It is not so easy to study in a different language, despite the fact that you have to be away from family and your home.. to start living in a different country.
There are many debates of going abroad or studying in Thailand,which is the best practice?
My personal openion is there are benefits in both systems. May be if we can get the good things from both systems and apply it to our own, it might be a perfect system afterall..
I have been studying abroad so here are some ideas..
When you are living abroad, the western schooling's system applies, it is a self learning system, and you have to manage your time and do a research outside the classroom before coming into the class.. You have to prepare well in the classroom the lecturer will allow an open discussion to start the class...
You really have to know the backgroup of the topic discussed and add your own openion to show what you think.. there is no right or wrong in the answers you give, so you can share your ideas and thoughts with the classmate... this way you will learn a lot more, from other's people idea on the same topics. The thing you know may not be exactly as other people. So you will learn new things from others.. and vice versa, other people (or even the lecturer) can learn from you too. This is the process of sharing ideas..
Learning process is a life learning process, where you can do a reserch on what you are interested in. This can be done outside classroom.. There are many places that you can find an information.. from internet, from discussing and talk to other people, read from articles or research papers etc. Int he Western system, the lecturer will always stress on the important of "Thinking outside the box"... meaning there is no limitation to anyone's idea.. the knowledge is also not just inside the classroom..
The lecturer also has to do more work for preparing the topic for discussion and be a motivators.. Western lecturer will have their own style and will not teach from the textbook. He will control the classroom's environment and start up the discussion, with additional information of theories and facts during the discussion.. So his role is to guild the right way.. but not telling the fixed answers to any questions.. this is really a child centered the lecturer can check whether how much knowledge the students can take in.. before moving on to the next topics.
This is what i like about the Western system. But at the begining, it is hard to prepare the topics as normally our own system, teachers will tell you what has to be taught in each class.. I had a culture shock when walking in the classroom unprepared, whereas other students have some ideas to share.. it took me a while to change my way of learning.. but in the end.. the study is in your own hands (with the right guildline).. you have more freedom of what you want to do and learn.
