More and more young people are deciding to leave their home country to discover the world. The types of cross-cultural experiences available today are numerous: travelling, taking a sabbatical, going on a university exchange, applying for a working holiday visa, volunteering, finding a job as an expat, etc.
Besides the fun and excitement that this opportunity might generate, it offers clear benefits to anyone wanting to grow personally and professionally.
The 7 benefits of choosing a cross-cultural experience
1. Learn a foreign language
The first obvious benefit of travelling or moving to a new country is to learn the local language. Every day, you’ll have to talk to people to get around places. This is a unique opportunity to practice a new language.
Learning a new language will also help you to become a better listener. When you don’t fully understand what is being said, you have to pay extra attention. Practising deep listening for many weeks or months will give you superior listening capabilities.
2. Meet new people and raise your cultural awareness
Whether you’re on your own or with a group of friends, going abroad gives you the chance to meet many new people. There is a good dynamic between foreigners who recently arrived in a country — they want to help each other and be socially active. Many local people are also interested to know why you decided to come to their country and will want to show you around. This makes the perfect setting to meet new people and extend your network.
Meeting new people from diverse cultures and backgrounds will help you forget stereotypes and understand others more deeply. Thanks to your new level of empathy and cultural awareness, you will start to embrace and appreciate diversity in a new way.
3. Become a better team player
By meeting new people and improving your listening skills, your communication abilities will significantly advance too. This will inevitably make you a better team player.
In our globalized world, companies are increasingly looking for adaptable profiles that are comfortable working in international teams. Thanks to your cross-cultural experience, we’ll be able to show your understanding of cultural differences and instantly prove that you have what it takes to be a great team player.
4. Get rid of your cognitive biases and blind spots
Every culture is biased in one way or another. The only way to find out your cognitive biases and blind spots is to live a cross-cultural experience. This will give you a new perspective on life and indeed help you better understand who you are.
5. Broaden your horizon
Living, studying, and working abroad all give you a global mindset. You stop seeing the world from your native country’s perspective, and you might even start to identify as a global citizen.
This mindset will expand your career opportunities by breaking mental limitations that you might have had in the past.
- Read also: Alice Dary: “The BSc allowed me to explore the business world and also to discover new horizons.”
6. Improve your self-confidence and resilience
When travelling, you’ll meet many people who are willing to help you. Ultimately, though, you are the only person responsible for how your life turns out abroad.
It can be a harsh discovery, but this is one of the most transformative aspects of international experiences. After that, you’ll be fully confident that you can rely on yourself when required.
7. Work on your adaptability and open-mindedness
Every country has its own ways of doing things. There are countless situations where people will deal with problems in a way that wouldn’t have occurred to you. Learning from those situations will make you a more adaptable and open-minded person.
Live a cross-cultural experience at ESCP Business School
Living a cross-cultural experience abroad is so profound that it’s hard to describe in a few words.
Our students, especially those attending the Bachelor in Management (BSc), often describe the impact of living and studying in 3 cities over 3 years as life-changing.
In fact, by living an experience of this kind, you will build essential soft skills such as empathy, adaptability, resilience, open-mindedness, and improved self-confidence. Those soft skills make you more suited to our changing world.
If you are evaluating an international study environment, choose an experience abroad capable of combining teaching excellence with a wide range of multicultural stimuli.
Not only will you become a more well-rounded person, but it will also bring new opportunities to your life. You’ll have an international network of people you can reach out to. Your profile will look more attractive to employers, and your level of ambition will also have increased.
The world is waiting for you!
The ESCP Bachelor in Management (BSc) is a unique opportunity to challenge yourself and experience intercultural management first-hand by living and studying in 3 different countries over 3 years.
Contact us to get more information about the programme and the admission procedure.
