语言与文化：一个美国人到英国留学的故事

By Jennifer
Bragg
For more than 20 years I have been traveling the world, preferring
often to spend a year or two in different countries rather than to
he had never heard of it, and I was really
surprised!
I also learned that in England, they spell words differently than
in the U.S. In British spelling, they put a “u” in words like favor
ቤተ መጻሕፍቲ ባይዱ
That meant I not only had to learn the history as I went
along, but also I had to try to write a paper explaining why
certain events happened as they did. Once, a teaching assistant who
would help promote cross-cultural understanding. So, in 1923,
Kirkbride organized a trip for eight juniors from the University of
Delaware to sail to France. Today, the JYA program is offered to
that was outweighed by the amazing experience I had getting
to know people from all over the world. I met dozens of interesting
people from places like France, Greece and Germany in Europe, to
just visit as a tourist. It has become a big part of my identity
as an adult and shaped how I see the world and
myself.
My first taste of this amazing life was when I was 19 years
did not take kindly to my misunderstanding of an assignment
berated me in front of a fellow student one day. I remember
going back to my student house and crying afterwards for being so
thousands of students across the United States and around the
world.
Living abroad can be exciting, scary and challenging. I thought it
would be easier because I spoke the language, but I relished the
called “Europe Since 1870”. In the U.S., I would have expected an
introductory history class, but in England, I was supposed to
have already known the history; now was the time to analyze it.
and Weibo. In order to see a place, you had to go there and
experience it firsthand.
I was raised in a middle-class family and couldn’t afford to travel
around the world the way I wished I could. My only
exposure to the world outside was through letters I wrote to
pen-pals from over a dozen countries as a kid, and from television.
little differences between the British and American culture and
language. Instead of ground beef they called it “mince”. Instead of
garbage they called it “rubbish”. Once, at Christmas, I went to a
everything easily. Despite this, I don’t regret anything about my
time in London. Even through painful experiences, we learn to
grow.
Sometimes the difficult times made me sad and homesick. But luckily
year, usually through his or her own university or through a
university that has a study-abroad program. JYA has been
around for nearly 100 years.
One thing I loved on television growing up were the hilarious
British comedies that aired every Saturday night on my local public
television station. So when I got the chance to apply for a study
stupid. Of course, I know now that I was thrown into the deep
end, in a completely different and far more challenging
environment, and it was natural that I wouldn’t understand
In 1921, a young professor at the University of Delaware named
Raymond W. Kirkbride proposed the idea of sending students to study
in another country. Kirkbride was a World War I veteran and saw the
supermarket and asked if they had egg nog. Egg nog is a very creamy
drink seasoned with nutmeg and is delicious and traditional to
drink in some American families. The man at the supermarket told me
classes.
Academically, I got to take classes that weren’t offered at my
college back home. I took a film class and was introduced to the
“classics” with works by Alfred Hitchcock and Orson Welles. I had a
abroad program, I chose London. (Plus, I spoke the
language.)
Junior Year Abroad, or JYA, is a program that allows American
college students to study in another country during their junior
old. I was selected among a small group of college classmates
to spend a year abroad. This was long before people could travel
the world vicariously through social media like Facebook, Instagram
course in sociology and learned about the native people of Papua
New Guinea.
But there were also challenges that year too. One of my classes was
语言与文化：一个美国人到英国留学的故事