6 Challenges to Stay Abroad

Let’s imagine a situation.

One fine day you receive an email announcing one of the best messages of your life: “Congratulations! Your application [to the study abroad program] has been accepted.” Finally, your laborious efforts have paid off.

Once this joy and excitement fades, anxiety takes over. You realize you are about to get uprooted from your country and planted at a new destination.

Don’t get anxious about it. For some the transition can be harder than anticipated but the learning curve is fast. From personal experience, I can tell you that it is a lot of fun, but certainly not easy.

So, for those of you who plan to study overseas, here are 6 challenges of studying abroad to be prepared for when applying, transitioning to, and living in a new country.

Challenge 1: Dwindling Finances

Many of you might be under the protective umbrella of your parents as far as financial management was concerned. Now managing funds on your own, that too in a foreign country, may seem like a daunting task. Certainly, this would be one of the most intimidating challenges you will face. Plan your financial management strategy carefully. Starting early would be a great idea. That is, to begin this activity while in your homeland. Discuss it with your parents about running a household in a limited budget. It can give you good insights. Try not to be a spendthrift. Get into the habit of sticking to your monthly budget comprising mainly of rent, transportation, school supplies, groceries, etc. Pay your bills on time to avoid any anxiety. As someone rightly said, Money Saved is Money Earned.

Challenge 2: Feeling like an outsider and Homesick

Regardless what country you are from, and what country you are going to, it’s almost certain that you’ll end up feeling like an ‘outsider’ at least some of the time. You may find yourself wondering why everyone’s laughing, when you didn’t realize anyone had told a joke.

You will feel homesick in your early days. Your mother’s home-cooked food, father’s words of wisdom, mischief with siblings, and hanging-out with friends at your favourite places, you will miss them all. Surely there is no place like home but do not let it narrow your horizons.

Connect with your kin on Skype and through other channels but do not overdo it. It's normal to feel homesick as long as it doesn't hamper your experience of living abroad. You and your family have sacrificed a lot to get you into this school. Interact with other international students and make friends to fill the void. If time permits, become a member of some adventurous group or any other club of your liking.

In most countries it’s unlikely that you’ll be deliberately made to feel uncomfortable or unwanted, but it can still be tiring at first, trying to get to grips with new cultural norms.

Don’t let this discourage you. Virtually everyone I have ever met while studying abroad has been very encouraging and friendly, and while I may never become truly “one of them”, eventually this problem becomes smaller and smaller.

Challenge 3: Overcoming the language barrier

This is probably the most obvious of the challenges of studying abroad. Overcoming a language barrier may mean you’re struggling to learn a new language pretty much from scratch, or it could just be that you thought you were fluent, but find you’re unable to understand the strong local accent.

Even if you’re studying in a country where you speak the same language, there are other hurdles to clear. For example, slang phrases that are popular or hip will seem strange.

So, the words that students use are going to be difficult to learn, but the language barrier problem also goes away pretty quickly, once you’re immersed. With patience you can easily master the local dialect and accent. Be open to learning and exploring the language. Doing so before you migrate can help you in a big way. There are mobile phone apps that assist you learn a language. When in the foreign land, watch native channels to practice the language. Make friends with local people and seek tips and advice from them.

 Challenge 4: Getting used to currency differences

Getting used to currency differences is also a challenging process. For example, when I was in US, I had to remember that 79 INR make one US dollar. And in UK, I have to remember that when something costs 1 Pound it is actually 96 INR

Make sure you work out a quick conversion system for yourself, so you can mentally figure out prices when buying things, and get to know the “normal” price for staple items – ie. ask locals how much they would expect to pay.

Challenge 5: Being far from your support network

Living abroad is awesome… when everything is going well. But when the heavens seem to conspire against you, you can really feel on your own. The deficit of a good social life will start haunting you. The inner cravings to socialize might be difficult to bear with. You might even curse the decision of shifting to an alien country. Your usual ‘support network’ of family and friends will be hundreds if not thousands of miles away. Even if you weren’t previously aware of how important they were, now is when you’ll find out.

This challenge is likely to be felt most especially true for the first few months of studying abroad. But then, you will build up a new support network and after a year or so, everything will be OK!

Pull yourself together and find ways to overcome the flood of emotions you are going through. This will require pushing yourself to some extent, but it will be worth all your efforts. Use your communication skills and make some friends in your college and locality as well to fill the gap.

Challenge 6: Coping with cultural misunderstandings

As a foreigner, you do not know the local culture and all those unwritten rules (hopefully you have a concept of the written rules) of your host nation. Let’s get one thing straight: you will make mistakes, and many may be awkward. Don’t be embarrassed; learn from cultural misunderstandings and don’t make them again. Again, given a year or so, you will get to know all these little unspoken agreements.

An easy way to avoid many cultural misunderstandings is to observe what others do, and how they do it. If in any doubt, just ask! You’ll find most people are happy to talk about their customs, and will enjoy sharing their insider knowledge with you.

Then there will be challenges like adapting to a new time zone. Your biological cycle may take a severe beating but gradually you will adapt to the new lifestyle and life will become easy Or familiarizing yourself with alien brands and products. Looking for your local products may be a futile exercise so accommodate yourself in your new habitat as soon as possible. Who knows, you might get even better products.

Conclusion

This might seem like an intimidating list, but don’t worry! It sounds significantly harder than it actually is. The phrase “having failed your way to success” comes to mind. I think all people who have studied abroad can relate to that statement. From university applications, to finding a place to stay and identifying the social norms, we have all been unsuccessful in some if not all of these respects.

But when you push through the challenges, everything will work out – and if nothing else, you will have lots of stories to tell at parties.