How Video Chat Changes Study Abroad

When I studied abroad in college, there was one girl who I’ll just refer to as Sad Sack Susie. We were in a gorgeous South American capital city, but Susie wasn’t seeing any of it. She missed her friends, she missed her mom, she missed being able to understand what was going on around her. And she missed her boyfriend. She was completely paralyzed by all the newness around her. The first few months, Susie would mope whenever we went on some excursion and she was always running off to check her email. By the end of the semester, she had broken up with the boyfriend and found herself a local fling, but she’d spent approximately USD$500 on tearful phone calls in the process. And she’d wasted most of her study abroad experience feeling homesick.

I sympathized with Sad Sack Susie. It’s pretty disorienting to be in a new country, surrounded by all new people. It’s supposed to be exciting. Before you leave, everyone tells you, “You’re going to have an adventure!” and you pack all your funky “foreign-looking” skirts, but then once you get there, all you can think about is how you’re giving up a whole semester of hanging out with your friends at college just so that perfect strangers can tell you four different times a day, “I don’t understand anything you’re saying.” It can be a rough adjustment.

Years later, I’m studying in another country for graduate school. I’m older and wiser, but I also don’t feel as disconnected from my life back home. And the difference is: I can video chat.

If only Sad Sack Susie had been studying abroad in the days of video chat! It really makes a big difference.

When I’m at home, I just leave myself logged onto 6rounds or Skype and my friends’ faces will randomly pop up on my screen. It’s much less effort to video chat than to write emails, which means I communicate with my friends a lot more. Jokes are also funnier in video chat. Over Thanksgiving, when my hometown friends got together for their annual leftovers dinner, they propped a laptop up at the table and it was (almost) like I was there. (I can’t wait for technology to be able to transport turkey and stuffing through my Internet connection.) When my best friend got engaged, I got see her ring from multiple angles and chat with her fiance face-to-face. It was much more festive and much more personal.

I often think about Sad Sack Susie, and how much she would have gotten out of her study abroad experience if she hadn’t had to spend half of it writing emails and running around getting calling cards to make those phone calls to her boyfriend. She would’ve saved a ton of money, too.

So if you’re thinking of studying abroad, I’d definitely recommend getting a webcam, if you don’t have one already. Video chat may not make you miss your friends and family back home any less, but it certainly makes it easier.

If you have studied abroad and have any stories about how videochatting changed your experience, please tell us about them here!