Having one’s country being the location of International Ivy League tertiary education facilities, parents in the US often find it odd that many Asian parents would do just about everything to send their children overseas for education.
Many parents from Asian countries would sell homes, take extensive loans, even take second or third jobs – if only to allow their child to enjoy education from facilities that would require many hours of air travel.
When parents decide to send their precious child abroad, they will face with multitude of negativities even before they send in the registrations:
- Small-town child may not adapt well to big cities, and vice versa
- Should the child face hardships, the parents will be miles and hours – even days – away
- The parents will end up having to maintain two living quarters, because overseas students do not tend to get dormitory loans
- If their child opted out of the dormitory option, they will need to find a living space for the child
- Unless the child finds a job during the years, they will still need to provide their child’s expenses: food, clothing, travel cost, etc.
In short, for the three to four years of study in an overseas country, parents are required to possess, at the very least, twice as much money as the tuition fee.
Benefits
The benefits, however, will easily be reaped by the children.
1) Single-language-speaking children would learn a second language of the country of their destination.
Non-English-speaking children will be required to master English before enrollment in a University located in English-speaking countries. Non-French speaking children, likewise, will be required to master French before enrollment.
The ability to speak in more than one languages other than one’s own will benefit the child when he is job-hunting, as geography will no longer hinder him.
2) Children from singular-ethnic countries would also benefit from being exposed to cultures other than their own.
Even children from multi-ethnic countries will find out that a country’s cultural signature might differ vastly from that person he knew (back home) who is of that country’s origin.
Learning and acknowledging other countries’ cultures will teach the child to adapt to new and previously unfamiliar circumstances. When the child eventually needs to face challenges in a work environment, he would not fumble, or make unfortunate malaprop that might harm the company he works in.
A good example of an overseas-educated child is Barack Obama. Having resided in a third-world country and experienced the country’s public school, Obama experienced – and thus understood – the importance of (foreign) cultural understanding that is reflected in many of his presidential decisions.
3) Most children who experienced overseas education tend to return home with higher patriotic attitude than before.
Being in a country that is vastly different than one’s own; be it in the level of comfort, culture, climate, can make one realize how fortunate one is for being a citizen of one’s own country. And that one still has a place to call home.