April 26th, 2007
International Study
I came across a must read from a new friend, Esq Francis Holland. Esq Holland s a part of the Afro spear, a network of black bloggers that share information and discuss issues related to the black community. There are several other bloggers involved in this important collective strategy. I was recently given an invitation to join and my first reaction was the group may be too conservative for my views. But I did my research and this is a group that really cares about the betterment of the black community.
Esq Holland is a international brother and he walks the walk exhibited by his knowing several languages. Ebonics may be another but not counting Ebonics, he speaks 4. Wow! I want to do a profile of Esq Holland later but today I will share his advice to black students.
I recall a time in Geneva when I caught a cab so I could get back to London for a late night dinner. I like to engage with people and tried to talk with the cabbie. The cabbie said I do not speak English. I speak, French, German, Swiss, Italian and Russian, we can speak in those lanaguaes. Here I am, big time international businessman suited down but mute because the dumb cabbie could not speak English Typical American attitude, everybody should speak English. I have news for you. English is an international business language, but we know now, even in America everyone dose not speak English. That is why, Esq Holland post is a must read.
March 31, 2007
Can Black Students Afford NOT to Study Overseas?
.
Studying overseas is often thought to be an upper middle-class or wealthy bourgeois privilege that Black students cannot afford. Don’t believe that hype! Because tuition, housing and transportation costs are higher in the United States than in many other countries, and educational subsidies are often lower here, astute Black students may find that they cannot afford NOT to study overseas.
For example, the annual tuition at United States colleges and universities is rarely less than $5000.00 per year and often comes closer to $$50,000 per year. Meanwhile, tuition at some French universities is as low as $500.00 per year, including a comprehensive health insurance package that covers prescription medicine. Effectively, the cost of college health insurance in the United States may exceed the cost of health insurance AND tuition in France.
Comprehensive US financial aid may be available for American students to study overseas. Many United States colleges and universities permit students to remain enrolled in the United States, paying a nominal fee of perhaps $15.00 per semester for continued enrollment, while actually earning many of their degree credits at a foreign institution, and paying the substantially lower foreign tuition. Because the students remain enrolled at US institutions, they remain eligible for all available US financial aid, but they can spend it overseas in an environment where money goes much further.
Moreover, foreign schools and governments often offer education subsidies that are not available in the United States. For example, when I studied in France, the French Government paid 30% of my apartment rent, so that I paid only 70% of the market rate for my apartment. That is a substantial educational subsidy that is not available in the United States.
Another reason to study overseas, as a high school student or college student, is that knowing a foreign language and having inter-cultural experience is an excellent way for Blacks to gain admission the most prestigious American universities and graduate schools and to increase earning potential afterward. One Black student of my acquaintance, whose mother was on welfare and could not afford to help her financially, nonetheless spent a year studying overseas, after which she was admitted to and graduated from a top Ivy League graduate school. Now, she has a top-flight job in the private sector.
Studying overseas can lead to higher pay afterward. With America becoming increasingly multicultural and multilingual, a lawyer, teacher or accountant who speaks Spanish or French often can achieve a significant hiring and pay advantage over one who speaks only English, particularly because clients in the United States are increasingly from diverse linguistic backgrounds and the international economy is increasingly integrated. A year of study in Brazil, Argentina or Spain offers students the opportunity to learn a language that is in demand in the United States.
Black students can hardly afford to be stranded in monolingualism while the world becomes increasingly integrated linguistically and culturally. Studying overseas helps Black students to appreciate the immigrant experience and prepares them to deal more effectively with increasing diversity here at home.
So, if a foreign university offers our students the chance to earn credits toward US graduation, learn a foreign language while doing so, AND pay significantly less tuition, with comprehensive health care and significant housing subsidies, can Blacks afford to say “no”?
Black students wishing to study overseas should discuss it with their academica advisors, contact their schools’ foreign study offices, and research foreign study opportunities on the Internet.
Posted by: Francis L. Holland Blog at 8:26 AM
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April 26th, 2007 at 12:33 pm
I think in the USA it should be a requirement to learn another language. I’m brushing up on French. I’ve forgotten so much simply because I didn’t use it. My fault! I’ll also be learning Spanish along with my three year old daughter.
April 26th, 2007 at 3:33 pm
Opal, you are attacking life and continuing to grow. Between workouts, Languages, and a 3 year old, you are busy. Thanks for the comment
April 27th, 2007 at 8:06 am
Jim,
I’m trying! I live my life to it’s fullest. I don’t want any “what ifs”.
