I am a high school student. I have traveled/studied abroad to China in the summer before. It was great.. truly. I learned a lot about the language, about the culture, and a lot of life lessons that can't be taught in school.

But academically speaking, what are the benefits to studying abroad for an actual SEMESTER? Does it only help people who want to become more familiar with a specific language? And GPA? Will credits carry over?

Please and thanks in advance.

I studied abroad for a semester in London. That was 8 years ago. Now that I have a full time job, a house mortgage and a family of my own, I don't have the time or money to take a trip that far away for that long of a time period. When I was in college, I didn't have that many attachments keeping me home except for school. Study abroad took care of that. I got to travel and continue working on my degree. Make sure the classes you take overseas will transfer so the trip doesn't set you back.

I think being in the country itself of the language that you are speaking teaches you things academically. You get to see for yourself the culture of the people and hear them speak the language. And like you said, it opened your eyes, you learned alot of life lessons. I think that is a big part of the reason why people study abroad-to learn things that can't be taught in the classroom.

I think BECAUSE of how much it "opens a person's eyes" it helps them academically. In the professional and corporate world you're going to have to have knowledge of people of different backgrounds and the more familiar you are of that the better. Since we do so much work internationally now, through government and business, it looks great on a resume if you have studied abroad.

Most colleges will allow the credits to carry over to your current university. I think it's worth it academically and for the great experience.

You have already had a great experience! However, I bet you really don't speak Chinese yet, right? Just a little bit.

And their lies your advantage in a longer program. However, if you are going to invest the time and money into a program, I suggest that you take the year abroad program instead. It doesn't cost that much more and you get so much out of it.

As to programs ... you can look at www.csiet.org for those which are certified to operate in the U.S. You can also check with your high school counselor for the ones that operate in your specific area and that he/she recommends.

Generally speaking, your high school will work with you on making your year count for you as far as credits are concerned. You may have to take a summer school or on line class in American History or Government, but that's not too bad (or you can double up in a year). Some programs/scholarships will require a higher GPA, but generally a high C average will do it for you.

In addition to the obvious language benefit, you will also gain in maturity, open-mindedness and a better view of the world in which we live. You may have already experienced some of this from your travels to China.

The benefits are immense, but subtle. You may not even be aware of how you've changed until years later.

In high school, I traveled to Germany for 3 weeks, and in college, I studied abroad in Japan for a year.

Even going abroad for a few weeks really has a lot of benefits, as you've seen. Experiencing the language, culture and people first hand are the big ones. However, you were still mostly a tourist. You would be going home in just a matter of weeks. I wasn't in Germany long enough to really get culture-shock.

By being abroad for a longer period of time, you'll get a much deeper understanding of the language and the culture. The longer you're abroad and fully immersed in the culture and language, you'll learn a lot more. One semester abroad will teach you than what you'd cover in a classroom in 2 or maybe 3 semesters.

The benefits are much greater than just learning the language, however. Since my time in Japan, I feel I've better able to communicate with people from all different backgrounds, simply because I've had that experience of being the foreigner and struggling to learn the language.

At many of the companies I've worked at, I've been able to use my Japanese skills as part of my job, or even to greet VIPs from Japan. I'm by no means fluent, but just being able to properly greet someone in their native language goes a long ways towards making a positive impression. It also helps convince the visitors that the company is serious about doing business.

As for GPA and credits, that will depend on the particular program you will study through. The Japanese program I attended was actually run as an extension of my University, so I got full grades and credits for the classes I attended. Some of my classmates were from different universities, and had to use their local policies about transferring credits. Check with your school to see what programs they offer, or, what their policies on study abroad programs are. Even if you don't get credit, I would strongly encourage you to go abroad for a semester. I cannot tell you how much it has changed my life, or how many opportunities it opened down the road. It was well worth the effort and money.

