It’s that time of the semester when students studying abroad have, or are preparing to, hop on a plane and move out of the country for a while. Some go for language learning, others for internships or work, but all take the daunting step of leaving what is familiar.
I’ve been there too — this time three years ago, I was a few weeks into a semester in Argentina, and about a year ago I was returning home after six months working in Spain. My time in Buenos Aires, Argentina taught me a lot about culture shock and managing my expectations, which helped me as I prepared to teach English in Spain.
Whether you’re going abroad yourself, or have international student friends, I hope my experiences can help you learn more about living abroad.
There’s growth in the deep end
By the time I left for Argentina, I’d been studying Spanish for almost eight years and felt like I had hit a plateau. While there’s a lot to learn in the classroom, being immersed in a language 24/7 takes your skill to a new level.
My goal was to become fluent in Spanish, and I knew I’d have to push myself off the deep end to get there. To this day, I’m so glad that I did. Argentina was where I learned more of the colloquial forms and idioms of the Spanish language that come up in everyday conversation.
It was still hard to push myself when talking with strangers, but I had a breakthrough when I stopped trying to sound exactly like a native Spanish speaker. I’m not one. People are going to be able to tell that I learned Spanish as a second language, and that’s okay. Accepting that, ironically, led to a lot of improvement, because I was more likely to interact with people I would have been nervous to speak with before.
Sometimes you need a change of scenery
The summer before I went to Buenos Aires, Argentina was a hard one. The pandemic was starting to end but it was still having effects on my mental health. I spent a lot of time shut up in my apartment and stuck in my head.
I wasn’t sure about studying abroad, wondering if that would just make things worse, but after speaking with a mentor, I decided to go ahead. He had asked me, “What would you do if you weren’t afraid?” And my answer was, “Study abroad.”
I wanted to be brave, and so I chose to move forward despite the anxiety I felt. That’s one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.
Being in a completely new environment helped get me out of my head. I was so busy exploring Buenos Aires and learning about Argentina that I had less time — and mental space — for worry.
Moving abroad takes a lot of energy, so pace yourself
Even if you’re only going for a few months, it can be exhausting to live abroad. There’s so much to figure out: What’s the layout of my new neighborhood? How do I get to school or work? Where’s the best place to buy produce?
In my experience, the mental load is only increased if the primary language of your new home isn’t the same as your mother tongue. Despite being almost fluent in Spanish by the time I moved to Spain, it took extra brainpower to go about my daily life in a foreign language and land.
My main takeaway from that experience is to get lots of rest. At the beginning, I took many naps, slept in when possible and incorporated more downtime into my day. After a few weeks my energy levels returned to normal, but it took time to adjust to the cognitive load of living outside my home culture.
There’s a lot of little things I learned abroad — for a random example, some doorknobs in Spain are in the middle of the door — but the more general lessons were about courage and my limits. Those things continue to serve me well today.
