Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of being educated abroad.
I was sitting on the sofa them – my mother and father. We were pondering whether I should go to
Singapore on a scholarship to study there. The discussion had been held long. Long but
insufficient as we all knew there would be both advantages and disadvantages that we could not
balance.
To be educated abroad does have its benefits. One of them is to bring the cultural experience of
the host country to the students. There must be cultural differences among different nations. When
we go abroad, we will be exposed to a new cultural environment. People with different races,
religious and belief are around us. We will have the opportunity to experience and have a basic
understanding of the mew culture. For example, my journey to Singapore makes me immersed in
various races of people, such as the Tamils, Malays and so on. Their culture is the one that I have
never heard about. After one year of stay here, I have some elementary knowledge of the local
culture here, during the process of adaptation to the new culture, I also accumulate more life
experiences for myself like showing respect when I get along with people with different culture.
Besides, another advantage of studying in a foreign country is that we are able to enjoy a higher
standard of education and better networking among students. Usually, we will choose a country
with a better quality of education than our home country to study in. that is the main purpose of
studying abroad. Being in another country enables us to make more foreign friends. That is
profitable to create a better networking for ourselves. There is an old Chinese saying “One more
friend means one more route to success.” For instance, a famous Chinese English training
organisation – New Orientation’s president is a good example. He went to England during his
university days. When he came back to China, he started to build up this organisation. He asked
the friends in England for help. Within a short time, information, suggestions and donations came
to him. Some of his friends even came from England to help him personally. Therefore, studying
abroad is good at providing remarkable networking among friends.
On the other hand, we need to taste the bitter part of studying in a foreign country. Disadvantages
are still present there. The most common problem we probably will face is loneliness. We go to a
foreign country for academic achievement. We go there alone. However, when difficulties, trouble
and sickness arrive, there may be no one around who can give us a hand. Thus, we would feel
lonely and isolated. Home-sickness would swirl from the depth of our hearts. For example, there
was once when I had a really serious fever. There was nobody going to help me. I tried my best to
be dressed and attempt to see a doctor. However, I could not even move a step myself. Thus, I just
lay on my bed and took my own medicine. Under that excruciating circumstance, I felt lonely and
helpless. Depression was the only occupant of my heart. Hence, loneliness is really a problem of
going overseas.
Furthermore, I think the language barrier can be the disadvantage of studying overseas as well.
This difficulty will most probably be faced by those who from the non-English speaking countries,
like me form China. The language barrier can result in misunderstanding in terms of instructions
and intentions of others. The language barrier can also get us into trouble. For example, one of my
friend’s first three months in Singapore was tough. During the period, he could not get used to the
Singaporean way of speaking English. He could not understand what the teacher was saying. He
even paid a hundred dollar fine for his phone because he misunderstood the officer’s instructions.
Therefore, language barrier is another inevitable disadvantage.
All in all, we need to understand the advantages and disadvantages of being educated abroad
clearly before we choose to go abroad. Foreign education is a serious and crucial issue to many
people in the modern world and we have to understand them, face them and find a good balance
for ourselves.