I just think its cool experiance

I also think that the benefits are huge!
You get this " once in a life" experience to be learning hundreds of things a day. I went to study in Australia for a year. When I left Canada, I was able to say only a few words. And then after a year I was able to speak properly... well with a totaly different accent than the one we learn here! What I think is that anybody who wants to learn a language should be immersed at least a few months in this language. I also went to Nicaragua for 2 months to learn Spanish but I do not think it was enough, although it was at least enough to pick some of the words and to absorb a bit of the culture.
I believe that you need to know the language before you go abroad. The most you know it, the most you will improve on the little things. If you are still at learning the key words, take your time to learn more instead of spending time and money to struggle too much.
One last thing I would says is that if you want to maximize your experience, you need to live with people from the country and not with a group of peoples from the same place as you are from. Then you will be fully immersed and go back home with new eyes on newcomers.
Academically speaking, I do not know if it really gives something more than some « portfolio points" like where I study, but if you do it, you normaly do it for the experience and not for academic purpose.

I agree with Claudie that studying abroad has a lot of advantages.Every year thousands and thousands of people leave the comforts of their homes to learn English in countries such as the United States, Canada, England, and Australia. Why do they do it? Many feel that by studying a language in a country where it is spoken, they will be able to learn it more quickly. Others feel that studying abroad gives them a kind of prestige in their home country. It may even lead to a better job. There is also a group of people who wants to study abroad for the pure pleasure and excitement it brings. No matter what their goal is, one is for sure if you are exposed to the language for 24hrs a day you will learn it. Besides, you learn the language close to the one that native speakers use and everything related to it, including: culture of the country, customs, traditions and habits that may be different from the ones you have. I think everyone who wants to study a foreign language should try to do it in the country where the target language is spoken.

I totally agree with what you've all said.
I personnaly went to another part of my country to study English and the benefits that I
gained were so impressive compare to my friends who staied back in my original city.
I've gained another language and self confidence toward the approch that I have when meeting people for the first time.
Birefly, I learned to know what were my limits in several aspects of my life.

Hello guys, I see that some of you a re concerned about the benefits of studying abroad. I am a university student in the field of second and foreign language teaching and we learn a lot about those experiences. One of the professor has shown us a study that demonstrated that it is important for teachers like me to immerse in the target language at least every 2 years for at least 2 or 3 weeks. Also, in most of my classes the professors insist on the fact that an immersion experience is the best way to learn a language. A classroom experience may be good, but studying abroad is much better. The only thing though... They also recommend to attend courses of the target language PRIOR the immersion in order to learn some cultural aspects and to learn strategies. I hope this post helped you guys.

I have note studied abroad for a long period of time as a lot of you did, but I participated to a student exchange in Ontario. This experience was good because I met Ontario's people and thus learned about their culture. I lived with a family who prayed before eating, which was totaly new to me. They were also football fans because one of the daughter's boyfriend was playing this sport so we went to see him play a couple of time, which also was a new experience to me. Another thing is that I discovered what kind of music was popular there (songs that were not yet heard on Quebec's radio). What I also enjoyed about this exchange is the total immersion into the English language. I had to speak English all the time if I wanted to be understood. And now I would love to go abroad, in an English speakig country. But as one person mentioned before, it becomes harder to leave with a family, a ahouse and everything else that needs you in town. So to all of you who have the opportunity to study abroad, GO! The cultural shock is worth it!

I participated in an exchange to Vancouver. I studied one semester over there. This experience has been very beneficial for me. It really helped me to improve my level of English. My spoken English is better because I had to speak English ALL the time, and my written English is also better because I had to write a lot for my English classes. Moreover, I was living on campus, so I lived with people from Vancouver, but also with other exchange students from all around the world! Therefore, I experienced and discovered not only the west canadian culture, but also cutures and traditions from other parts of the world.

In my case, this exchange program was available within my university program. There were founds available to help me afford this trip. I also got my classes approved by my university program before I leave to be sure that the classes I was going to attend over there would be credited at my home university. Make sure that you get everything approved before you leave and you will have no problem!

Study abroad is very valuable in what regards language learning and culture. This kind of experience is priceless.