A. Expect to participate in a different cultural world, and to learn how to learn in an unfamiliar academic culture. This will be so whether, e.g.,you attend a British university or do field work in a third world village.
B. Intend to respect your host culture by accommodating to its lifeways and customs. Expect, especially at the outset, to make social and linguistic mistakes, but don't be dismayed or discouraged by this. The important thing is that you palpably make the effort to accommodate. Almost always, this - your good faith and respectful effort - is the main thing your hosts will notice, and they will appreciate it and overlook your beginner's errors.
C. Expect to assume much more adult responsibility for managing your everyday life than you are called upon to do at Swarthmore.
D. Expect a journey of personal growth and novel intellectual discovery. Just about certainly, this journey will occasion for you discontinuities and, sometimes, exasperation, as well as fulfillment. Intend to accommodate to this.
E. Intend to take a sense of humor with you. Intend, especially, to use it to smile at yourself when the road is bumpy.
F. Many of you will experience a decline in your standard of living - as regards, e.g., food, lodging, everyday amenities and convenience of access to same, as well as access to academic resources. If you're attending a university, your standard of living normally will be that of university students from the host country. If you're in a rural part of the third world, well...
G. Expect, while abroad, to have a social life. If, however, as we hope, you involve yourself significantly in your host culture, expect it to be very different from what you are used to at Swarthmore. First, and generally, the particulars of local cultural expectations will often be completely unfamiliar to you, from soup to nuts. Second, and specifically, it is unlikely that the social world your host culture makes available to you will be, as your social world at Swarthmore probably is, comprised mainly or wholly of age graded peers. This is because (with the partial exception of programs in Great Britain, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand):
1. Host country University students don't have this kind of social life.
2. If you are attending a non-university based program, you may well not have all that much access to host country university students in any event.
3. At Swarthmore, there are myriad opportunities for formal and informal
affiliation with peers in both academic and non-academic settings,
and strong and explicit encouragement to avail oneself of same. This
normally will not be replicated in university settings abroad, nor
in other types of foreign study programs. You often will, though,
find an analogue to this in non-university based programs; but the immediate
(and, sometimes, inescapable) opportunities for affiliation provided
by such programs likely will be with, e.g., host family and its
social circle and/or local community and/or co-workers on an internship
or social service project - and not with age mate peers. There's
a lot of fulfillment to be had from this, but you have to take it
on its own terms and make the most of it.
H. Expect to be a highly visible member of a small cultural minority, and especially so at the beginning of your period abroad. For most Swarthmore students, this is going to be a novel experience
I. Expect to be stereotyped by people in your host culture. Sometimes this will be in response to specific, visible features of your identity, e.g., female, black, vegetarian, gay, prosperous, athletic. Regardless, though, of whether or not this kind of stereotyping occurs, expect to be stereotyped as an American. Of course, the content of this stereotyping will vary from place to place. Worldwide, though, fascination with America - its wealth and culture and power and people - has never been more intense. And this fascination is often ambivalent: it can, and often does, combine, e.g., affection and admiration with envy and resentment. And, finally, the stereotyping - fueled by the fascination - is often woefully misinformed. You will be misperceived. This can lead to expectations about you that will be unwelcome to you. Often, this will be more of a problem for Americans of the female persuasion than for Americans of the male persuasion. There are a couple of, usually, useful antidotes to this problem: First, your program will probably give you good advice about, e.g., comportment, demeanor, behavior and respect for others in your host country. Heed this advice. Second, mutual familiarity dissolves stereotypes. Intend, when and as appropriate,to come to know your hosts well and, insofar as possible, on their cultural terms.
J. Expect, from living and studying in and about another
culture, to develop perspectives on your own culture, and your involvement
in it, that would otherwise be difficult or impossible to attain.