1. Be Open Minded.

The world is full of cultures that are nothing like your own. You may understand that people live differently on a mental level, but the reality can still take you by surprise. Culture shock is not uncommon and can spoil an entire trip. Take the below recommendations to heart and your work abroad will be an even better experience than you imagined.

 

2. Learn As Much About the Local Culture As Possible.

This means everything from traditional cuisine to what people believe is the right amount of personal space. Luckily you are not the first person to visit wherever you plan to and finding out all the information you need to know (and some that you don’t) is easy online. Basics such as the expected dress, holidays, religion, greeting, political situation are essentials and swayed little by personal experience. At the same time don’t take everything at face value. Keep the advice of others in mind, but form your own opinions about the people you meet.

3. Keep A Journal Of Each Day.

Record everything you think or feel, see and do. Time will both drag forever and zip past and you should remember each. Look back on the experience as a collaborative whole rather than a series of frustrating incidents. For each negative thought or observation, write down something that you liked. This type of cognitive therapy will put the hard moments in perspective and remind you later of the good ones. By human nature, stronger emotions create stronger memories and the emotions that arise after waking up a 5:30 in the morning to take a bus through the pouring rain to a construction site where the other workers don’t show up can be very strong. Put things in perspective and live in the present.

 

4. Be Proactive.

This means engaging your world each day during your trip. Go out of your way to interact with everyone you meet. This will not only make you more friends, but will help you understand the needs and impacts of your actions. The world needs leaders and although you may be working in a project that was organized before you arrived, it can always be improved. Vocalize suggestions and questions about your work and then take action on them. True change does not come from the meek.

5. Form A Relationship With Your Host Family.

When you volunteer abroad, you will be living with a group of people that you have never seen or met before. Over the course of your trip, whether it is a few weeks or a few months, they will be the last faces you see when you go to bed each night and the first you see in the morning. They should be more than just faces. A host family will let you become more than a tourist, provide deep cultural insight, help you with the local language and perhaps most importantly provide you with a welcoming home away from home. Host families are used to volunteers moving in and out and will be sensitive to the cultural changes that you are experiencing. They will help alleviate homesickness and often become part of a volunteer’s best memories. Don’t fail to take advantage of each possibility and new relationship.

 

6. Come To The Country Knowing (Or Intending to Learn) The Local Language.

While you will able to get by on hand gestures and survival phrases, much more opportunity exists for those who are conversational and can communicate meaningfully. The advantages include everything from being able to have dinner conversation to giving directions to non-English speaking children. Pick up a bi-lingual dictionary two months before you leave, start watching movies in subtitles,

The best online resources for learning a language (lifted from www.Mashable.com ). My current favorite is Mango.

Language Communities

FriendsAbroad - An online community of language learners speaking over 80 languages across 200 countries.

Huitalk - This is a language learning community where you can chat with other Huitalk members, access the article resource, and join the forums to learn new languages.

iTalki - Language exchange network wherein you can find a partner and practice speaking a foreign language using an instant messenger or iTalki’s text and voice chat tool.

MyLanguageExchange - Find a partner to practice a new language with a native speaker.

Novlet - A collaborative story writing tool in several languages. You can also read stories written by other users.

Open Language Archives Community - Network of institutions and people who are creating an online language resources like data, tool, and advice to documentation and analysis of human language.

Speak Any Language - Forums, chat, and tools for learning foreign languages and interacting with people speaking foreign languages.

TalkBean - You can tutor language students or be a student on the TalkBean community. Students pay to get language lessons and tutors can get paid to teach.

TraduWiki - A wiki where members and readers contribute to translate documents and texts. You can submit your documents for translation in select languages.

Sites Offering Courses and Tools for Learning Multiple Languages

BBC Languages - Resources for learning French, Spanish, German, Italian, Mandarin Chinese, Portuguese, Greek, Urdu, and more.

EduFind - Provides language learning tools, courses, materials, resources and news in more than 128 languages. The site also lists language schools in various countries.

eLanguage - Provides free online grammar guides in English, Spanish, French, and German. Provides slideshows of 32 world cultures.

eLanguageSchool - Resources for learning Chinese, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish.

Engoi - Free vocabulary exercises of more than 12 languages.

Fonetiks - Online pronunciation guide to different variations of the English, French, French Canadian, German, Swiss German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Indonesian, Japanese, Mandarin, and Thai languages.

InternetPolygot - Learn various languages with digital flashcards.

Learn Indian Languages - Provides English, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Oriya, Punjabi, Tamil and Telugu language word and sentence constructions in the scripts of your language.

Mango - Free language learning course with each course comprising of 100 lessons. Courses available are for Spanish, Russian, French, Italian, Mandarin Chinese, German, Japanese, Brazilian Portuguese, Geek, English for Spanish speakers, and English for Polish speakers.

PhraseBase - This is an online database of everyday words and phrases translated into over 90 foreign languages. There are live webcam language classrooms as well.

Scola - A non-profit educational organization re-transmitting native language TV programs from around the world.

Transcon - This site provides important and need-to-know vocabulary of Middle East and African nations for military and civilians working in these conflict areas.

Translation Tools and Services

AjaxTrans - With AjaxTrans, you can have your text translated, automatically in the language of your choice, as you type. Supported languages are English, Spanish, German, French, Italian, Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Russian, Greek, and Dutch.

AltaVista Babel Fish - Translates a web page or up to 150 words of text in English to/from Chinese (Simplified), English to/from Chinese (Traditional), English to/from Dutch, English to/from French, English to/from German, English to/from Greek, English to/from Italian, English to/from Korean, English to/from Japanese, English to/from Russian, English to/from Portuguese, English to/from Spanish, German to/from French, Dutch to/from French, French to/from German,French to/from Greek, French to/from Italian, French to/from Portuguese, and French to/from Spanish.

Google Translate - This Google tool translate text and webpages in English to/from Arabic, English to/from Chinese (Simplified), English to/from Chinese (Traditional), English to/from French, English to/from German, English to/from Italian, English to/from Korean, English to/from Japanese, English to/from Russian, English to/from Spanish, English to/from Portuguese, Chinese (Simplified) to/from Chinese (Traditional), and German to/from French. You can also enter a particular phrase in your language and search it among other language sites. There is a multi-lingual dictionary too.

RhymeZone - Enter a word and find its rhymes, synonyms, antonyms, definition, related words, similar sounding words, homophones. You can also check spellings, match consonants and letters, search for pictures and quotations, and search in Shakespeare works.

 

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