While you're away

1. Make local connections

It some countries, making local friends and meeting local families was not easy to do, but it can be the most rewarding aspect of an international experience.

Please keep in mind that socialization patterns are different across cultures and the way one goes about developing and nurturing a friendship can be quite different from here at home.

Depending on how long your international experience is, consider volunteering while abroad or joining local clubs or student organizations to connect with local community members.

2. Write

Posting on blogs, personal web pages, and other social networking sites are a wonderful way to document your experiences abroad. Some students keep a personal journal while abroad and find they read it and re-read it in the months and years after they return.

Writing can lead to deeper reflection and understanding of international experiences and how they affect each student in a unique way. 

As part of your intercultural training program, you will be given a journal to reflect on your intercultural learning so this will be a great way to document your international experience. 

3. Travel (but not every weekend)

Go on, explore the area, see the sights, try new things! But, don't forget why you chose to have an international experience in the location you did.

Get to know the people in your host community. How do they structure their lives? What concerns are they facing? What makes them happy? Seek to interact with those you might normally not meet, such as the senior population, non-profit groups, or other local citizens that are not necessarily associated with your education program.

By better understanding your local community, you will gain a context in which to process what you learn in the classroom!

4. Break out of your comfort zone

It is not easy to break away from the comfort of people from the same country and perhaps the same university who are going through a similar cultural adaptation process, but spending quality time with people other than other students from your home country or from MtA allows you to form more meaningful relationships within the host culture and deepen your understanding of local traditions and the intercultural experience. 

5. Live like a local

Shopping, eating and socializing with local students is surely the best way to control costs and as an added bonus you will get to see and do things that you might not have known about from a guide book or the internet. 

6. Show appreciation across cultures

Leaving a tip in a restaurant, sending a thank you card or offering a kind word are all typical ways to express our appreciation here at Mount Allison.

Showing appreciation in a different culture might require a new approach. In some cultures, for example, gift giving is very important.

How do people where you are studying show their appreciation? Using the language appropriately, observing societal norms and expectations, and following established protocols can demonstrate your appreciation.

7. Involve your family (but do not depend on them)

By the time you arrive in your host country, you will have already jumped over many hurdles, including sorting through piles of pre-departure paperwork, keeping a good GPA, and packing the essential items for success abroad.

Our advice to you is to view your family members as advisers, mentors, or consultants but refrain from using them as assistants, secretaries or trouble-shooters.

By empowering yourself to address the challenges and opportunities of daily life abroad, you gain skills in intercultural communication, problem solving, navigation, and much more.  Embrace these opportunities for growth!

8. Culture adjustments

Adjusting to a new culture certainly has its emotional ups and downs. Working through daily challenges abroad means that you are moving away from being a tourist toward having more meaningful engagement with the culture.

As difficult as it can be, this is a time for you to consider your own values, assumptions and beliefs and to explore how they are being challenged by your new experiences. Keep in mind that adjustment depends largely on the individual, degree of cultural difference (and perceptions of similarity) and other situational factors.

9. Study the culture

Traveling, learning the local language, and pursuing outside social interests are just some of the many ways you can enjoy your time abroad. But keep in mind that your academic courses are also a great way to pursue in-depth knowledge of your host culture.

Become a specialist in some area of the culture! Don't be satisfied by writing a paper on the contemporary politics of the place where you're studying and not interview a local politician, for example.

If you have the opportunity, don't miss out on studying alongside local students by enrolling directly in a local institution.

10. Develop a new perspective

Quite often the most important things you need to know about a culture, no one ever tells you.

Through time, experience and keen observation, however, you'll begin to discover the cultural knowledge people are using to organize their behaviour. What values, attitudes and assumptions inform that behaviour?

Try to discover the worldviews of those in the host culture by putting aside your own predetermined notions of the way the world is or should be. Challenge your definitions of discrimination and prejudice. What significance do these issues have for those in the host culture?

Most partner universities will automatically send your transcript back to Mount Allison but some require that you submit the request in writing.

Transcripts should be sent to the International Centre:

International Centre
Mount Allison University
62 York St.
Sackille, NB E4L 1E4
CANADA

Fax: (506) 364-2263

Once the we receives your official transcript from your exchange studies, the Registrar's Office will use your form 1-E, and form 1-F and transfer the credits to your Mount Allison account.

While you are on your self-designed international study, make sure you request a transcript be sent directly to the registrar's office.

Registrar's Office
Mount Allison University
62 York St.
Sackille, NB E4L 1E2
CANADA

Fax: (506) 364-2272

Transfer credits will appear at the top of your transcript and can be viewed online through Connect.

Courses from abroad will be listed on your Mount Allison transcript as exchange transfer courses at the beginning of your degree audit.

They will show up as pass/fail credits with no evaluation attached to them.

They DO NOT appear under the term you were abroad.

If you would like additional copies of your transcript for graduate school applications, it is best to make this request while you are still a student at the host university.

Speak with the staff at your host university's international centre for more information.