Project: studying abroad

March 17

Should I Study Abroad?

Every year hundreds of students leave the comforts of their homes in Colombia to continue with her/his studies in another country. For example, students who want to study a master or a doctoral degree travel to countries such as the United States, Canada, England, Australia, France, Canada, China, Japan, Germany or to Latin American countries such as Brazil, Argentina, Chile or Mexico.

Living and studying in another country is a big decision and has a lot of advantages but it can also have its problems, so if you are thinking about studying abroad, you should take into account both advantages and disadvantages.

One of the advantages to study abroad is to study in a university where you can find researchers, professors and scientists who are studying your topic of interest. Another advantage is to study in an academic community conformed by people from different nationalities, therefore, different points of view and backgrounds.  You have also to take into account cultural differences. In foreign countries, there are aspects of culture that are completely different from your home own culture, and you have to be prepared to accept them. Those differences will help you to realize that there are lots of ways for one to see the world.

Regarding disadvantages, you may feel lonely and you will probably have times when you will greatly miss your family, friends, food, and everything that you are familiar with. You might experience some homesickness. Some people return home earlier than expected because their ideas about spending time in another country were different from reality they later experienced.

And, of course, there is also the economic dimension of living abroad. This is very important because there is no doubt that one needs money to study abroad, actually, to study abroad can be extremely expensive. In some countries students are allowed to work but not in all of them. In some cases you need to save money before traveling, in other cases you can travel with the help of a scholarship provided by one university or by the national or local government.

In conclusion, studying abroad has its advantages and disadvantages, but if you are a National University student, you can have more advantages because you have many possibilities to study without paying a penny. If you want to know more about these possibilities, Visit:

http://www.dre.unal.edu.co/nc/enx/movilidad.html

Reading comprehension questions:

1. What are the advantages of studying abroad?

2. What are the disadvantages of studying abroad?

3. What are the advantages for a National University student?

4. What does DRE stand for?

5. What is the country(ies) you would like to go to study? why?

March 19

Today we attended a conference held by Jorge Gómez. He spoke about DRE and the possibilities one National University student has to study abroad.

Based on the conference, answer these questions in comments:

1. Is there any agreement between National University and the universities located in the country you would like to to go?
2. What are the requirements to do an international mobility?
3. What are the general recommendations given by Jorge Gómez?
4. Where is DRE located?

April 7

Activities for this class:

- Write a composition about the chosen country
- Present the country profile presentations by using the posters prepared on March 24
- Prepare 5 questions about a country for a special guest we will have on April 9. Post your questions in comments

* In order to prepare your presentations and questions, use: http://text-to-speech.imtranslator.net/
It will be useful for you to practice your pronunciation.

Reading retrieved and adapted from: English virtual course level 3. National University. March 2015

Image retrieved from: http://pixabay.com/en/man-laugh-smile-happy-relaxed-451289/ for educational purposes. March 2015