Studying Abroad

essay and photo by Muhannad Alhumaidi

Although only a small percentage of students study abroad, relatively, among those who do, many have a fantastic journey that is full of experiences that are going to change many aspects of a person’s life. Those experiences are not always easy, or might even be hard. Since I did some useful practices that helped me to adjust abroad, a student can follow some of what I did, which might help him or her to adapt, and adjust his or her life abroad with ease.

First, try to learn the language of the country; it is extremely helpful to learn the language. Actually, it is essential most of the time for important reasons, such as comprehension. Comprehension is the most essential part to deal with the environment around you, also make relationships with people around you. In your case, dealing with people around you in a proper way is a fast method to create connections that can help you through your journey. For example, if you have enough comprehension and some control of the language; you can talk to somebody who is in your neighborhood, or even your dorm, that person might help you in many things like, guiding you to a great and cheap restaurant, give you advice about some nice place to stay, or even he might help you to improve and enhance your language.

Next, learning about the culture is a very important thing for the student to adapt to life in his “new home.” Studying abroad means that you will live in the country in which the studying processes are located. Therefore, getting to know the culture can help to adjust there. For instance, Texas A&M University has many cultural aspects. For example, midnight yell, which is a university-cultural practice in which the student go to the stadium one night before the match, and they “yell” in different specialized phrases to encourage the players. Practicing similar cultural features such as midnight yell can make you feel confident, and a part of the group. In fact, to make friendships you need to be confident, and a part of the group, and by “the group,” I mean a group of people in the society, to be more specific, the students.

Finally, making friendships is an efficient, helpful, easy, and unlimited way that helps you so much to do all of the preceding steps. In addition, it is another way to discover new things like lifestyles and habits. In other words, friendships could be your first tool to use in order to adapt and adjust there.

You can consider these tips as a to-do list for adjustment in any country when you are studying abroad, you can use any approach as long as you do it, but you may consider that there are some essential factors that can help you to get everything right, such as language. Furthermore, there is culture, which is important for you to get involved. Friendships are always a helpful way to do almost everything to be adapted and adjusted correctly.