Most students in Hong Kong have great pressure because of the educational policies of Hong Kong. Therefore, some of them think about whether they should study abroad or not. In this essay, I will look at some of advantages and disadvantages of studying abroad.
One advantage of studying abroad is that students can improve their English. Students in Hong Kong seldom speak in English in their daily lives since their friends, classmates and family may not speak in English, but in Cantonese. There’s no way to push them to speak in Hong Kong. If the students study abroad, they will speak in English in Hong Kong most of the time. It is because the only way for students in Hong Kong and foreign students to communicate with each other is to speak in English. Also, Hong Kong students speak English with a strong Hong Kong accent. Therefore, studying abroad may be a good chance for them to improve English.
Another advantage is that students can learn to be more independent. Hong Kong students rely on their parents too much nowadays. Most of them can’t take care of themselves. When the students are studying abroad, their parents might not go to foreign countries with them. Therefore, the students will live alone and try to take care of themselves without any people’ help. As a result, they can learn to be independent.
From the above, we can see there are advantages of studying abroad clearly. However, there are also some disadvantages.
The first disadvantage is that students may face discrimination. Foreign student may laugh at HK students because of their nationality, religion and traditional customs. That means the foreign students will treat HK students differently, especially in a worse way from the way in which they treat their classmates. HK students will then feel depressed and this will lead to HK students” low self-esteem.
Another disadvantage is that students who study abroad lack parents’ supervision. Students’ parents will not go to other countries with their kids. Therefore, students may think that they can do anything that want when they study abroad. It is because their parents can’t supervise them to make certain that the students behave correctly. As a result, the students may skip classes and do bad things such as stealing and smoking.
In conclusion, there are both advantages and disadvantages of studying abroad. However, I believe that, on balance, the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. Studying abroad is a good chance for the students to challenge themselves. Therefore, I believe that it is the best for students to study abroad.