After doing my second student exchange experience, I feel like being an exchange student is a must have experience during your school or university time. The reason is because you can learn more about everything. If I say everything yeaa it means literally everything. Starts from your major knowledge, your adaptation skill, your cultural understanding, and every single things that will happen in your exchange period. Those experiences can change your whole life & the way you think for sure!
Last year, I was being an exchange student for volunteering through AIESEC to Manila, the Philippines for 1.5 months. And right now I'm having another opportunity to do another exchange for 6 months through EU-SHARE Scholarship in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Andd after I have those experiences to be an exchange student, I will tell you about what are the pros and cons of being an exchange student.. I will mix it with my personal stories also so it would be clearer.
PROS :
1. Makes you being more open minded
During your exchange time, you may face a lot of different people from different countries that are having different cultures. Being open minded here doesn't mean that you must agree or following whatever they do. All you need is just having a high tolerance for other people's cultures and respect them all without making any personal judgement.
I was born in a moslem majority country that has a strong eastern culture. Seeing people drinking alcohol or going to the clubs are being the uncommon things in my home country because as I said before that my home country has a strong eastern culture. But when I came to my very first exchange last year, I found that those kind of things are common in the Philippines and for the other international students. I didn't do those kind of things but I try to understand and not judge the people around me.
The outcome after I did my exchange is that I become a very open minded person, proven by what my friends think of me. Some of my friends asked me how can I be a very open minded person.
Now I realized that meeting new people from different religion, ethnic, and also country are very interesting if we can respecting and learning from each others.
2. Increase your knowledge
Every country has a different system. For example educational system, governmental system, transportation system, tax system, and so on. I feel like being an exchange student can increase your knowledge in every sectors of life, because you can find and feel something different from what your home country has.
I choose one example which is education system. I asked the local Pinoy and local Malaysians about the educational system in Philippines and Malaysia, then I compared it with what my country has and it's all totally different.
After doing my second student exchange in Malaysia, I found that my host university is having different system of assignments and exams. Before I went here, I don't even know what is Harvard Style referencing system and also Turnitin application to detect plagiarism. But now I know about those things and also know how to use those things.
3. Improve your English skill
This one can't be debated, since I proved it already. Your English skill will definitely improved especially in Listening and Speaking. The reason is because you use this language to your friends from different countries every day. At my first exchange, I was also afraid if I can't speak to other people because I don't know what is the English word of certain things. But yeaaa practice makes perfect, couldn't be more agree with this. Now I can speak English fluently without having the feeling of afraid or confused.
4. Broaden your international networks
The world is small when people now each other. Having a lot of friends from all over the world is amazing and you can feel like you get a new family during your exchange! Someday you may be their co-workers or even if you go their countries, you can meet them. Now I'm having friends from all of the continents in this world (Asia, Africa, Europe, Australia, and America). Obviously if I get an opportunity in the future to visit another countries, I'll contact all of them and do a meet up plan.
5. Improve your soft-skills
When you go for an exchange, some soft-skills can be achieved especially if you're going alone. Starts from leadership, communication skill, and solution oriented skill. You will lead yourself and fully responsible of yourself when you are far from your parents. That's why you will get your leadership skill, adaptation skill, communication skill, and problem solving skill improved. You will be more independent after doing your exchange, and also learn a lot of other new skills.
6. Learn new languages and cultures
One statement for this : New friends can let you into new languages, new foods, new money currencies, new cultures, different way of thinking, and also new experiences! Just mingle mingle and learn new and positive things from your new friends!
7. Getting other precious lessons & makes you braver than before
Getting out from our comfort zone is hard, but that would be the only way for you to grow and learn. Joining an exchange program will make you braver than before. Brave to take the opportunity that maybe other people don't dare to do, brave to take risks in every steps we do, and brave to leave our comfort zones would make you braver and more developed than before.
