I’ve always been interested in foreign languages and life in other countries. If anyone has ever read any of my other woefully sporadic blog entries, there’s an obvious recurring theme regarding events abroad or international economics or something related to life outside the United States.
One of my biggest regrets is that I never took advantage of a study abroad option while in college. It was there for the taking and I didn’t do it. Don’t ask me why, but I’ve regretted that (non)decision big time. Ever since, I’ve tried to steer my career in an international direction with small bits of success, but just a little. Enough to taste it, but that’s about it. However, I continue to study my languages (German and French) when possible and I’ve built an impressive network of contacts abroad in many facets of professional life. Unfortunately, my actual career goal of living (or at least working) abroad on a regular basis has eluded me, though I’m doing my best not to give up. Suffice to say that raising a family has forced me to put aside certain career goals aside in favor of more important work here.
But now, though I’m living that international experience vicariously through my daughter who at the moment is traveling through various European capitals before heading over to the UK for study at Oxford. I am proud of her - not only because she seems to have absorbed my love of languages and intercultural affairs, but she has managed to actually become quite conversant in French and is now working on learning German. Although I am moderately conversant in German, and can hack around in French, she has seriously surpassed my abilities in that language. She has the dreams I once had of living the expat life in some European capital, and I hope she achieves that goal.
If you are the parent or adult advisor to a young person today. Please do your young person, and the rest of us by extension, a huge favor by encouraging them to study a second (or even third !) language. Encourage them read newspapers from other countries – it’s not hard to find the ‘English’ option on most foreign news outlets and online services. Study economics. Look at the ‘Picture of the Day’ on the BBC or Stern.de websites. See how others live and what they’re doing or celebrating. We’ll all be better the more we each understand about the background and cultures of those who live in other corners of this increasingly smaller world. Encourage them to take every opportunity to live, study, or work abroad – make the opportunity happen, and help them achieve it while they’re young, because once that threshold to adulthood is reached, it becomes much more difficult to see the world as others do.
