Study abroad in Geneva, Switzerland, Brussels, Belgium, Amsterdam, Netherlands, or London, England?
I am stuck. I am a junior in college who would like to study abroad the first semester of my senior year. I am interested in studying in either... Geneva, Switzerland (my own fear is that they don't speak much English there) Brussels, Belgium (they are very discriminatory? they don't always speak English?) Amsterdam, Netherlands (I think it's a cool city but I'm not studying abroad just to party) London, England (direct program with my school, but its all students from my school and I kind of want to do my own thing, great internship opportunity though) any advice? thoughts? personal experiences?
Studying Abroad - 2 Answers
Random Answers, Critics, Comments, Opinions :
1 :
It depends on your major, the languages you speak and your personal preferences. The people in Switzerland all learn English, so you shouldn't worry about that. Amsterdam is beautiful, it has a really nice atmosphere and many young people. I personally didn't like Brussels very much when I went, it's basically just a big city. London is great, many clubs & cultural activities, lots of shopping streets but REALLY expensive. Expect to pay around 15 Pound for entrance into a club. If your major is related to business or anything the like, you should really consider Asia. The US will rely more and more on China and Japan...
2 :
Well I have lived and studied in two European countries, lived in a third and travelled to most (including all of your mentioned cities), so can work with this as background. Geneva is a lovely city and very international and multi-national friendly. English is widely spoken and actually a lot of expats live and work in Geneva for international organisations. So if this is your fear (about the lack of English) then don't worry Brussels - nice city but not really my kind of city, there was something missing for me, difficult to put my finger on it. I just found it a bit cold and missing of a certain atmosphere that I would like to live with. However again it is a very international city with internaitonal organisation and institutes which makes it very expat friendly. English is not a problem. It is spoken widely and at a high level. Amsterdam (I used to live there so I'm biased!) really great city to live, work and study within. Yes it has a reputation but actually is a very beautiful city and so much more that the boring stereotypes. There is a thriving foreign student population and again English is spoken widely and at a high level. It is more than just a party city and one that I really enjoyed living in (moving further south only because of high house prices) London - well this is probably the easiest city because of the language, but ask yourself if you are studying abroad for "experience" then personally I think it is more fun to pick a city where is it not so "easy" Again a great city, again very multi-national and a lot of foreign students, but I guess it depends on what you prefer So personally if I was in your shoes then I would pick Amsterdam as the first city and if not then Geneva.
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