April 27th, 2007 at 10:20 am
Jim, thanks for giving our young people some great tactics to step up as leaders. How soon in your life you were able to go abroad and how did that benefit you?
April 27th, 2007 at 11:23 am
I waited way too long and was well into being an adult prior to Going over seas. As a teenager, I spent considerable time in Canada, and as a young adult, I traveled through out the Carribean and some places in Mexico. In the past 10 years I have visited about 30 nations and some several times.It is an experience that has allowed for personal growth and a love of diversity. I now wish I had studied overseas and that I had traveled more.Like reading, travel is one of the best gifts to give oneself.
April 27th, 2007 at 11:24 am
Opal, great advice
April 28th, 2007 at 8:43 am
Jim, I have not traveled as extensively as you have, but as a child I grew to love people of other cultures. I was born in Australia and on my trip to the U.S. I saw people different from me for the first time when we had a faily long layover in Fiji. Then as my mother and I crossed the U.S. I asked her if the porter on the train was to be my new “Daddy.” She smiled and told me, “No,” that I would have to wait a little longer. I grew a fondness for this black man as we traveled, and by the end of the trip he bought me a teddy bear. Today, I know that it took time, effort and money [which I am sure he did not have a lot of]. This is where my respect for other cultures began. This is one reason I consider myself a citizen of the world.
April 28th, 2007 at 1:11 pm
Robyn, thanks for sharing this great stroy.
April 28th, 2007 at 1:37 pm
April 30th, 2007 at 12:50 pm
Very educational, thank you
April 30th, 2007 at 10:37 pm
I’m honored that you reposted my article here. There’s not a single part of academic or professional careers that I have enjoyed more than the language-related work. In 1985, for example, I was invited to translate for a US medical team in Nicaragua as part of an all-expenses-paid trip that was based, in large part, on my knowledge of Spanish.
For the record, I’d be willing to travel with Afrosphere members to countries speaking Spanish, French and Portuguese pro bono, if it makes contribution to the goals of the Afrosphere and one of our members.
May 1st, 2007 at 10:10 am
Esq, what an generous offer! You had a wonderful comment on your travels as a student and for some reason it is hung up in cyber space. We also lost a great comment by JO, I have asked some folks to try and post it foe me. I approved both comments but the spot above where your name is listed is all we got. The young readers would benefit greatly so my hope is for it to reappear.
May 1st, 2007 at 11:22 am
Yes, I gave some serious thought to that post and I had wondered where it went. Did you get my e-mail about the prefabricated Afrosphere members list for posting at Afrosphere blogs? In the past, new Afrosphere blogs had to develop their own Afrosphere logos and type in the names and URL’s of the Afrosphere blogs one by one.
But now, we have a single packet of HTML code that you can paste into your blog to cause to appear (1) the AfroSpear Logo with Caption, (2) the Caption “Afrosphere Blogs” and, below that, (3) the full list of Afrosphere blogs, all at once. This list automatically updates as new blogs are added to the Afrosphere, so you don’t have to surf around looking for the names and typing them in.
Moreover, as soon as you add this list to your blog we add your name to the list and your blog is announced and linked to ALL Afrosphere blogs simultaneously. This means that you can trade links with many like minded and pre-screened Afrosphere blogs just by joining the Afrosphere!
May 1st, 2007 at 11:24 am
Contact me at francislholland@yahoo.com to join the Afrosphere and trade links with all of the Afrosphere blogs at once!
May 6th, 2007 at 10:07 am
Great post. I agree completely. Query this though:
Back in the stone ages when I was in college, I had a Black friend who majored in international politics and he was constantly driven crazy by both Whites and Blacks who found it “weird” he was not studying US politics. Both Whites and Blacks would imply he was abandoning his race and that someone as smart as him with an interest in politics ought to be domestically focused.
Of course, this drove my friend nuts.
Do you think issues like this remain?
May 7th, 2007 at 9:13 pm
Governor Bill Richardson of New Mexico studied international politics at Tufts and that didn’t stop him from helping Latinos - as the only Latino governor in the United States of America.
I’d say Bill Richardson got a change to help his people a lot as US Ambassador to the United Nations, Secretary of (Energy?) and as a US Congressman for seven terms from New Mexico. A lot of people ridicule career paths that they simply don’t understand.
Being an internationalist has saved my butt on numerous occasions. When I realized that I didn’t have money to pay my on-campus living costs at my first college, I also discovered that by going overseas I could reduce my costs to practically zero AND get a refund of my tuition while continuing in school. But only if I was willing to study overseas.
When my student loans were in default and there was no way I could get back into college, I found out that there was a program that would pay ALL of my tuition, but only if I was majoring in bilingual education. It certainly was good that I was fluent in Spanish at that time.
