Sat at the KTM at Tasik Selatan, theres this Nigerian African who sat next to me while waiting for the train talked to me. At first we talked about what am I studying (He noticed my INTI Student ID), till a certain point, we talked about studying abroad. He asked me, Do you know, why the Americans are encouraging their citizen to go out of the country to study? I said I have no idea. He then said this, Then why do you go to america to study? I replied him saying, Well, to study of course, to experience the lifestyle over there. At that point he said, asking me to think again to think back to the first question. He shed a light upon me that in the whole education learning process, if you have the chance to study in other country, just go for it. Its a rare chance bestowed upon you that you could learn something from the other country. He shared with me that when he first came to Malaysia, he noticed one thing, people would queue up to get tickets and to do work. He said that, back in Nigeria, people wouldnt just give a damn about the queue, people will just cut corners to get what they want, but when he came here, he learned something. Another example he gave me was how the Nigerian did their assignment back there in Nigeria and compared it to here. In Malaysia, students are required to submit their assignments to Turn It In (A Web based Plagiarism Checker for Assignments), but in Nigeria, they just dont care and copied each other. The standard of education is different in different country, he was glad that he was able to come to Malaysia to proceed with his studies. After this two examples, he said that is good that people are going to other countries to study, its even best to go to multiple country. People who went to other country to live or to study, has an added advantage to their live. They will get picked first in terms of experience, they will get picked first in term of a different exposure. He said that a lot of people in the world are just too afraid to go out of their comfort zone and to explore the world, these people will have then lose a perfect chance to be a better and experienced person. He then asked me this before i disembark from the train, Do you know the currency used in Nigeria? I said no, and asked him, he said, Go to Nigeria and find it out. His name is Alex, talking to him really gave me an eye opening experience on the main purpose of studying abroad. Im really glad that I have chose this path to go abroad to get new experience, to get the culture shock that comes with it, to risk it all just to gain knowledge. This is for the people who took the chance offered to them to head out and study, to leave their comfort zone. Kudos and all the best! For those whos decided to be at Malaysia or have not decided, take the chance if you can, and seek for new experience. (y) Thanks Alex. :)
Posted on: Mon, 20 Oct 2014 13:37:16 +0000