Werkbau - The Advantage/disadvantage of Studying abroad

Recently, more students choose to study abroad as they think that it is worth going. On the other hand, some think of it another way. Students may suffer from studying abroad as there are a number of disadvantages. The following paragraphs will explain why the students have these views and the advantages and disadvantages of studying abroad will be discussed respectively.

Students studying abroad may suffer from racial discrimination. As they have left their home country, they will become the minority group of the new country. The majority group may take advantage of and try to bully them. It is common that the Americans or the British discriminate against people from other countries since they think that white people are better than the others. The Black and the Chinese will probably suffer from this.

In addition, the students may lose their own culture. Since they have moved to a new place, all the things there, people, lifestyle and living environment would be different from their own country. As they will have close contact with local people and culture, they will be influenced by the new culture imperceptivity. It is ironical that a Chinese speaks better English than Chinese and forget what Chinese culture is after studying abroad for a few years.

On the contrary, studying abroad will widen the scope of the students. Although they may give up their own culture, they can really learn from the others. As students of the modern world, they should not limit their scope within the home country, but get exposure to the world. Studying abroad can help them expand their horizon and learn from the elite in the host country, as they will meet and make friends with people from all over the world. So, studying abroad is good for them.

Besides, the students will learn how to be mature and independent. Students in the home country usually rely on their parents, just like the Hong Kong students. Statistic shows that Hong Kong students usually rely heavily on their parents; they will just leave the problems alone and ask their parents to solve them. If they are studying abroad, they have to solve everything on their own; they should learn how to cope with any difficulties they will meet. As a result, study abroad brings benefit to them.

Furthermore, the education system from foreign country is better than Hong Kong. The Hong Kong education system is a spoon-feed one, the teachers will ask the student to recite a lot of things and then ask them to write it down. This cannot stimulate student’s interest in their learning. The choice of subjects in school, especially in secondary school, is very narrow; the students cannot choose what hey want most. But the schools in Britain and America, students can enjoy from a wider range of choice of subjects from school, for example, media studies and corporate communications, are in the syllabus of schools in these two countries. If students choose to study abroad, they can learn more things under a better educational system.

All in all, study abroad will change and influence a student on the both sides. Although it is uncertain that what the effects would be, positive or negative, I support students should seize the opportunity of studying abroad because they will meet many new things and have new experience from the host country. If they are clever enough, I think they can find a balance between learning new culture and hold on their own one.