From Extraordinary to Ordinary: Adjusting after Studying Abroad
“It’s the driving force for what I want to do with my life now… I think about Italy every single day, I think about my students every single day.”
Simply missing Siena, Italy where Andrea Dame studied abroad is not an option for her, because for Dame, her study abroad experience changed her life.
Dame, an Elementary and Special Education major spent her Spring 2014 semester in Siena, Italy teaching Italian students English and traveling Europe. The experience abroad turned her career goals upside-down.
“I thought I wanted to be a third grade teacher and now I want to be a consultant for international education,” said Dame. “I would have conversations with different Italian students, my professor and other colleagues about the differences between the education in Italy and the United States. I was fascinated with the different strategies that both countries used.”
Dame had to hit the ground running after arriving in Siena. She was learning Italian while trying to teach English to her Italian students. Dame also experienced difficulties in the language barrier when reading signs, and when people where trying to communicate with her.
“You don’t know what people are saying to you, and they are looking at you like you’re an idiot because they are trying to talk to you and you’re like, ‘I’m sorry I don’t know what you’re saying because I don’t speak you’re language.’ It’s an incredibly humbling experience,” said Dame.
But through the struggles of working through that barrier, Dame says she found an “inner strength” that she didn’t know she had. After her time in Europe, Dame says it was difficult to adjust to life in the States.
“You have this feeling where you don’t want to hear what they’re saying right now… because you became accustomed to not knowing what people were saying,” said Dame.
Dame isn’t alone in experiencing withdraw after a study abroad experience. Dr. Eric Deschamps, Associate Director for the Center of International Education at Northern Arizona University, says that coming back changed is one of the most common things students share with him after studying abroad.
“We hear from students about them learning to be independent… anything over there goes wrong and they have to work things out on their own… there won’t always be someone to hold their hand,” said Deschamps.
Deschamps believes this is largely due to having to communicate in a foreign country, having the desire to make new friends and being in new situations.
“Students feel that changed I think it’s because they go through much through so much while studying abroad,” says Deschamps.
Diana O’Shea, an NAU alumna who spent a semester in Madrid, Spain during her undergraduate career, found that studying in Spain made all the difference for her Spanish speaking abilities. O’Shea uses Spanish daily in to speak to her staff at her work at Montage Deer Valley Resort in Park City, Utah.
“I was living with another family there and getting to really be brought into the whole speaking the language nonstop, which is something I really needed,” said O’Shea.
Not only did O’Shea’s time in Spain take her to the next level in speaking Spanish, it also helped her reach outside of her boundaries in order to be able to see new places.
“It gave me a lot more confidence because I like being in my comfort zone, and I do not like leaving it. And I was not in my comfort zone while I was there… I had to be more comfortable talking with people I didn’t know, and exploring things on my own… and doing it all in another language,” said O’Shea.
