In this "Room for Debate" assignment, we need choose a debate topic and compose a persuasive arguments to support my position on this debate. i also need cite three sources to back up my arguments. These sources are from 1) Room for Debate, 2) Online Library Database, 3) Video.
American students also need study abroad
America is well-known for its high-quality education. According to the U.S. News Education, students from overseas made up about 4%1 of all university students in the U.S. by 2014, which was way higher than any other country. Also more than half of universities in the top 100 world university rank2 are from the U.S. No doubt that America has the best professors and curriculums. Then what about the American-born students? Do they need to go to other countries to study? In this question, the former United States ambassador to the Asian Development Bank from 2007 to 2010, Curtis S. Chin, gave out his voice. In his article3, “Studying Abroad Can Be an Expensive Waste of Time.” He said students’ learning success should be determined by good and accountable professors and parents. And America already has these elements, so, in his opinion studying abroad is unnecessary distraction for students. However, as a foreigner student in America from China, my experience tells me that through studying abroad, college students can learn not only knowledge and foreign language, but also ability of overcoming hardships, ability of thinking independently, and ability of managing money. These are all essential elements for every young person who pursue successful career.
When moving to a foreign country, no matter the person is mature or immature, male or female, the first challenge a college student faces is problems of eating and lodging. They get so used to being treated as a prince or princess at home that eating and lodging, which should be the simplest issues, are the first hardship they must conquer. In the motherland, students have certain tastes and they tend to always eat the one they like. However, in foreign country, they can't eat their favorites any more. Even if there are some American-style foods in that country, those foods are accustomed to fit the local people's taste, like I can never eat some authentic Chinese food in Chinese restaurants in the U.S. They have no choice but to try those local foods. When they try the different kind of the local food, they will rebuild a new list of like-and-dislike. Same with eating, lodging is another big issue students have problems with. When people are born, we are automatically arranged with a cozy home to live. Nobody struggles for finding living space. Later when students leave homes for colleges, the schools prepare dormitories. What the students do is to just move into an already arranged place. So lodging is not a problem at all for college students in their own countries. However, living in foreign countries is different. Nothing is arranged for the students. They need look at tons of houses and find out the best one which satisfies them mostly. In addition to difficulties of eating and lodging, students encounter numerous problems, like how to see a doctor, how to interact with the local, and how to move from place A to place B which were impossible to become difficulties at all in their own countries. Starting solving with difficulties of eating and lodging, they will gradually get used to living with difficulties and always try to solve them. Eventually they become confident to declare that difficulties can be solved and hardships can be overcome.
Besides encountering difficulties, students will also find out that information on same affair is unsymmetrical in different countries. Take the Korean War for example, the Chinese textbook taught me that the war started by South Korea and was waged out of American aggression. The official title of the war in China is “The war to resist America and Aid North Korea.” I believed that. Later, in the History class in America. I was told that the war was started by the North Korea who invaded South Korea. The professor told me that American government didn’t have any aggression to invade the mainland of China.. I was confused about what the truth was on earth. Now I know the truth because recently the Chinese rewrite the history about the war which is same with the American version. This different description on same topic is just a piece of iceberg. When American students listen to news from the local media or talk to that countries’ student, they will find a lot of differences between the information they have heard from American textbooks or media and information from that country. As students, we want hear unbiased information. But nowadays in most time, truth is always processed before being released to the public. However, thankfully we are able to think. Through comparing and contracting, students have abilities to get rid of all seasonings and find out the raw information. The more unsymmetrical information they find, the sharper they recognize on things. As a result, they are not influenced by environment and think independently.
I always hear the customers in my salon say that their children can choose whatever they are interested in as major, but they must choose accounting or financing as minor. Obviously, knowledge of managing money is crucial. From the classes of accounting or financing, I guess students learn how to maintain and increase the value of their assets. In practical way, I believe studying abroad is one of the best ways to learn the skill of managing money. Students in foreign countries must always consider how much they have left. They have to spend money in eating, living, and transportations every day. They have to make sure that they won’t spend out of budget. Because breaking the budget line may influence his or her plan on purchasing other stuffs or just make the person bankrupted in that certain period. For the foreigner student, the most terrified thing which they even don’t want to think about is that they don’t have enough money to buy flight tickets to come back home. Consequently, they are very careful in managing money. I saw many foreigners take notes of whatever they bought. By taking notes and reviewing them, they know from where they can cut expenditures. Given they break the budget and don’t have enough money to pay tuition, they will think of some ways to make money. As time goes by, they become skillful in managing it. This knowledge will help students in their entire lives.
Above all, studying abroad sounds stressful and full of challenges and hardships. Actually it does. But students should remember that all sufferings have their reward. If we don’t know how suffering tastes like, we won’t know the taste of happiness. The first lady, Michelle Obama, gave a speech in Peking University on March 22, 2014. In her speech, the importance of studying abroad, she quoted a Chinese saying, “It is better to travel ten thousand miles than to read ten thousand books.”
Works Cited
“Best Global Universities Rankings.” U.S. News & World Report Education. U.S. News & World Report LP, 29 Oct 2015. Web. 19 Nov 2015
Chin, Curtis. “Studying Abroad Can Be an Expensive Waste of Time.” The New York Times. The New York Times Company. 17 Oct 2013. Web. 19 Nov 2015.
Haynie, Devon. “Number of International College Students Continues to Climb.” U.S. News & World Report Education. U.S. News & World Report LP, 19 Nov 2014. Web. 11 Nov 2015.
