Study abroad

“ They go abroad, partly because it is the fashion, and gives them a sort of advertisement as having done the proper thing, and partly to learn a new and useful language, and study foreign methods of life. But the fundamental reason of their going is that, instead of sitting in a huge lecture-hall with two or three hundred other men, to take notes verbatim of a lecture which often might be read in a textbook at home, they can join small classes in which they practically demonstrate every fact for themselves, under the guidance of an instructor. ”

“ And here a word or two on the education of Englishmen intending to make a living abroad, especially in Asia, and particularly in Persia, will not, I hope, be out of place. With the fast-growing intercourse between East and West, sufficient stress cannot be laid upon the fact that sound commercial education on up-to-date principles is chiefly successful in countries undergoing the processes of development, and that, above all, the careful study of foreign languages—the more the better—should occupy the attention of the many students in our country who are to live in Asia. ”

“ The expense of studying abroad may be adjusted entirely according to your pocketbook. When anyone tells you it is cheaper to study on the other side, they display their ignorance of the subject. I have studied in this country, Germany, France and Italy, and I have found that, including everything, it costs about the same everywhere. ”

“ The Long Road
[16]
“Travel abroad for one year is more profitable than study at home for five years.... Mencius remarks that a man can learn foreign things best abroad; but much more benefit can be derived from travel by older and experienced men than by the young.”—Chang Chih Tung. ”

“ Gradually the superior advantages of Western education are becoming recognised, more especially in official circles. Students are satisfied now with one of the minor degrees, and, after passing the first degree, are only examined once more if they obtain a diploma from a foreign university or acquire a profession abroad. ”

“ Besides, an academy composed of foreigners, must still be recruited from abroad, unless all the natives of the country, to which it belongs, are in a capacity to become candidates for its honours, or rewards. ”

“ At the same time, primary instruction was being placed on a new basis, and specially promising lads were sent across the sea to imbibe Western learning at its source. When not allowed to go abroad, even well-born young men were happy to black the shoes of a foreign family, in the hope of being able to pick up foreign languages and foreign manners. ”

“ Here again we ought to explain that as no country can specialize in everything and do without the inspiration, instruction and information which can be had abroad, we are not against but for our students going to foreign countries after they have received the best education in this country. ”

“ Here you've been telling me how Europe is an education and a delight, and in the next breath you deliberately deprive your little daughter, whom you pretend to love, of the advantages she might gain by a trip abroad! ”

“ Multitudes of independent travelers, unhampered by a tutor or by anything besides their ignorance, of course visited the Continent without attempting the conventional round, and many pupils traveling with a tutor spent no more than a year or two abroad, but the allowance of three years was not too long for a leisurely survey of the principal countries and for getting some practical acquaintance with foreign languages. ”

“ Germans, Frenchmen, Americans, Englishmen, Japanese, etc., go abroad for finishing their education, in spite of the ample educational facilities to be found in their respective countries. Such should be the ease with us also. ”

“ Of all the popular delusions that we labour under in England, I scarcely know of one more widely circulated, and less founded in fact, than the advantages of foreign travel. Far be it from me to undervalue the benefits men of education receive by intercourse with strangers, and the opportunities of correcting by personal observation the impressions already received by study. ”

“ I shall offer no comment on this passage, beyond observing that if there is any truth at all in the portrait, it is obvious that some discrimination is needed in copying European models. Study institutions on the spot. The best mode of forming an opinion as to the extent to which European institutions and customs should be introduced into this country, is to go to Europe and study them on the spot. Travelling is an important part of education, but it is one for which no provision is made in this University, although travelling fellowships are not unknown elsewhere. ”

“ Scientists and scholars gain greatly from consultations with colleagues in other countries. Students equip themselves for more fruitful careers in the United States by instruction in foreign universities. [13] Then there are reasons close to the core of personal life marriage, reuniting families, spending hours with old friends. Finally, travel abroad enables American citizens to understand that people like themselves live in Europe and helps them to be well-informed on public issues. ”

“ After a young man has employed his time to advantage at a public school, and has continued his application to various branches of science till the age of twenty, you ask, what are the advantages he is likely to reap from a tour abroad?
He will see mankind more at large, and in numberless situations and points of view, [494] in which they cannot appear in Great Britain, or any one country. ”

“ They make a rout with their graces, and talk like a parcel of dancing masters, and dress like a parcel of fops; one good Englishman will beat three of them." [384]
Even during the height of the Grand Tour in the latter half of the seventeenth century, thoughtful minds, observing the effects of a foreign education as seen not only in the courtiers of Charles II., but in the dozens of obscure country gentlemen who painfully sought to acquire the habit of a Parisian Marquis by education abroad, noticed the weak points of such a system. ”

“ The last part usually in education is travel, which is commonly thought to finish the work, and complete the gentleman. I confess travel into foreign countries has great advantages, but the time usually chosen to send young men abroad, is, I think, of all other, that which renders their least capable of reaping those advantages. ”

“ He says:—“He that travelleth into a country before he hath some entrance into the language, goeth to school and not to travel.” He would not object for young men to travel provided they take a tutor who knows languages and “may be able to tell them what things are worthy to be seen in the country where they go, what acquaintances they are to seek, what exercises or discipline the place [Pg 324] yieldeth; for else young men shall go hooded and look abroad little.” ”