CONS :
1. Sometimes exchange student feels homesick
I never feel homesick during my exchange periods but some of my friends did. But I personally think that it is a normal thing that can happened in a human. How to cope with homesick problem? Get out from your room and hang out with your friends!
2. Facing a though adaptation
I faced it personally in both of my exchange periods last year and this year. Last year I felt a culture shock and also need to adaptation with higher food costs in Philippines. My budgeting for every meal before I went to this exchange was wrong and I didn't bring any credit card / debit card / ATM (I just brought some amount of USD). But I can cope this problem by cooking my own food yeaaah.
In my second exchange this year in Malaysia, I don't feel that I have a culture shock since the culture in Indonesia and Malaysia are quite similar. But I have a more serious problem which is assignment shock and high level of study stress. Yes I admit it that during my first month of staying here I was feeling a though adaptation because of my though assignments. The assignments in my host university is very though and the lecturer standards are very high. Even the local students also told me about that. I never know about how to do Harvard referencing or using Turnitin application, but I required to do it here. So I learnt it all by myself from the basic one. My first month staying here was terrible. I always sleep after midnight everyday, and it made me sick 2 times in my first month. I got very stressed also because I need to do something hard that I never do it before. Luckily my lectures are nice and they helped me to survived in this university. And now I can survive and do my assignments better without a high level of stress :D
3. There is a possibility to have a credit transfer problem
Because of the different education curriculum, my number of credits for each subjects between in my home country and host country are different. Usually every subject in my home country has 2/3 credits only. But here in my host university, every subject has 4/5 credits. This may be a problem since my 4-5 credits here will only transferred as 2/3 credits to my home university. Sometimes exchange students also feel hard to choose subjects that the score can be transferred and accepted in the home university.
Through what I wrote on this blog post, I can conclude that there would be more pros rather than cons of being an exchange student. If you have an opportunity to be an exchange student, please do it since it would be a valuable experience that you will have in your life!
If you guys also having the experiences of being an exchange student, you can leave a comment on my post. Adding some point of views from your experiences as an exchange student also allowed. Hope this post would be useful for encouraging students to be the exchange students.
Good luck for your life journey!
Last year, I was being an exchange student for volunteering through AIESEC to Manila, the Philippines for 1.5 months. And right now I'm having another opportunity to do another exchange for 6 months through EU-SHARE Scholarship in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Andd after I have those experiences to be an exchange student, I will tell you about what are the pros and cons of being an exchange student.. I will mix it with my personal stories also so it would be clearer.
PROS :
1. Makes you being more open minded
During your exchange time, you may face a lot of different people from different countries that are having different cultures. Being open minded here doesn't mean that you must agree or following whatever they do. All you need is just having a high tolerance for other people's cultures and respect them all without making any personal judgement.
I was born in a moslem majority country that has a strong eastern culture. Seeing people drinking alcohol or going to the clubs are being the uncommon things in my home country because as I said before that my home country has a strong eastern culture. But when I came to my very first exchange last year, I found that those kind of things are common in the Philippines and for the other international students. I didn't do those kind of things but I try to understand and not judge the people around me.
The outcome after I did my exchange is that I become a very open minded person, proven by what my friends think of me. Some of my friends asked me how can I be a very open minded person.
Now I realized that meeting new people from different religion, ethnic, and also country are very interesting if we can respecting and learning from each others.
2. Increase your knowledge
Every country has a different system. For example educational system, governmental system, transportation system, tax system, and so on. I feel like being an exchange student can increase your knowledge in every sectors of life, because you can find and feel something different from what your home country has.
I choose one example which is education system. I asked the local Pinoy and local Malaysians about the educational system in Philippines and Malaysia, then I compared it with what my country has and it's all totally different.
After doing my second student exchange in Malaysia, I found that my host university is having different system of assignments and exams. Before I went here, I don't even know what is Harvard Style referencing system and also Turnitin application to detect plagiarism. But now I know about those things and also know how to use those things.
