Study Abroad and Domestic Study Away

After spending nearly 3 months in Berlin, I have come to some conclusions. Berlin and surrounding European cities offer beautiful spectacles, unique cuisine, and eccentricity. Despite this, the allure of the foreign world is as captivating as one wants it to be. Our culture emphasizes how new places change a person; our zeitgeist has ingrained within us the idea of two sides of the same coin - a well-traveled sage and the guy who never left his hometown.

Traveling somewhere new has, ironically, taught me that traveling doesn’t give you anything that you already don’t seek inside of yourself. The well-traveled vagabond can only be as wise as he has decided to be before he set foot out the door. In this way, I would never recommend that someone study abroad or travel to try to change themselves as a person. What I do recommend is that, besides the practical justifications (learning a new language, wanting to immigrate, family ties, etc.), traveling helps you shed misguided misconceptions about the human condition.

Every German, despite some peculiar stems and flowers, has the same root as an American; maybe I got lucky, but I was barely culture-shocked. I think the reason for this is simple; I didn’t choose to approach Berlin as a different place or its people as a separate group. All eyes tell the same story and contain a longing depth and drive fundamental to our species. I’ve enjoyed concerts and clubs, making friends in my program, relaxing in cultural spaces, and above all, speaking German! Something that has become evident to me is that learning a new language is extremely difficult. To see the Krampusnacht Christmas festivals, I will travel to Austria in December. I pray my German is sufficient to navigate Salzburg. When I used to live in Chicago with my dad, I remember an old property manager from Ukraine named Nicholas. His English was quite good, but he admitted he couldn’t understand AAVE at all. I can finally revel in this experience of embarrassing bewilderment as an elderly Austrian native mumbles their location-specific German, forcing me back into my English cage. 

Thank you to Ingrid H. and George L. Speros.

“Mit Freundlichen Grüßen,”

Dylan Forsythe