The White House. “The First Lady on the Importance of Studying Abroad.” Online video clip. Youtube. Youtube, 22 Mar 2014. Web. 19 Nov 2015
American students also need study abroad
America is well-known for its high-quality education. According to the U.S. News Education, students from overseas made up about 4%1 of all university students in the U.S. by 2014, which was way higher than any other country. Also more than half of universities in the top 100 world university rank2 are from the U.S. No doubt that America has the best professors and curriculums. Then what about the American-born students? Do they need to go to other countries to study? In this question, the former United States ambassador to the Asian Development Bank from 2007 to 2010, Curtis S. Chin, gave out his voice. In his article3, “Studying Abroad Can Be an Expensive Waste of Time.” He said students’ learning success should be determined by good and accountable professors and parents. And America already has these elements, so, in his opinion studying abroad is unnecessary distraction for students. However, as a foreigner student in America from China, my experience tells me that through studying abroad, college students can learn not only knowledge and foreign language, but also ability of overcoming hardships, ability of thinking independently, and ability of managing money. These are all essential elements for every young person who pursue successful career.
When moving to a foreign country, no matter the person is mature or immature, male or female, the first challenge a college student faces is problems of eating and lodging. They get so used to being treated as a prince or princess at home that eating and lodging, which should be the simplest issues, are the first hardship they must conquer. In the motherland, students have certain tastes and they tend to always eat the one they like. However, in foreign country, they can't eat their favorites any more. Even if there are some American-style foods in that country, those foods are accustomed to fit the local people's taste, like I can never eat some authentic Chinese food in Chinese restaurants in the U.S. They have no choice but to try those local foods. When they try the different kind of the local food, they will rebuild a new list of like-and-dislike. Same with eating, lodging is another big issue students have problems with. When people are born, we are automatically arranged with a cozy home to live. Nobody struggles for finding living space. Later when students leave homes for colleges, the schools prepare dormitories. What the students do is to just move into an already arranged place. So lodging is not a problem at all for college students in their own countries. However, living in foreign countries is different. Nothing is arranged for the students. They need look at tons of houses and find out the best one which satisfies them mostly. In addition to difficulties of eating and lodging, students encounter numerous problems, like how to see a doctor, how to interact with the local, and how to move from place A to place B which were impossible to become difficulties at all in their own countries. Starting solving with difficulties of eating and lodging, they will gradually get used to living with difficulties and always try to solve them. Eventually they become confident to declare that difficulties can be solved and hardships can be overcome.
Besides encountering difficulties, students will also find out that information on same affair is unsymmetrical in different countries. Take the Korean War for example, the Chinese textbook taught me that the war started by South Korea and was waged out of American aggression. The official title of the war in China is “The war to resist America and Aid North Korea.” I believed that. Later, in the History class in America. I was told that the war was started by the North Korea who invaded South Korea. The professor told me that American government didn’t have any aggression to invade the mainland of China.. I was confused about what the truth was on earth. Now I know the truth because recently the Chinese rewrite the history about the war which is same with the American version. This different description on same topic is just a piece of iceberg. When American students listen to news from the local media or talk to that countries’ student, they will find a lot of differences between the information they have heard from American textbooks or media and information from that country. As students, we want hear unbiased information. But nowadays in most time, truth is always processed before being released to the public. However, thankfully we are able to think. Through comparing and contracting, students have abilities to get rid of all seasonings and find out the raw information. The more unsymmetrical information they find, the sharper they recognize on things. As a result, they are not influenced by environment and think independently.
I always hear the customers in my salon say that their children can choose whatever they are interested in as major, but they must choose accounting or financing as minor. Obviously, knowledge of managing money is crucial. From the classes of accounting or financing, I guess students learn how to maintain and increase the value of their assets. In practical way, I believe studying abroad is one of the best ways to learn the skill of managing money. Students in foreign countries must always consider how much they have left. They have to spend money in eating, living, and transportations every day. They have to make sure that they won’t spend out of budget. Because breaking the budget line may influence his or her plan on purchasing other stuffs or just make the person bankrupted in that certain period. For the foreigner student, the most terrified thing which they even don’t want to think about is that they don’t have enough money to buy flight tickets to come back home. Consequently, they are very careful in managing money. I saw many foreigners take notes of whatever they bought. By taking notes and reviewing them, they know from where they can cut expenditures. Given they break the budget and don’t have enough money to pay tuition, they will think of some ways to make money. As time goes by, they become skillful in managing it. This knowledge will help students in their entire lives.
Above all, studying abroad sounds stressful and full of challenges and hardships. Actually it does. But students should remember that all sufferings have their reward. If we don’t know how suffering tastes like, we won’t know the taste of happiness. The first lady, Michelle Obama, gave a speech in Peking University on March 22, 2014. In her speech, the importance of studying abroad, she quoted a Chinese saying, “It is better to travel ten thousand miles than to read ten thousand books.”
Works Cited
“Best Global Universities Rankings.” U.S. News & World Report Education. U.S. News & World Report LP, 29 Oct 2015. Web. 19 Nov 2015
Chin, Curtis. “Studying Abroad Can Be an Expensive Waste of Time.” The New York Times. The New York Times Company. 17 Oct 2013. Web. 19 Nov 2015.
Haynie, Devon. “Number of International College Students Continues to Climb.” U.S. News & World Report Education. U.S. News & World Report LP, 19 Nov 2014. Web. 11 Nov 2015.
The White House. “The First Lady on the Importance of Studying Abroad.” Online video clip. Youtube. Youtube, 22 Mar 2014. Web. 19 Nov 2015