Undertaking an internship at a company is one of the mandatory courses that most bachelor degree university students will experience during their study at Swiss German University.
Besides having a chance to get a double degree, they can also encounter many experiences during their internship abroad. I agree that internships abroad can be very valuable because students can learn to be more independent, confident and explore different foreign cultures.
The first valuable experience is that students can be more independent and confident in themselves. They live by themselves in foreign countries and far from their parents and friends. They are forced to do almost everything by themselves. Cooking, washing the laundry, cleaning the bedroom, keeping the house tidy and clean and buying groceries are several daily activities that a student must do by him/herself. By experiencing more independence, students will learn that doing daily life activities by themselves is a hard task that is time and energy-consuming. Hence, this experience could persuade them to change their old habits and become independent and confident.
The second valuable experience is that students can explore different foreign cultures during their internship abroad. They can experience different cultures in places such as at the office, the city center and even at home.
They experience it in activities such as working as a team in a company, meeting with team members, and communicating and doing activities with people. Students can differentiate between their culture and foreign cultures.
They can also share their own cultures with other people. Every culture has its positive and negative aspects. Students can compare cultures and identify each positive and negative view. Hence, they can establish a mixed-culture of the positive aspects of the cultures and start implementing them in everyday life.
In conclusion, it can be stated that students obtain many valuable experiences during their internship abroad. Being forced to be more independent and exploring different foreign cultures, they can change their old, bad habits and grow more confident. They can be a better person when they go back home.
A movie tagline quoted "Life isn't measured in minutes, but in moments". Moments here are similar to experiences. The more experiences a person has, the better and greater life they have.
Ivan Firdausi Student of Information Technology Faculty, Swiss German University, Banten
