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Thinking about sending your child overseas to learn English with Hello Kids?
The good news is that he or she could gain even more than you think, due to the proven benefits of living in another culture, ranging from increased self-confidence to enhanced creativity and independence.
Enhanced Creativity
A study of students who have lived abroad compared to those that haven’t found significant benefits from an overseas experience.
According to the study reported in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, students who had lived abroad showed a higher level of creativity compared to the control group that had not experienced a different culture.
The study found that recalling a multicultural experience facilitates “idea flexibility” (an ability to solve problems in different ways), as well as increasing awareness of underlying connections and associations.
It also helps overcome “functional fixedness,” which can limit someone to using an object only in the way it is traditionally used. For example, viewing a thumbtack as something that can only be used to hold paper to a corkboard, rather than considering other uses.
Key to the overseas group’s enhanced creativity was an “open-minded approach in adapting to the new culture.” In other words, the kids that travelled abroad were keen to explore and learn more about their new home.
In a global world, where travel is now more affordable than ever before, the research showed that living abroad “can be even more beneficial than previously thought.”
Gaining Confidence
Travelling abroad is one of the best ways to step outside your comfort zone, to develop self-confidence and personal growth, according to Canadian student Ana Parfenova.
While most people who travel abroad experience some culture shock, this should be seen as positive since “it gives you the opportunity to learn about yourself, teaches you how to think on your feet and adapt,” according to Parfenova.
Japan’s unique culture often gives foreign visitors a sense of culture shock – but it is very comfortable for Japanese citizens.
Sending your kids abroad should give them a priceless taste of foreign cultures, people and experiences that you just cannot get at home.
Learning New Skills
Learning English is just one of the skills your kids will gain from studying overseas with Hello Kids. Other “soft” skills that they could gain include improved communication, an ability to adapt to different situations, a sense of independence and responsibility.
It could be a little thing like using knives and forks more often rather than chopsticks. Or going to the beach and learning to swim between the flags for safety.
Going overseas will expose your child to new aspects of social culture that can help them reflect on life in a different way, opening up their minds to new possibilities. It’s a transformative experience that can provide a world of new learning.
And with “global talent” becoming ever more in demand in Japan, your child just might gain an edge that will help him or her in their future profession, whatever they choose to do.
Appreciate Japan More
Going overseas will allow your child to appreciate their life in Japan even more. When interacting with foreigners overseas they will gain an idea of how different cultures and people think and operate. This provides an obvious contrast to life back home.
For example, Japanese people might be surprised by Australians’ more casual attitudes to work and life in general – the famous “work/life balance” where weekends are weekends, with limited overtime work and four weeks paid holiday a year.
For example, trains in Queensland are considered “on time” when they are less than five minutes late. Imagine a Japanese train that regularly ran even a minute late – there would be an outcry!
It is these little aspects that can help you and your children appreciate life back home even more, following an overseas experience.
As Saint Augustine of Hippo (354-430) famously said: “The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.”
Make sure your child is reading the book of the world and opening up his or her mind to new experiences and skills, by going abroad to study.
