10 Reasons To Live or Study Abroad

#1 – Broaden Your Horizons

As you travel, learn and adjust to different cultures, you will start understanding how foreign cultures operate successfully in their own context. 

You will get to know that each different culture has its own way of dealing with relationships, family and work. You will get to understand that the different approaches used by different cultures can be right.

This is especially true when it comes to money and business. Money management and financial standards are different everywhere. For example, legal traditions and market cultures are different in every country and this affects the procedures you have to follow.

In the same way, living or studying overseas will let you expand your palate and try new foods, make new friends, and expose yourself to things you never would have experienced otherwise.

Ready to take the plunge already? Find out why to hire an Immigration Consultant here!

#2 – Discover Other Cultures

The fact that respect can be demonstrated in different ways can lead to misunderstanding. What may be considered disrespectful in your home country may be the norm in another foreign country. 

It is important to learn not to take this diversity in culture personally. It is also important to adapt to the cultural norms of the foreign land and learn how to show respect in other new and diverse ways.

#3 – Reduce Assumptions

After you have been proved wrong on any cultural misconceptions you had in the past, you will not be so quick to judge in the future. 

While living overseas, you will realise that every culture is made up of many other subcultures. You will therefore be able to see that cultures have subtle differences that you may not have understood in the past.

Ready to get overseas? Claim your FREE visa assessment by clicking here.

#4 – Develop A Love Of Travel

It is very easy to get addicted to globe-trotting. After leaving your home country and getting great experiences elsewhere, you will want to recreate enjoy the excitement and rush by travelling to another place. 

Travelling allows you to understand how much you can grow, change and learn by visiting foreign areas. The first experience will make you want to expand your horizons.

This is reinforced by SEO Manager at Search It Local, Alexander Porter, who lived in Canada and fell in love with the country. He explains “in 2015/16 I spent time in Canada and it changed my view of the world. Living in Vancouver helped me to expand my comfort zone, try new things and meet new people. It’s no exaggeration to say I came back a different person. If you’re on the fence about study or work overseas, chat to a local immigration and visa team. You’ll never regret it a day in your life.”

#5 – Lean A New Language

Once you have immersed yourself in a foreign language, it becomes easier to pick up words and sounds from a different language. 

When you are back home or travelling in another area, you will notice foreign languages more. In the past, foreign languages may have been swallowed by your surroundings.

#6 – Appreciate Differences

The difference in culture can cause misunderstandings and a breakdown in communication that can affect both personal and professional relationships. 

Learning how to avoid misunderstandings by becoming more adept at communicating and integrating to different cultures is a great skill that can be employed at work and also in life. 

Travelling abroad usually forces you to bridge the cultural gaps that you find in order to learn how to cooperate and work with people who have a different culture. This improves your ability to handle any multicultural situations that you may come across in the future.

#7 – Increase Patience

Once you have travelled to a land where you are the foreigner who has a thick accent, you will be more patient when dealing with people from foreign countries once you land back in your own country. Once you have been in the shoes of an outsider, you will be able to relate better to the experience of foreigners to your culture. 

Because you will be experiencing the emotional upheaval expatriates go through, your compassion towards other people will increase. According to the life coaches at Open for Life, “homesickness and loneliness are universal emotions, but they are heightened when you’re far from home. Living abroad will make you more considerate, understanding and compassionate towards people from all walks of life who are going through a similar experience.”

#8 – Increase Global Awareness

When you read or listen to international news without having been abroad, it can be hard to appreciate the severity of the message especially if does not touch on people that you know. 

When travelling abroad and interacting with people from different places around the world, you get to appreciate the significance of news from different places and also empathise with what is happening in those areas.

#9 – Build A Second Home

Once you have travelled to a foreign land, interacted and lived with the people there, you form a special bond with the culture and the residents of that place. 

After sampling the cuisine, enjoying the music and walking in the streets of a city, that part of the world starts holding a special part in your heart. It essentially becomes a part of who you are.

#10 – Find Your Place In The World

Looking at the map of the world through pictures is a completely different thing compared to actually being in a foreign land, getting lost as you are roaming the streets in towns and travelling from one city to the next. 

You get to realise that there are infinite things to see in the world and it is virtually impossible to sample the entire world. 

This can be a very overwhelming realisation but it is also a good motivating factor for you to travel and see as much as you possibly can.

More than anything, you’ll begin to realise that wherever you are, as long as you are kind and understanding, you will always be at home.

Looking to live or study abroad? Chat to the 101 Migration team to get the help you need!