Studying Abroad and Homesickness
The idea of studying abroad is common in each and every society.
There is always this tendency to read, know about and explore other cultures.
Easterners keep going westwards to obtain a more detailed and thorough knowledge
about westerners and vice versa. “A third of the junior class at Wheaton have
been abroad and proportionally fewer sophomores and freshmen have visited foreign
countries. Forty-five out of a class of 104 have been to Europe, Asia, or South
America” (Highacres Collegian, 1959) My interview, which was held at Foxdale
retirement house, with Dr. Arthur Edward Goldschmidt Jr, who happens to be a
professor of Middle East History, has tackled the same preceding point too. Dr.
Arthur must have also experienced this sense of missing home when he was
studying at Cairo. Dr. Goldschmidt has shared me his experience of studying
Arabic language abroad and how it felt like to be away from his country.
Feelings of missing one’s home is almost applicable to all human beings
changing their former place of residence for another, even if temporarily.
No one is to deny how important it is to acquire the knowledge
directly from its origin. This prior idea alone is sufficient enough to
encourage students to study abroad and even encourages institutions to sponsor
those willing students.
Inas Messiha, Penn state lecturer in French and Arabic, agreed with
the necessity of study in a foreign language and study abroad. “the best way to
get to know someone is to learn their language,” she said. Messiha added that
the best way to gain a better understanding of the language was to study
abroad. “Speaking the language for one hour, three days a week for French, or
five days a week for Arabic, cannot be compared to living in it,” she said
(Daily Collegian 2003).
As
demonstrated above, the new environment itself has a stronger impact on the
process of learning and acquiring the information. This allows a better and a
clearer understanding of the language and the information this language tries
to convey.
Those feelings of being out of place, not belonging, or even
rejected can drive the person to go astray from the main purpose of going
abroad. One might end up falling under a huge psychological unease or experiencing
what is known as homesickness. “A study from the University of Iowa shows that
nearly 65% of new students feel homesick” (Daily Collegian, 1987). This percentage must have grown since studying
abroad have spread widely nowadays.
Since 40’s and 50’s, as la vies show, there were several attempts
to lessen this effect of being away from one’s home. Different national and
international types of clubs welcomed different types of students. Hubs are
designed in a way that allows students to mingle and socialize with one another
too. Follows are examples of clubs that were put forward in the selected la
vies reviewed (1944-1948).
To
conclude, one can say that feelings of homesickness is shared since early days
till the current moment. No one is to deny the several attempts to lessen its
effect, yet at the same time today’s technological advancement like, Face-time
and other socially connecting application, somehow eases the process a little
bit.
