1. Benefits of studying abroad
1346013 Heerim Suh
Today, it is not uncommon to go abroad to study. From kindergarten children to
grown ups, individuals have more opportunities to be educated outside of their home country.
Also, individuals, institutions, governments, corporations and other organizations seek to
meet globally established standards. It is unavoidable that people living in today’s society
have to struggle to fit into global society. Studying abroad is one way to have a glance at the
wider world. Still, there are many reasons why people choose to study abroad in the 21st
century. The two big advantages in studying abroad are associated with multicultural
communication ability and collective knowledge in global standard.
Firstly, comprehensive communication ability is strongly required in any career field
in today’s global society. Undoubtedly, improvement in certain languages is the most visible
achievement of studying abroad. However studying abroad helps people develop cultural
understanding as well as language skill. Fluent language communication skill combined with
proper cultural insight in certain background is the key factor of effective communication and
relationships. It is true that people can learn foreign languages without going abroad, but
learning a language within one’s home country has its limitations such as learning specialized
expressions or gestures. Language itself does not consist of only grammar, reading and
listening comprehension skill. Considering the characteristic that language and culture are
intimately related, it is better to learn a foreign language in the foreign contextual
environment. That way, people can communicate without distorting facts while having
conversation with others from different cultural backgrounds. Furthermore, deeper
understanding in foreign culture improves the quality of conversation, which can lead to
success in almost every career field.
Secondly, studying abroad enhances the quality of collective intelligence by adding
diversity. Collective intelligence refers to shared or group intelligence that comes from
collaboration and competition between many individuals in the course of consensus decision
making. Today’s society is so complicated and different ideologies and discourses are so
closely related that one powerful individual cannot solve the current social problems.
Collective intelligence plays its role as a significant motivator that drives a society toward the
right direction. When studying abroad, diversity in collective intelligence is achieved in a
way that groups of students with different backgrounds share opinions and experiences and
recognize the differences in a desirable way. Collective intelligence attained in school can be
spread to bigger social organizations such as national government and further international
society. If collective intelligence is incorporated with political and cultural diversity, there is a
possibility that further international negotiations can be held in the demand of cooperation.
Surely, intercultural understanding and diversity contribute to a higher level of collective
intelligence, which can lead the world toward a better, more peaceful direction.
In conclusion, when studying abroad becomes successful in proper way and later
used to contribute to the society for establishing highly qualified global standard, it can bring
about benefits by improving global communication ability and adding diversity into
collective knowledge. All these advantages are related to global citizenship which is
considered as important certification.