The importance of making friends of your fellow international students cannot be underestimated. The friendships you make with students from all over the world will not only enrich you experience and make you more culturally aware and sensitive, they will make your life after study abroad a whole lot more interesting!

International Students = Global Friendships

Friendships from study abroad are friendships forever!  You have formed friendships in a unique time of your life, and you will have shared this life-changing experience together. While you can try to convey what this trip meant for you to your friends and family back home, you will find that only the friends you made while studying abroad can really understand this time and what it meant.

When you begin your life abroad, try to select the friends who are going to help you have a rewarding learning experience. One of the biggest secrets to a successful English study in the USA experience is knowing how to choose your friends.  Befriend students who are also willing to practice the language as much as possible, or, if they are native speakers, to help you practice and advance your English skills.  Choose those around you who are adventurous without being reckless, who are curious about the culture and the lifestyles of those in their host country, and who share your goals of enriching your experience to the max.

Try not to gravitate to groups, clubs or room-share with people from your native country. It is easy to relate to people who have the same background and language as yours! Don’t avoid people from your country, but make sure that they are part of a mix of friends who use English to communicate with each other.

The long-term advantages of creating these new global friendships is that you stay in touch after your all return home. Many lifelong friendships are formed by international students who have shared a study abroad experience together.

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