Thinking About Study Abroad
'When I studied in France in the early 1980s, everything seemed different there. There were traditions I'd never heard of: marketplaces filled with chrysanthemums for Toussaint in November, chocolate fish at Easter, lily-of-the-valley for 1 May. There were surprising debates going on: politics, literature and philosophy certainly didn't stir up such passions among people my age in Britain. The food was strange, the road traffic was mad, the music was dreadful, the language wasn't anything like the one in my textbooks... and it was all wonderful. All year, every day, from morning to night, I learned. Among many other things, I learned to open my eyes and ears, to accommodate other norms, to change my mind, to adapt and, above all, to begin understanding one of the world's great cultures together with its beautiful language.
If you decide to spend time studying in a country other than your own, and if you truly open your mind to the differences you will encounter, you will be transformed by the experience. Of course you'll be taking a certain risk. That's the great thing about it.' Professor Lorna Milne, Vice-Principal (Proctor)
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