5 Things You Need to Know Before You Go

Studying abroad shouldn’t be all that hard, you say to yourself. You’ve consulted with counselors who’ve given you plenty of answers, you’ve read up on all the brochures and program descriptions, you’ve studied program reviews from previous students and talked to study abroad alumni.

Although you can logically say to yourself that “you’re ready,” there still may be a tiny voice inside of you that is saying, “do you really?” The truth is, a lot will transpire during your study abroad trip. But don’t worry, we’ve got you covered. Here are five things you need to know before you start a new stage of your life anew as a study abroad student.

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Buy Your Ticket in Advance

Your parents have probably been bugging you to purchase your plane ticket six or more months before you start your study abroad experience. While they’re aiming to give you peace of mind, buying a ticket   that much in advance isn’t the most economical decision. In fact, the best time to buy your ticket is in the three month range before your departure – this is when prices are at their lowest.

The plane trip to the country of your destination is when your adventure begins. Spring for either an aisle or window seat (depending on how close you want to be to the bathroom), watch movies galore on your personal TV screen and enjoy the not-so-bad plane food. Be excited!

Travel tip: Get instant notifications on low flight prices when you set up travel alerts on Airfare Watchdog or Kayak.com.

Choosing Your Place of Residence

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The study abroad program you signed up for will surely give you a choice as to where you could stay, anywhere from a dorm on a college campus to a shared apartment to a home stay. While you’ll have your pick of options, there is no right or wrong decision when choosing lodgings for your study abroad experience.

This said, if you’re looking to have the most immersive, fascinating experience possible, we highly recommend you push yourself out of your comfort zone and find lodgings that allows you to live with foreigners. Mingling with foreigners on a daily basis is a truly rewarding experience, and choosing instead to live in an isolated manner would just diminish your opportunities to know the culture better.

Travel tip: Talk your options over with your counselor months before you leave and pick the type of residence that is best suited to the experience you are looking for.

Cultural Sensitivity

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You are responsible for your behavior when you are abroad for your studies. As you will be immersed in another culture and society, it is important that you take into account the local customs. This will influence the way you interact with local people, how you speak and the way you dress.

Your behavior, unbeknownst to you, may offend locals unnecessarily and invite bad treatment of not only yourself, but of the group of people you are traveling with. It’s important for visitors to practice cultural sensitivity throughout their trip.

Travel Tip: Learning how to carry on simple conversation in the local language will do a lot to surprise and please the locals. They’ll be much more open to you in appreciation of your efforts, which will enable them to help you more.

Bring Good Walking Shoes

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If you come from a culture where driving is the norm, like the United States, you may forget to take your trusty walking shoes to your study abroad destination.

The fact of the matter is, many countries are typically walking societies. You’ll be on your feet a lot longer than usual in these parts of the world, which is the idea if you are looking to take in all the cute little off-street spots of your study abroad destination. While high heels are fashionable, you simply won’t be able to cope with them along long city blocks or cobblestone streets. Spare your feet, lower back and general sanity by being sure to bring along a reliable pair of walking shoes.

Travel Tip: There’s no trade-off between style and comfort when it comes to shoes. Find shoes that are padded and durable yet stylish so that you can wear them during the day and night in your study abroad destination.

Your Toiletries Can Be Purchased Abroad

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It’s best to pack as light as possible when traveling across the world. Consider ditching your mainstay cologne for a new scent abroad. It will not be hard to find shampoos, soaps, make-up, laundry detergent, contact solution and other replacement toiletries abroad. However, if you’re the type who has a love for certain cosmetic brands, then spoil yourself and stock up on your precious brand name items for your journey.

Your mom and dad might be happy to spoil you in this regard and buy your essentials for you – this is a perk. However, the perk for buying your toiletries abroad is that some of these products might be considerably cheaper abroad. It’s your choice.

Travel Tip: Young women may have a problem finding quality feminine products abroad and should think of stocking up for the entire length of their stay overseas.

