Life Lessons
Life lessons from studying abroad. This is Michael Acquisto here with my son and PhD, individual teener Questo Tanner. Thanks for joining us. You studied abroad for a long time. Yes, I did. That’s crazy. How many times did you get to do that?
I guess technically I’ve gone back and forth twice for studies.
So you’ve been across the pond many, many times, traveling back and forth, and you’ve had a great experience. And how this ties in here is there’s a lot of people out there that have children and you have different opportunities to do things. And, you know, studying abroad could start anywhere from middle school to high school to college to, you know, masters and beyond. Right.
And you had a great experience. And so now you’re at the age where you can definitely discuss this and say, like the pros and cons and things that you liked and what kind of happened and where you stayed and where you’ve been. So just to kind of talk about that a little bit, let’s start with a super easy one. Did you enjoy your experience? Yeah, OK. And can you answer this next question? Maybe in French?
Ok, so let’s answer the next question in French. Let’s go with what is your favorite restaurant to go eat at with your fiancee?
Oh, man, our Favorite French place.
This is going to be on there for a French place. Yes, my French is
I’m waiting because I don’t know. It’s for the best for we like our favorite restaurants here in New York, actually.
So you can you can speak passable French.
Sure. So that’s good. So that was a skill that you were able to pick up, right? A little bit, yeah. Yeah.
Well, I know that you’re still consistently learning. Sometimes I look over and I’ll see your phone and your phone’s in which language I’m practicing.
So that’s in French.
So your phones in French.
Sometimes I switch back and forth.
That’s amazing. And tell me a little bit more about you were over there studying abroad and you enjoyed yourself and it was good. And you continue to go back.
Why do you go back?
Well, I met Cecile, my former girlfriend, now fiance. Yeah. And I all ended up yeah, we want to see each other. So we end up traveling from between New York and Paris so frequently when possible.
Yeah, they’re not cold. Good times. You guys had like the most amazing life and you’re going back and forth like all the time.
Yes.
And work. I would like to work remotely, more or less so I can stay in Paris for months at a time.
And that’s amazing because you’re a professor. I don’t know what my advisor for graduate school in New York is also French. And she did her PhD where I did my masters.
Yes. So there’s a tie in between the two and it’s like, hey, you just go back and forth whenever you want and you kind of stayed there for an amount of time and it wasn’t a problem, right? Yeah, that’s incredible. So you led to all these different tie ins with different people and you were able to meet them and studying abroad. Do you recommend? Absolutely. OK, and so you learn a lot of different things. I know some of your world views have changed for sure. And you’ve seen different things, right? When you’re here in the US, you only get your version of what’s going on. But you’ve been all different places now, so you have different experiences. Tell us a little bit about that.
Um, well, I guess and so far that we are products of our experience. I guess being able to appreciate different perspectives helps kind of round you out and shape these beliefs you might have. But in the end, I think just in general, it’s good to meet people from different walks of life, different areas, and try to understand their perspective or hear what they have to say to people thing.
Yeah, and you’re in a unique place. I would dare say that you have as many friends from France as you do. Kind of like in the US, probably. Yeah. That’s amazing, right? Yeah. And you told me the other day that you speak with Christian all on a fairly regular basis. Right.
Sometimes. So we Text. And that was a guy that you met over in, in Paris doing your master’s and he’s in which countries. And now I saw in France. He’s in France. Yeah, but he wasn’t initially.
He’s Lebanese.
Ok, very good. And you met him? Mm hmm. Yeah. It’s crazy what the world can bring you and how large it can be and how small it can be. At the same time, I’m often daunted when I look out and see the scale and scope of stuff. And specifically the ocean is one of those items that you see it and you just. You feel so small all of a sudden, and you were out there for, you said five weeks just chillin in the ocean, dropping stuff, as you said, and then kicking it back up.
Yeah, that’s a simplistic word. Yeah, it’s throwing stuff over the boat. Yeah.
Grab it. And a little bit later. Yeah. And then so then you get all this data back up and then you get to analyze it and you enjoyed your time there. And so tell me more about some of the things that you what did you not like about going abroad, because there’s things that you clearly liked and then there has to be some things that were that were difficult, things that you didn’t like.
Yeah. I mean, there is like kind of a culture shock just jumping into another country where you don’t speak the language. I mean, I would definitely recommend, like committing yourself to practice or a language that you take either in high school or middle school, if you can kind of line that up better or just try to take a lot more time to immerse yourself in the language a little bit before going, I think it would really help your experience
While your classes were taught in English, right?
Yes.
And why do you think that is?
Well, we were international program, so they expect that to be in English and in science. You’re expected to be able to read and write in English. So at the school I was at they teach English courses and they require French students to take them. Sure. They require everyone to take them. But maybe Cecille can answer that question. You know, I spoke earlier about a few things, but Wow.
This has been a great time. I’m glad that everyone joined us here. I hope that everybody out there was able to take away just a piece or two from this. And maybe it helps your students out. Maybe it helps you out when you’re considering buying or selling a home. They have the opportunity to go and do this. I’ve heard of people going and traveling abroad as young as middle school.
Brandon Hearn sent his son abroad and he brought in a another individual who got stay with him and was very good guy. So we were able to meet all of those people. You can obviously do this in high school through something like a Rotary Club or as you get older, you could do it through different, you know, things in college as well. And it’s Gisèle actually studied abroad and came here when she was younger as well. Right.
She did an exchange program. Yeah. Although she was studying,
But well, they threw her over here and just like launched her.
Well they swapped kids.
Yeah. Exchanged them.
That’s awesome. So her parents had somebody.
Yes.
That’s awesome. Yeah. And she went to a bunch of different places here. She was here for a while right.
Oh well she was also good for school to do an internship with school here as well In the U.S. So she’s been to America A lot.
I guess so. A number of times. And she speaks better English. And you speak French, right? Absolutely. Like not even close, probably. What does she think in English yet? I don’t know. I don’t know. I’m going to ask her. Cecile chatting right now if you think in English.
Yeah, I think you do. Right. It depends. Like you switch switch your brain.
Yeah. Very good. Well, thank you guys for joining us. I think this is now the time we hit the bell and we move on.
Episode Links
Schools , Geo Physics, Michael Acquisto
