Advantages of language exchanges for students
Currently, adolescents have many opportunities to travel abroad and take study trips that, in addition to being fun for them, are very enriching. In general, schools and institutes make trips to destinations where students can enjoy a more or less close culture, since they know something or a lot of the mother language of that country and city. Therefore, it is highly recommended that if personal circumstances permit and accompanying empower teenagers to have this kind of experience that not only will remember all his life, but also will only have advantages in developing personal and academic.
The personal advantages of doing language exchanges
In general, it is usually the first time that an adolescent student goes abroad when making this type of exchange. Some have already gone out with the family on leisure time vacations, but alone, without parental supervision, these trips represent for them the first time that they have to develop themselves and in a culture and language different from their own. And although it may cause doubts and fears in the family when deciding whether to authorize the minor to make the trip, they must take into account the amount of benefits that the adolescent will have on a personal level with this experience:
- Adolescents , as a general rule, still tend to live quite dependent on their parents or caregivers. Therefore, in this type of experience, they will have the possibility to put into practice and begin to develop their autonomy . Sometimes it is not easy and they have a hard time, since they are used to having someone who solves everything for them and even decides for them, but it is a way of growing, learning and fending for themselves, very necessary tools in life.
- Traveling is always a very enriching experience. And being, in general, the first time for a teenager without the family, it is a moment, as we have seen before, that allows children to enjoy themselves at will, decide to do things that really motivate them, plan at their own pace. Knowing about other cultures at these ages is quite an important experience because having the ability to see other ways of doing and being in the world gives them perspective and opens up a field of vision and action hitherto unknown.
- The possibility at these ages of being able to face daily life in a foreign language will mean a flow and learning, as well as a fluency in that language, which is a huge advance at those relatively early ages. Learning a foreign language at those ages is much faster and when it is done with full cultural immersion it involves a development that makes them learn and internalize the language in a natural way and if they continue to study it, they will have almost native levels.
- To find yourself you have to get lost, in most cases. So it is normal for boys alone to find themselves in difficult situations for them, to find themselves lost in new cities, to find themselves in mazes to be solved by themselves. But this will make them stronger, wiser, and much more autonomous. Although sometimes they have some fear, it is normal, they will come out much stronger from these experiences.
Academic and work advantages for students who carry out exchanges
- Making exchanges will bring children many immediate advantages , but also in the long term, when they face the world of work. Learning a language at the levels that they can do thanks to cultural exchanges implies a command and knowledge of a language that will make them stand out far above those who have not had this experience. For this reason, it is highly advisable that adolescents begin to have this type of experience to prepare for a future job as competitive as the one we have today, and which will become more and more so every day.
- This type of trip will allow them to arrive very prepared and loose in the command of the foreign language, so it is the ideal time to prepare for an official exam . They will be much more connected to the language and that will make it easier for them to take the exams with all the guarantees of success.
- In general, these types of trips are usually made in schools so that students can practice the language they study at school or institute. This type of trip can help them to obtain the highest grade in this subject, which is always a way to later have access to the university they want much more easily.
- Currently, it is necessary to have a level of a language more or less medium to obtain a university degree . This type of experience helps adolescents, as we have seen before, to be able to obtain it in advance so that they do not have to make that effort in their college years.
- The business world today is quite competitive. It requires the most qualified personnel, the best trained and those who can help maintain international relations in order to grow. Not only certified knowledge of a foreign language is what will open doors for candidates. Exchanges and time spent abroad is a way of deciding on a candidate among possibly many others, it is what will give you some important tools and attitudes when developing a job, for all that we have seen that having experiences in foreign countries.