Guest Post by Sean Hopwood

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Sean Hopwood, MBA is founder and President of Day Translations, Inc., an online translation services provider, dedicated to the improvement of global communications. By helping both corporations and the individual, Day Translations provides a necessary service at the same time as developing opportunities for greater sympathy and understanding worldwide.

5 Reasons to Learn the Language Basics Before you Study Abroad

Group of happy students at their desks in college classroom

How do you prepare for a semester abroad? A lot of the details are taken care of for you – a place to stay, a place to study, and a group of people to share the experience with. You might even be set up with a language class once you arrive to learn some of the language. However, the language learning is better off started before you step foot out of the country. Here are some of the top benefits reported for studying the language of the country visited before leaving.

Softening the Culture Shock

Traveling to a new country brings a lot of change at one time. You will be in a new landscape with people speaking a different language. There will be new rules and norms for catching a cab, ordering food, and dressing. It can be a bit of a shock to have all of this change at one time. These first few days and weeks in this new country should be the experience of a lifetime and best spent without having to go through much of an adjustment period. Learning just the essentials of this new language can help reduce this shock quite a bit upon arrival. Learn how  greet others when you meet them and get familiar with the language you will be hearing all around you. You might even be able to pick up a word here and there.

Building Excitement

There are many aspects of studying abroad that are exciting. Being engulfed in the culture of a new country brings history, seeing museums and old buildings, hearing stories, meeting new people, and speaking the language of the country. A lot of this can be done before you ever step foot in that new country. Learning the language and practicing the basics with your friends is one way to not only get familiar with the language, but build the excitement of getting to use these new phrases with people in your country of study.

Offers a Stepping Stone

Hopefully in your time studying abroad, you will get familiar with the language and be able to have small conversations before you come home. Knowing the basics before you travel can help kickstart this learning of the language. Learn the basics before you go – greetings, ordering food, asking directions, and phrases that will help you learn more, such as “How do you say…? These basics will make it easier to get off the beaten path and adventure out on your own even from day one in this new country. As long as you know how to ask for directions, greet others and interact with employees in shops, you will be able to get around the towns easily.

Meeting New Friends

Time studying abroad is limited and it will be over before you know it. So there is no time to waste when it comes to meeting new people. Be able to introduce yourself and meet new people right away to ensure that you take full advantage of your time in this new country. Even if you can’t carry on the conversation past telling the other person where you are from, greeting others in their own language and putting forth an effort is, a lot of the time, enough to show that you are friendly and continue a friendship.

Safety

No matter how well your trip is planned, it is always best to steer on the safe side. What will you do if you find yourself separated from others you know and need to find your way back?  Or what if you lose your phone and wallet? Knowing the language will help you to find your way back and ask for help in locating your lost items or reporting them and getting back to where you need to be for additional help. For this look for phrases that teach both asking for directions and understanding the response – how do I get to, turn right, turn left, 3 miles.

You don’t have to learn the entire language or be fluent by any means. This will hopefully build over time while you are studying abroad. There are some tools that you can use to get this basic understanding of the language. Programs such as Duolingo, Fluent Forever and Rosetta Stone are meant more for learning the entire language long term. If you have a year or so before your trip, by all means, try these. But if you only have a few months to prepare for your trip, you can pick up a phrase book, like the one from Lonely Planet. The upside to this is that the book is small so you can pack it easily in your bag if needed as well. There are also online programs you can access to help study, such as flashcards for common phrases from The Tandem Traveler, or a three month program for travelers from Living Language. It can be difficult to figure out which phrases will be most useful while traveling when you don’t have a lot of time to pick up the language. These programs do that work for you.

Whatever you reason is, learn at least the 100 most common words and phrases for travelers. Time and again repeat travelers report that their experiences were so much better from travel where they studied the language first firsts trips where they dd not.

Guest Post by Lisa Sickman, MA, BCBA

lisa-sickmanLisa Sickman, MA, BCBA, is a behavior analyst and the Co-founder and Chief Learning Officer at The Tandem Traveler. The Tandem Traveler is an online company committed to teaching language to travelers for better cultural experiences abroad.