Travel Abroad programs offer education and life experience!
Travel while you're young and you'll never grow old.
Not mentally, at least. This planet is a grand place to explore. The new experiences you'll gain will have you discovering life like a baby once more. Each and every time.
The first step in becoming a world explorer is definitely the hardest. You'll have to leave behind everyone you know and all the places you're familiar with to embark on a new, unknown adventure. Traveling can be scary, but so worth it.
Fortunately, there are travel abroad programs that can help ease first-time travelers into the process. These programs allow students the opportunity to fully enjoy and immerse themselves in their journey while studying abroad.
If you're still on the fence, read on to see why traveling abroad and education go hand-in-hand.
Culture Immersion
There's no place like home.
It's true. But now, imagine how many homes there are across this big, wide world. Too many to count, right?
Every single one is teeming with life and stories, passed down from generation to generation. Rich with history. And you have the possibility to soak them all in.
Travel abroad programs allow students the opportunity to immerse themselves in the local culture. Want to eat pasta in Italy? Do it, you'll never taste a marinara sauce as robust and flavorful. Art galleries in the Louvre Museum will leave your heart brimming with romance.
These are just the tip of cultural experiences the many nations of the world have to offer. Games, cuisines, music, artwork, myths and fables, politics, history--the list goes on. There are so many walks of life to learn from.
Immersing yourself in a foreign culture will deepen your understanding of humanity. You'll experience so many new and different ways of life through travel abroad programs. It's enlightening to learn that there are so many other ways to live than the customs you've been raised with.
It might even make you consider the culture you've grown accustomed to in your homeland.
Questions you've never considered before might pop up, like...why do Americans drive on the right side of the road? The answer to that is trivial, but asking it is quite significant.
It signifies you're thinking about how you've been living your life and brings forth the question: 'Do I want to continue living this way?'
Language Learning
If you're studying a secondary language, there's no better way to do it than to jump right into the deep end.
Language is so ingrained in the culture and the people that primarily speak it. Yes, you can take courses in educational institutions to learn grammar and form. But learning the style and color of a language comes best straight from the source.
Most travel abroad programs are set up to give full immersion into the language.
That anatomy and physiology class you've been studying this semester? Still the same information, but now you can continue learning it in Portuguese. And if you're a complete novice to the language, there are travel abroad programs for that as well.
The true learning will come as you mosey through town and strike up conversations with the locals. They're likely to be as intrigued by a foreigner as you are by them. That's the true joy of studying abroad--realizing how open and generous strangers can be to one another.
Everyone is eager for a little bit of something new.
Personal Growth
More than anything, travel abroad programs teach us more about ourselves.
The people and places you've grown up with are the norms. You see them everyday, hardly even noticing them. You become numb to the complacency.
That's a natural, stress-free way of existing, but it only offers so much in terms of living.
The circumstances you'll find yourself in while studying abroad will give you the opportunity to truly understand who you are. By putting yourself in a foreign land, you'll begin to recognize the contrast you see in yourself from the people around you.
It's this juxtaposition that allows you to observe yourself, and make a judgment. Is this good? Is it bad?
Neither. But it's vital to your growth to ask these sorts of questions. To recognize the way you've been living your life up until this point, and realize that there are other ways.
It can be quite a shock to the system, almost like an awakening. But just think: "what have I been asleep to for so long?
Embrace it. Embrace the people around you that allowed you this gift. They'll learn from you as much as you from them. Who knows, you might even form a life-long bond with someone in this distant land.
And wherever you go, know that you can always return. The people and places you left will still be there when you get back, but you'll be different.
Find Travel Abroad Programs for You
The memories and life-lessons you'll make traveling abroad are priceless. Hopefully, you're now ready and energized to make the first step!
Nacel is committed to offering the best travel abroad programs for any young student. Contact us now if you're seeking to extend your language learning and knowledge of another culture through a well-organized and affordable program.
We offer services for high school and collegiate students looking to study abroad, as well as homestays with local families across the globe, and internships with international business.