When my mother forwarded me a New York Times article about studying abroad, I expected an interesting and well-reasoned read. While I can say “Study Abroad’s Seven Deadly Sins” was interesting, it was certainly not well-thought-out.
Peter A. Coclanis, a professor of history at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, does not rep my hometown very well in his poorly reasoned article. The piece is purportedly meant to warn students and parents about how study abroad can become a waste of an educational opportunity, but instead comes off as yet another tirade about the failures of Millennials. (See Rebecca Duras’s piece this week about why these articles are irritating and so passé.)
The article lists seven things students should not do while abroad if they want to have a good experience. Yet none of the so-called “sins” are inherently bad. If students take them too far, then yes, they might result in a less-than-stellar study abroad experience. For example, the sixth of these sins is “Smartphoning,” in which students have FOMO about what’s going on back in the States, which “tethers them to texting with people thousands of miles away rather than engaging with those on the scene.” Yeah, that sounds bad. But, on the contrary, I would have been completely lost in India without a smartphone. Every student at Lady Shri Ram College in New Delhi, where I’ve just finished my semester abroad, has a smartphone and everyone uses them to communicate. I can’t count the number of times I’ve needed Google Maps to tell my auto driver how to get home.
And yes, I use my smartphone to communicate with people at home. Rather than tethering me to the States, messaging people at home has helped me maintain the crucial life friendships I’ve developed at Middlebury. While we’re making up baseless theories, I have a counter-proposal for Mr. Coclanis: maybe having a smartphone means a student is more likely to go abroad, since a smartphone enables them to reassure worried parents that they’re still alive and means they don’t have to compromise between friendships and a crucial personal growth opportunity.
Another “sin” the author names is “Suds” – students drinking too much while abroad. I agree with his point that a morning class is difficult to handle when you’re hung over, but what makes him think that the kids who are drinking a lot abroad wouldn’t be doing the same if they’d stayed in the States? Yes, drinking too much can make a study abroad experience less successful, but the same can be said of all four years of college, so I wouldn’t count this as a study abroad-specific “sin.”
The author criticizes students for “Selfie-Taking,” by which he apparently means doing really rude, inappropriate and culturally insensitive things. That’s just being an asshole, which happens on occasion everywhere in the world. He also paints shopping as a “sin,” citing one student who spent her time haggling at street markets instead of in museums. Yet what could be a better way to practice your language skills than interacting with local salespeople in markets? How better to immerse yourself?
I’m not sure what to make of his accusation that students abroad commit the sin of “sexual fervidity.” Mr. Coclanis makes it sound like we’ll hide away from the “real” world, spending the day in bed with a local and ordering Dominos for dinner. But fervidity means “heated or vehement in spirit.” Sounds hot, not sinful to me. Shaming anyone for being sexually active is puritanical and never okay. Rather than bash Millennials for having too much sex (jealous much?), Mr. Coclanis could have pointed out a real “sin” of partying and hooking up while abroad: students are in greater danger of sexual assault while abroad.
Middlebury’s very own Professor Matthew Kimble was the lead author of one study that found the risk of attempted sexual assault was 3.2 higher for female students during their semester abroad than during their other semesters in college. The study also found that “the risk of unwanted touching abroad was 4.3 times higher relative to on-campus rates.” Now that’s something worth writing about.
In addition to the article’s generation-bashing, I take issue with the narrow definition the author uses of what makes a “fruitful” study abroad experience. Under the heading “Self-Segregation,” Mr. Coclanis criticizes programs that don’t include home stays. I lived with three other Middlebury students during my semester in India.
Maybe Mr. Coclanis thinks that’s bad, but for us it was important to have a clean, safe space of our own to retreat to when the Delhi heat, pollution or food became too much. When we went out with friends or traveled, it was good to know we had a home to come back to that was all our own. As Conor Maxwell writes this week, different students need different living situations to make the most of their abroad experiences.
Overall, the article is a lazy swipe at young people for failing to make the best of their study abroad experiences. Of course, taking anything to the extreme or being culturally insensitive is bad, and not immersing yourself fully means you’re missing out on a more enriching experience. But the same could be said of anything in life, and each of the article's critiques is equally applicable to students who remain in the States. Mr. Coclanis’ article adds nothing to the trove of study abroad advice already found online.
