To learn English, I had been in Australia for eight months three years ago, so I was able to meet a lot of students who also wanted to learn English with many interesting reasons. The students who were very good at English but decided to look for a bigger dream or the students who had come to find difficult areas to study in Korea or even the students who just wanted to enjoy the abroad life.
By reading the article about the growing numbers of U.S college students in study-abroad programs, I recalled that the students’ results varied depending on their variety of reasons. However, before going to study abroad, students have to think there is the probability of failure certainly. It means that going to study abroad in indeterminate belief can cause failure. So, checking ‘opportunity factors’ and ‘risk factors’ is required to prepare before going abroad.
Let’s look at the opportunities factors.
Opportunities for the new environment is the first point. Students entering a new environment which is outside of the traditional framework where they would get into, not to compete and win. So only English is needed in the beginning of the new life and it would be very advantageous for the students who are gifted in language or who are lacked of confidence for the excessive environmental factors to study English because they only need to concentrate on studying English.
Second, except some countries, the competition is not fierce.
In general, the college enrollment in developed countries is significantly lower than the developing countries. It’s not only because of the lack of interest in studying but also because of the fact that choosing a job doesn’t require further study of college or a sufficient social welfare system can guarantee basic living condition so they don’t feel much need to go to the college.
Third, the friends around are changed. Of course, this may be a danger or opportunities because the friends of the surrounding areas affect the study life. Smoking, drinking or being addicted to games easily can be easily seen at the period. As you meet friends who work hard, you can make the chance to look back that you have been on the right track at least. Of course, it is possible to make wrong relationship, but it is able to improve by the will of a person.
Let’s look at the danger factors.
First, it is a vague expectation. You might think that living abroad is easy to adapt but it’s not that easy actually. While living with foreigners, you head hurts and there’s no place to eliminate stress or even you may get tired with the cultural difference with your home-stay family. From the food, thoughts, words and to wants to hang up…………. Because all you need to live in a different way, the stress can be more stressful than you can imagine. Constant check and counseling in advance are recommended.
Second, it is also English. Not as a mean of academic English, as a mean of communication, everything is limited when you are not enough to communicate in English. But I don’t say the academic English is not important. The more important thing is that you need to study grammar skills, writing skills, vocabulary and so on. These things never can be improved if you don’t study at your desk during the period of the study-abroad. All you have to do is just study. That’s the point.
The third risk is ultimately a problem of the relationship. The English-speaking cities such as LA, Vancouver, New York or Sydney overflow with many Korean students like Korea’s big cities. Though you are in English-speaking country, you can not find the difference with your country. Of course, there is no way to avoid Korean students. The problem is not getting along with Korean students but getting along with Korean students ‘only’. It’s not easy but you can make an effort.
You might disagree with those things or there may be other factors. However, if these factors are sufficiently considered, the risks can be significantly reduced. Everybody knows that? Of course, everybody knows the story but misses it most. Actually I also did it too.
Sung Hee,
This is not a five-paragraph essay, for one thing. However, beyond that small problem, the structure is actually kind of awkward. If you consider your structure, it kind of looks like a 5-paragraph essay that had an operation to separate two twins who were born connected, but remain connected at the head and foot:
INTRODUCTION
BODY SECTION 1 – PARAGRAPH A
BODY SECTION 1 – PARAGRAPH B
BODY SECTION 1 – PARAGRAPH C
BODY SECTION 2 – PARAGRAPH A
BODY SECTION 2 – PARAGRAPH B
BODY SECTION 2 – PARAGRAPH C
CONCLUSION
When I see that, the first thing I ask is: what is the relation between Body Section 1 and Body Section 2, and in fact, yours look very connected: Paragraph A in both sections seems to be about the opportunities of going abroad; Paragraph B, about uses for English and practical concerns (sort of), and Paragraph C is about relationships when living abroad.
Therefore, I kind of feel like this kind of structure would be better:
INTRODUCTION
BODY SECTION 1 – PARAGRAPH A
BODY SECTION 2 – PARAGRAPH A
BODY SECTION 1 – PARAGRAPH B
BODY SECTION 2 – PARAGRAPH B
BODY SECTION 1 – PARAGRAPH C
BODY SECTION 2 – PARAGRAPH C
CONCLUSION
I mean, talking about the opportunities in one context, and then the related dangers.
My main problem here, though, is that I’m not sure what exactly your thesis is. You seem to be doing the familiar thing: contrasting positives and negatives. (Pros vs. cons.) This is something we learn as a way of writing in middle/high school, but it’s not very useful in university. I’d encourage you to take a stand — have a thesis that sides either with the positives, or the negatives. Do you think the negatives outweigh the positives? Or the reverse? Pick a side: then you can mention both positives and negatives without me (ie. the reader) saying, “So what?”
Also, watch out for your structure: there are some single sentences that could be included in your paragraphs, especially the examples like, “Let’s look at the danger factors.” Why not just include that in the beginning of the following paragraph? You can do this by writing something like, “There are plenty of dangers as well…”
(Of course, this transition would need to be different if you used the structure I recommend above.)
Also, some of what you say is plain wrong: I know plenty of Korean students who were careful to avoid socializing with Korean students, or at least to insist only on socializing with Korean students who were willing to speak in English (or Russian, or whatever language they were studying). So it’s not impossible — it’s very possible, and in fact I highly recommend it to people going abroad. (When I was studying Korean hard, I also avoided people who wanted to speak with me in English, so it is possible — I’ve done it myself.)
When you write assumptions as if they are facts, it makes it harder for people to take your argument seriously!