cultures, linguistic challenges, and many other challenges and difficulties which can happen when studying abroad. But the researcher thinks these difficulties can be defeated for the long-term goal of learning. These tough challenges can even urge them to study better which they can take an advantage of. In short, studying abroad is a really exciting experience in learning knowledge and exploring the world.

A standout amongst the most unmistakable advantages of examining abroad is the procurement of unknown dialect abilities. In a study that was managed by the British University of Yal, researchers tested the British students’ achievements on the TIF, which is a diagnostic exam that is used to assess randomly international students’ French abilities. Before and after one term of their study abroad experience. The researchers have found that the student's overall score improved remarkably by 42%. There is no greater way to learn a new language than when your life depends on it. For example, when you order something to eat or ask for directions to a place if you were lost.

Besides learning the close by language, students have a one of a kind chances to fully take in an alternate culture. According to a study conducted by Sinyt T. Mendilsona, a program director at Internal Academic Programs (IAP), numerous students that are studying abroad in Spain expressed their hopes of seeing the local culture from a different point of view. But when they got the chance to return home after completing the years of studying abroad and graduating, one of their biggest regrets was that they hadn’t interacted with locals as much as they had hoped to do so. If the students' time studying abroad is limited, the advice is to seize the remaining moments and to make local friends in order to maximize the whole lovely experience. Research has shown that people who live in a culture different from their own go through a cycle of emotional adjustment that ranges from a usual phase they are used to it to a culture shock. When you first meet up the touch base in your own nation, you'll be psyched to start your examination abroad experience, however, after some time, you may begin to feel twinges of achiness to visit the family. Respondents to the IAP study reported that they missed their desires of their own food, language, and customs of their home country and all the things that they had once taken for granted. A student who experienced the life of studying abroad her name is Kristenna Nehlas states that “Madrid changed everything. And when I say it changed everything, I mean everything as in my worldview, sense of confidence, the direction in life, major in college, choice of social circles, language abilities, even my educational drive...” (Overseas).

The independent variable of the researcher’s testable question was studying abroad, whereas the dependent variable was people’s changes of view. The researcher’s hypothesis states that if people studied abroad each person would experience different events and actions that would change their view in a way that is caused by studying abroad. The researcher chose this topic because she wants to know in-depth about how studying abroad changes a person’s view and in what ways it does, and she hopes that she’ll gain research skills and writing a suitable essay about that subject. The researcher is filled with curiosity towards this topic, she wanted to know every single possible thing about the topic to expand her knowledge. She basically wanted and hoped to know if studying abroad changes a person’s view in a good way or in a bad way. As well as some basic information on experiences of studying abroad towards different people such as, each person experiences an event that changes their view. She also wonders if the experiences changed their view is considered as a failure or not, and she had many other questions in mind about studying abroad to find out about.

Materials and Methods

The researcher completed a study too in an online site called survey monkey which incorporated a few inquiries dependent on studying abroad to decide how examining abroad changes an individual's view and to discover in what ways does contemplate abroad changes an individual's view. The survey consisted of 10 general questions to understand what percentages does each question gets the most answers in and in what way students learned in such an experience. It consists of 8 multiple choice questions where students could choose from based on what they think personally about each question and 2 open writing questions, so the researcher could get a detailed explanation of what students studying abroad feel like. She shared the study with students who are studying in Masdar City, Abu Dhabi understudies who are viewed as studying abroad outside their nation. Participants consisted of 18 to 22 volunteer students who are studying abroad and came from all around the world to study in Abu Dhabi between the ages of 18 to 24, in Masdar City. The researcher made sure all participants are non-UAE citizens and are considered as studying abroad at Masdar City, Abu Dhabi. She got about 18 to 22 responses although she shared it with a group of 24 people. The study was made to get a general feeling regarding the matter with a bigger number of understudies. It incorporates ten inquiries that make general inquiries of how considering abroad changes an individual's view.

Findings and Discussion

The researcher's findings are supported by the hypothesis. The results she found from the analysis questions is what she excepted, the results are found that most people draw for self-expression as it is shown above meaning, for themselves to express themselves better or to deal with something important in their life by studying abroad. However, the survey shows that 50 percent of respondents think and believe that local colleges are good and not so bad. About 86 percent of participants are with the idea of studying abroad whereas 14 percent are against the idea of it. Additionally, 64 percent of respondents think that may or may not have a better experience when studying abroad. Looking through the findings the researches can see that the advantage of studying abroad is that about 80 percent made the student more independent which is considered a huge percentage and that studying actually benefited from studying abroad. Also, about 71 percent of the students overcame their fear of being far away from home. Diverse surveys state that they would like to study abroad and just to experience the sake and the feeling of it.

The results were interesting and fascinating because the researcher did not expect that majority of the students chose responsibility as what they learned mostly from studying abroad.

Conclusion

The researcher’s hypothesis was supported including the testable question which is “How does studying abroad change a person’s view?”. Results show that all participants see that studying abroad is an exciting prospect for them. All the researcher’s data was supported by people that found studying abroad as an exciting and interesting experience. During the process of researching and writing an essay, the researcher learned at the end of the day it’s the student's own work and own path to go. It also shows how they have managed through their life when facing difficulties or not and how they got over those difficult obstacles throughout their life. Lastly, we know that each person is different from the other so how studying abroad would change people’s view depends on each type of person. During the process, the researcher learned how to manage her time throughout the process to settle her work in a perfect format. She would like to know in-depth people’s background of studying abroad before they actually managed to study outside their country and in what ways their personality and view changed before and after studying abroad.

References

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2. Fabian. “5 Ways Studying Abroad Changes You.” Asia Exchange, 8 Nov. 2018, www.asiaexchange.org/blogs/five-ways-studying-abroad-changes-you/.
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4. Perera, Cassy. “23 Ways That Studying Abroad Changes You.” CreditDonkey, www.creditdonkey.com/studying-abroad.html.
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