“ But here again, looking at the question from an educational rather than an abstract point of view, we have to recognize that actual realization of the life and services of other nations is a slow, difficult, and, at best, a limited process. It was really easier for the travelling student of the Middle Ages to enter into the simple and similar life of universities abroad than for the modern traveller to grasp the complex relations of a great foreign city or state. ”

“ The second mode in which foreign culture was introduced into the mother-land in common with all others—visits made abroad for discipleship or instruction—has all along been, and is now increasingly, maintained. Colonial students go to Europe to be trained in medicine and law. Experts go to become acquainted with advances in science and medicine, or with recent improvements in mechanical processes. ”

“ One of the most undesirable features of travel abroad is to be forced to depend upon the half-incorrect interpretations of guides for one's comfort and pleasure. How much better it is to be able to talk to the natives of the country themselves, and to understand them and their ways! A little preliminary preparation before the trip, or while one is on the way, serves as an excellent foundation upon which to build one's knowledge of the language and customs of a foreign country. ”

“ Had you come on the Continent to be abroad what you were well contented to be at home,—had you abstained from the mockery of a class you never belonged to,—had you settled down amidst those your equals in rank, and often much more than your equals in knowledge and acquirement,—your journey would not have been a series of disappointments. ”

“ At the time when our present system of modern European education was yet in its infancy, no scholar ever dreamt of aspiring to eminence till he had not only acquired by reading all the learning within his reach, but had seen the manners of many races in the cities wherein they dwelt, and had exercised his own intellect in personal contact with all that he could reach of the great and wise in other countries. This passion for foreign travel has gone on increasing among all the advancing nations of Europe down to the present day. ”

“ Finally, the young man, when about twenty-three years of age, should travel abroad, and thus, when mature enough to comprehend them, become acquainted with the geography, history, and politics of other countries. ”

“ Any foreigner can attend the course of lectures of the most celebrated men in France, and indeed in the world, for nothing. The law students number about three thousand; those studying medicine about three thousand; and those studying the sciences about fifteen hundred. Foreign students are admitted upon the same terms as French, and a diploma given by an American college, if it be of high repute, will put the student upon the same footing as a French bachelier et lettres when the object is to study law or medicine. ”

“ They are left with the undisputed idea that their system of instruction is altogether the best, as proven by the spectacle of aliens coming here for schooling. Why, then, should German lads and misses go abroad to learn? ”

“ In our own vast country, with oceans on either side, we have had too little contact with foreign peoples readily to understand their customs or learn their languages; yet no one can doubt that we shall learn and shall understand and shall do our business abroad, as we have done it at home, with force and efficiency. ”

“ Let it be considered, that every one, whose circumstances allow of this, will have a plan before them, and every incitement to render their education as perfect as possible. Many who are not in a condition to support, the expence of being educated abroad, by being instructed here in the first elements of their profession, and informed what further remains to be done, have it in their power to finish their studies abroad afterwards with advantage. This class perhaps includes the greatest part of medical students. ”

“ The intention of the Academy was also to benefit gentlemen going abroad, by giving them language and instruction, with other ornaments of travel. 'There is no understanding man,' says the prospectus or advertisement of the institution, 'but may resent how many of our noblemen and young gentlemen travel into foreign countries before they have any language or knowledge to make profit of their time abroad, they not being any way able to get knowledge for want of language, nor language for want of time ”

“ More than fifty professors, assistants, and teachers are employed, two hundred and five students and ninety-two graduates are registered, and fifteen students are entered as sent abroad to England, France, and Germany. ”

“ Proficiency in the technique of foreign trade or consular practice or diplomatic procedure is but a fractional part of the full equipment of American youths aspiring to serve their country's interests abroad either in public or private capacity. ”

“ Technical knowledge will be futile unless humanized by a broad sympathy with the men and institutions of other climes. Therefore, the policy of sending such groups of students abroad deserves encouragement, and I earnestly recommend that the Regent of the School of Foreign Service be authorized, on the basis of the substantial success of this first experimental visit, to send such students as it is possible to select and send under competent direction, to other countries in the summer of the present year and hereafter. ”

“ We sent rather our own men to Germany to be instructed, and when they returned the movement of students abroad largely ceased. Japan has followed our example, except that she still continues to send her men abroad for final instruction if they are to be entrusted with the higher posts in the university. ”

“ There is one thing that also tends to give the student or lover of travel something of an unsatisfied feeling, as his journey draws near its close, especially if he has been limited as to time; and that is, the thought of how much there is in Europe to study and to see, and how little, comparatively, he has accomplished. ”

“ And so, whether you’re just continuing your journey and your education to expand your understanding of why you’re spending the time hitting those books every night and writing those papers, it will completely change your perspective and understanding to go abroad and spend time in someone else’s nation as the person that’s not a citizen and see the life from their perspective, but also hear their perspective of how they look back at us. ”

“ It is, of course, a common practice for wealthy parents to send their children to Europe to be educated, and perhaps, under the circumstances, that is the best course. But with a sound and liberal course of studies and good moral and religious discipline, the young might be kept in the country till they had completed their University career, and then sent for a short residence abroad. ”