How Studying Abroad is Like a Reality TV Show (1/2)
February 26, 2008 – 9:18 pmImagine gathering a group of strangers and putting them in close promixity together in a foreign environment with some sort of goal in mind. Then you watch to see what happens.
Does any of this sound familiar?
Yeah, it’s the fundamental formula used for most reality TV shows.
It is also the basic structure for something else most of you are probably less acquainted with: studying abroad.
Not all study abroad programs operate like reality TV shows, but they all have the potential to. Just imagine: a group of students, most if not all of whom did not know each other before the trip, are off to a country where they probably don’t speak the language, and one another are all the friends they have on that side of the world.
I don’t really know how this picture is related to the post, but doesn’t the guy standing there look as if he’s about to embark on some reality TV show challenge?
If you’ve never studied abroad before, you’ll have no idea how time passes differently when you’re in a foreign country with people you hoped and hoped you would become fast friends with. Time passes much more slowly. Everyday is a new experience. Everything as mundane as going to school and ordering lunch are novelities to you. Everybody is also new to you. You find out little things about each other everyday, figuring out along the way whether you’re going to enjoy these people’s company in the long run. Sometimes, you end up making your decisions pretty early.
Smaller study abroad programs (ten or less people) usually function more like reality TV shows. Any more than that, and it’s just high school all over again with all the cliques, in-groups, and out-groups.
That’s not to say subgroups can’t form with a base group of ten or less, but the point is that everyone knows everyone. When I studied in Sweden, because there were nearly a hundred of us, I can clearly remember that there were certain people I never had a conversation with. I had my regular circle of buddies, and that was enough for me. Humans are intrinsically lazy like that.
When I studied in Japan, however, there were only ten of us Americans with ten Japanese who were paired with us as “tutors.” Everybody knew everybody and talked with everybody. Naturally, I grew closer to some Americans and some Japanese than to others, but I talked with everyone.
This is where the reality TV show part kicks in.
You’re in a whole new country. Typically, you’ve come to expand your horizons, and that’s exactly what you’re doing, but the irony is that you have also shrunk your immediate social world. You don’t speak the local language (yet), so befriending random people is out of the question. You don’t really talk to your classmates because, believe it or not, as curious as they might be about you foreigners, they’re too timid to speak to you. Some countries are exceptions, though. Some people are exceptions too.
So, you basically have a pretty set group of people whom you spend time with. Chances are, you’re also living together. It’s a perfect formula to get people to grow close to each other very fast. (I grew very close to the people I met in Japan, and regardless of anything I say in this article that relates to Japan, I never regretted a thing I did while studying abroad there.)
A romance abroad is an exciting idea. There’s no way you can go around that statement. As difficult or awkward as it might sound, it is undeniably interesting.
