“Study Abroad” is the title of my most recent entry at The Student Branding Blog. I recorded the video in Getxo, Spain, where I am spending the first three weeks in June teaching international management through the University Studies Abroad Consortium (USAC). From Getxo I fly directly to London where I will live and teach International Organizational Behavior through my own College of Business for four weeks. Seven weeks is a long time to be away from home, but I am making the most of the experience.
If you have never lived or traveled extensively outside of your home country, you don’t know what you are missing. People are often orders of magnitude different in other countries, and I find that fascinating. You owe it to yourself to experience life beyond your borders. You really can’t appreciate how rich your own life is until you experience how people in other countries live their lives.
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Great post Bret. And you’re so right.
We tend to think “our way” is “the way” of living – when in fact, we’re such a small part of the global culture. Europeans can teach us a lot about taking time to enjoy life, and not being so consumer oriented.
Safe travels back!
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Bret L. Simmons Reply:
June 8th, 2010 at 8:24 am
I agree, Larry. I find Europeans fascinating. They are so much more cosmopolitan that we are. I’ve met Europeans that speak several languages and routinely travel among countries. We speak one language and often never leave our state! Thanks. Bret
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Bret, my most interesting trip was to S.Korea four years ago. We stayed in a working class neighborhood in Seoul. My daughter was teaching there, so we had our days to wander without her.
I learned a lot about what it feels like to be an outsider. People stared and pointed. Children rushed up to us and said “hi” over and over again (the only American word they knew). We couldn’t read menus and the restaurant owners didn’t speak English. Everything was printed in Korean using hungle (sp?) alphabet.
It was an amazing growing experience, even for this “mature” person.
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