And, when I was in college, instead of washing dishes for $5.00/hr, I started my own business and translated Spanish and Portuguese in doctors offices for $55.00 dollars per hour, minimum one-hour. I hired even my classmates
to translate French as well.
When I interviewed for a job at Legal Services, my boss agreed to pay me $500.00 extra per year for each language I spoke beyond English: Portuguese, Spanish and French! I got the job because I was quadrilingual and could meet with clients without a translator. It’s cheaper for the law firm and better for the client.
People who don’t make an effort to learn at least one additional language are putting themselves in a box.
May 8th, 2007 at 10:33 pm
I have been seriously thinking of studying abroad. I am having a difficult time finding a credible school online. I am interested in either studying in a Spanish or French speaking nation (with a focus on Marketing.) Any suggestions?
May 9th, 2007 at 7:55 am
First of all, I congratulate you for looking into studying overseas. As I said above, there are many advantages - financial, career and spiritual - to doing so.
I would recommend first choosing a place where you would like to study and then researching the universities in that place to see if they offer a good program in your area. Part of the joy of studying overseas is becoming, for a time, a part of the culture of that place and experiencing the sites and sound and even scents of that locale. So, the locale is as important as the university and program, in my opinion.
I decided to study in Nice, France, because I tend to be subject to depressions and I needed to intense beauty of the locale, the opportunity to swim in the French Mediterranean and kayak around Monaco.
I actually discovered my Masters program in International Law during a trip there, during which I visited many college departments. In fact, my goal was to learn French as much as to learn substantive international law. I already had a US law degree and I didn’t finish the foreign program, but I did learn to read, write and speak in French, and I passed some exams in international law in French.
So, I believe in finding a place where you believe you will really enjoy being immersed in your experience there.
Perhaps because I was in an international law program, I found that I interacted much more with French-speaking immigrants to France than with native-born French people. That was alright, because I found native-born French people to not be all that friendly in some cases and, as a Black person, I needed some people who could relate to my experience.
I recommend participating in a program that is NOT for Americans overseas, but that is designed to educate the native-born of the country which you visit. This way, your immersion experience will be much more country-centered.
It’s also MUCH, MUCH less expensive to pay the native tuition rate than to participate in a program organized and facilitated by a US university overseas. For example, if I studied in the Columbia University program in Paris, the tuition would have been perhaps $15,000 per year, plus living expenses. Because I studied at the University of Nice instead, the tuition was $750.00 per year, plus living expenses. That’s more than $14,000 dollars per year less!
I would also consider the fact that living expenses in spanish-speaking Argentina or Cameroon (French) would be much less than in Barcelona or Paris.
After you chose some places where you might like to study, the first step to learning French or Spanish can be your learning to read the websites of the universities you’d like to consider, so that you can see if they offer the program you want. This way, you will already know the vocabulary of your program area when you arrive in that country, which is a great advantage going in!
Another approach to finding a program is to research international professionals in the field in which you would like to work and find out where they got their credentials. If one of them has a particularly compelling experience, it’s worth contacting them by e-mail and asking for more information and advice.
Again, you’ll learn a lot about your chosen field and the resources available through this research process.
Ultimately, I chose the University where I wanted to study and then I went there and spoke directly with the professors and the dean before I made a decision. Then, I returned to the United States, got a student visa to study in France and returned to France.
Please note: You cannot apply for a student visa in the country where you want to study, and you cannot study for more than three months without a tourist visa, and this is so in most countries of which I am aware. So, if you go there without a tourist visa, you must be prepared financially and logistically to return to the consulate nearest your home in the US to apply for a student visa. If you don’t want this expense and travel, then you MUST apply for a student visa before you go overseas!
I hope this has been helpful. In summary, choose (1) the language and (2) the place where you would like to study, then (3) identify the universities in that place and then (4) contact the heads of departments in that place, describe your interests and request to participate if you are interested in the program.
Because admissions are sometimes competitive or require admissions tests, you might have to actually go there and negotiate directly with the deans and professors to gain admission.
If you already speak and read the target language to some degree, take a $55.00 CLEP test in the target language before you go overseas. Passing this test, which is pretty easy, will show that you have the language skills and prerequisites for admission to the program you want to enter, and this will make it easier (or possible) to gain admission to a program for which you otherwise might have been ineligible.
June 2nd, 2007 at 10:11 am
Here’s a link to study abroad scholarships for Black people, sponsored by Michigan State University.
June 2nd, 2007 at 11:50 am
Thank Esq