3. Improve your English skill
This one can't be debated, since I proved it already. Your English skill will definitely improved especially in Listening and Speaking. The reason is because you use this language to your friends from different countries every day. At my first exchange, I was also afraid if I can't speak to other people because I don't know what is the English word of certain things. But yeaaa practice makes perfect, couldn't be more agree with this. Now I can speak English fluently without having the feeling of afraid or confused.
4. Broaden your international networks
The world is small when people now each other. Having a lot of friends from all over the world is amazing and you can feel like you get a new family during your exchange! Someday you may be their co-workers or even if you go their countries, you can meet them. Now I'm having friends from all of the continents in this world (Asia, Africa, Europe, Australia, and America). Obviously if I get an opportunity in the future to visit another countries, I'll contact all of them and do a meet up plan.
5. Improve your soft-skills
When you go for an exchange, some soft-skills can be achieved especially if you're going alone. Starts from leadership, communication skill, and solution oriented skill. You will lead yourself and fully responsible of yourself when you are far from your parents. That's why you will get your leadership skill, adaptation skill, communication skill, and problem solving skill improved. You will be more independent after doing your exchange, and also learn a lot of other new skills.
6. Learn new languages and cultures
One statement for this : New friends can let you into new languages, new foods, new money currencies, new cultures, different way of thinking, and also new experiences! Just mingle mingle and learn new and positive things from your new friends!
7. Getting other precious lessons & makes you braver than before
Getting out from our comfort zone is hard, but that would be the only way for you to grow and learn. Joining an exchange program will make you braver than before. Brave to take the opportunity that maybe other people don't dare to do, brave to take risks in every steps we do, and brave to leave our comfort zones would make you braver and more developed than before.
CONS :
1. Sometimes exchange student feels homesick
I never feel homesick during my exchange periods but some of my friends did. But I personally think that it is a normal thing that can happened in a human. How to cope with homesick problem? Get out from your room and hang out with your friends!
2. Facing a though adaptation
I faced it personally in both of my exchange periods last year and this year. Last year I felt a culture shock and also need to adaptation with higher food costs in Philippines. My budgeting for every meal before I went to this exchange was wrong and I didn't bring any credit card / debit card / ATM (I just brought some amount of USD). But I can cope this problem by cooking my own food yeaaah.
In my second exchange this year in Malaysia, I don't feel that I have a culture shock since the culture in Indonesia and Malaysia are quite similar. But I have a more serious problem which is assignment shock and high level of study stress. Yes I admit it that during my first month of staying here I was feeling a though adaptation because of my though assignments. The assignments in my host university is very though and the lecturer standards are very high. Even the local students also told me about that. I never know about how to do Harvard referencing or using Turnitin application, but I required to do it here. So I learnt it all by myself from the basic one. My first month staying here was terrible. I always sleep after midnight everyday, and it made me sick 2 times in my first month. I got very stressed also because I need to do something hard that I never do it before. Luckily my lectures are nice and they helped me to survived in this university. And now I can survive and do my assignments better without a high level of stress :D
3. There is a possibility to have a credit transfer problem
Because of the different education curriculum, my number of credits for each subjects between in my home country and host country are different. Usually every subject in my home country has 2/3 credits only. But here in my host university, every subject has 4/5 credits. This may be a problem since my 4-5 credits here will only transferred as 2/3 credits to my home university. Sometimes exchange students also feel hard to choose subjects that the score can be transferred and accepted in the home university.
Through what I wrote on this blog post, I can conclude that there would be more pros rather than cons of being an exchange student. If you have an opportunity to be an exchange student, please do it since it would be a valuable experience that you will have in your life!
If you guys also having the experiences of being an exchange student, you can leave a comment on my post. Adding some point of views from your experiences as an exchange student also allowed. Hope this post would be useful for encouraging students to be the exchange students.
Good luck for your life journey!
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