Importance of Foreign Languages and Student Exchange Programs

With the world opening up like never before, the importance of foreign languages and student exchange programs cannot be underestimated. With the global economy introducing more exciting opportunities in different parts of the world, no longer is it enough to know just one language to excel in one’s career and life. To have an interesting life with exciting opportunities, it helps to know foreign languages. Having a professional level competency in a foreign language (or several languages) provides more opportunities for growth in one’s professional life. Student exchange programs can lay the foundation for this and be the playground in which one can apply the theoretical aspects of a foreign language in day-to-day life, giving a strong practical base for what would otherwise remain as mere bookish knowledge.

The advantages of learning a foreign language and participating in a student exchange program are more than one can count. However, here are a few major ones which should be enough to convince anyone to give it a try, no matter how much it may take one out of the comfort zone. In the end, the only way you grow is by stretching yourself out of that comfort zone!

• Learning a foreign language creates new neural pathways in the brain, leading to an expansion of one’s intellectual capacity as well as confidence in oneself.
• Learning a foreign language gifts students the beauty of new friendships and new interests, which go a long way in enriching one’s life and opening up new faces in one’s personality which you may have never known existed. It helps to reach one’s full potential.
• Knowing a foreign language makes it possible to apply for jobs in interesting or exotic areas of the world which would otherwise have been closed to further exploration.
• Knowing different foreign languages widens one’s professional and personal network of contacts, so you have a larger friend base around the world who would be able to help you out in future for any personal or professional scenarios.
• Being a foreign exchange student gives one exposure to a foreign culture like nothing else ever can. The differences in culture, food, language, traditions, and sometimes even clothing and architecture, can open one’s mind to new ways of living and being. They will be better able to adjust and understand people from different backgrounds. They will also be able to have a broader outlook when it comes to appreciating the world in general and different cultures in particular.
• Staying with a host family as a foreign exchange student gives one an intimate experience of what it is like to be in a family in that country. Students get to have a second family that will remain a family for them for life. This expands one’s sense of community and helps one look at the world in a different, more loving and accepting context.
• A student exchange program pulls one out of the comfort zone and forces one to adapt to different situations and people in a totally different culture, and sometimes, speaking a totally foreign language. This helps one’s character to become stronger and more resilient. Students become more confident in themselves. They become more secure in the knowledge that they can live anywhere in the world, make friends with anyone, be welcomed and loved anywhere, and feel at home with anyone. This is a broadening of one’s mindset which results in a more mature personality at the end of the program.

Today, schools, colleges, and universities are encouraging more global participation among students. While this is also possible through social media, the advantages of actually staying in a foreign country, with a host family, as a foreign exchange student, is unparalleled by anything that the internet can offer. Having an experience like this during one’s formative years is something that will add a further layer of confidence competence in the student’s character. They are able to make their own decisions based on their own thoughts, rather than be blindly influenced by others. They also get experience in developing transferable skills in a hands-on manner, which will not only look good on a resume but also be handy for life.

Learning a foreign language and participating in a student exchange program makes students more independent, confident, and mature within a very short time and stays with them for life. This is not just an experience for a year, but an experience of a lifetime.

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