Is studying abroad worthwhile?

Besides, I have become more proactive. I used to be passive to the backbone. I was the kind of person who always waited for orders or instructions about what should be done. What’s more, asking questions was never my thing. Somehow, I was inclined to sort things out on my own. For example, during my time studying here, I have never been to the learning development center, which is set up to help students with academic writing, even though I struggled with writing academic essays at the very beginning. Step by step, I was finally able to figure out the style and reference system of academic writing. Certainly, this strategy did not always work. In my first semester, I failed a small assignment because I simply did what I believed was right. In the end, it turned out that I misunderstood the requirement. After the failure of that assignment, I sort of got a PTSD (not literal meaning). I guess once bitten, twice shy.

Gradually, I realized that I had to initiate actions if I wanted to have something done efficiently and effectively. So I would ask questions in the class or send emails to my lecturers to clarify my understanding or to get help when I considered it necessary. Because I learned that I would be better off getting help before my issues got out of control and became unsolvable. Additionally, when I was confronted with other issues in life, I tended to be proactive as well. There was this time a bus driver overcharged me. At the beginning, I thought they increased the price for the ticket. To double-check, I called the bus company and found that I was “ripped off” (not really, as the bus ticket was fairly cheap). Anyway, they promised to return me the overcharged part the next day and they did. To me, it was not really to get the money back but to stand up against unfair treatment.

Aside from the aforementioned merits, I have become a more critical thinker. Prior to coming to Australia, I frequently would just say what was on my mind without thinking why; I would just follow the crowd without questioning why and I would take advice from elders without asking why. Therefore, sometimes I would just fail to give justifiable reasons about my beliefs or claims when I was confronted by native English speakers. That was absolutely awkward to me. But, thinking from a positive perspective, it at least served as a wake-up call for me.

As far as I am concerned, the ability to thinkcritically plays an important role in the higher education system in this country. When I first began to study the TESOL course, I was apt to give relatively subjective and biased statements. In most cases, my lecturers would point them out and tell me to always use evidence to back up my opinions. With more and more papers being written, I acquired that essential ability, which is exceptionally beneficial for me to form my very own opinions. In my viewpoint, that is a vital step to avoid being manipulated by the mass media. It is also what is going to take me closer to the pure facts.

I have also become more open-minded. I was raised with traditional and conservative beliefs in a teeny-tiny village in the middle of nowhere in China. Thus, it is not all that hard to imagine that my time in Australia would be marked by culture shock, with positive cultural shock outweighing the negative by a long shot. To take my Japanese classmates as an example, they were all very polite and friendly, which is quite different from what I was told to believe. One of them even offered to buy every single student in our class a Japanese souvenir. This sweet thought was just jaw-dropping.

Apart from that, I have also come to realize that a few stereotypes about Western countries in China are too generalized. As a consequence, they gave us false expectations about living in a Western country. For example, I once heard some Chinese people chatting about how good life was in Australia, because Australians do not need to pay tuition fees or for medical care. But this is not the whole picture since they have to pay through the nose to go to private school and pay back the money borrowed from the government for higher education once they start to earn a certain amount of money a month. Also, they have to pay money if they want to go to a specialized hospital.

Once the veil of the stereotypes is lifted, it not only surprises me but also fascinates me because it provokes a strong desire to explore the different cultures myself to get close to the truth.

Of course, until now, I have made a lot of progress about teaching skills as well as my language skills. But, the growth in my personality undoubtedly dwarfs the academic progress. And to me, the mental maturity is more important as it is much more difficult to gain.

Doubtless it is worthwhile for me to study in Australia. Even though I have gone through some ups and downs and twists and turns during my time in this country, it is still an extremely valuable journey. Even though I had doubted this decision more than once, I tried hard to make the most of this precious opportunity as I believe that sometimes we are not expected to make the right decision but to make our decision look right. We all sacrifice something whenever we make a big decision. It is therefore reasonable to stop thinking that the grass on the other side is always greener and to start striving to make your decision the better one.

The original blog: http://bbs.chinadaily.com.cn/blog-1433233-20071.html

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