- Summarize the reading.
A professor was curious as to how students took in study abroad experience. He wanted to know how they valued it and what they learned. He was shocked to know the truth behind the scenes, and that was determined from the students’ assignments of keeping a journal log. The journal log was also a way for the students to see their patterns in their travel. The results and life lessons were quite intriguing.
- Why did the author choose the ethnographic study described in the reading?
He wanted to know about the educational benefits that students receive from travel, and he found journals as a way for students to look back on their travels. It was also his way of showing the students what they were missing or doing wrong in their travels.
- What approach did the anthropologist use for gathering the data?
He instructed his students to record all of their movements and activities every 15 minutes in travel logs every day, from the moment they wake up to when they retire at night. They also had to record how many people they were with. At the end of every three-day weekend, the students calculated how much time they spent on each activity.
- Who were his subjects?
His students were his subjects.
- What questions was he trying to answer?
What kind of customs did the students experience? What kind of people did they encounter? What did the students learn from their days in the country or countries?
- What did he learn?
He learned that the average student would only spend one day in a city, and most of their times were spent on trains. The travel logs also showed that only 14% of the students did something other than go to bars in the evening, basically getting drunk in as many different cities as possible.
- What did his subjects learn?
They learned that it sucks to travel in large groups. They also regretted not being more visualiant about their surroundings or communicating with locals.
- What questions do you have following this reading?
One of my main questions was “When was this article published.” I saw that it was published in a book called Tourists and Tourism by Sharon Gmelch in 2010.
In the article, Gmelch said that no American university has implemented Nicholas Kristof’s proposal of switching to a three-year on-campus academic program and require all students to live abroad for a fourth year, specifically three months in each of four continents: Latin America, Asia, Africa, and Europe. I kind of saw Semester at Sea of being similar to what Kristof proposed, but maybe he want it to be strictly what his proposal suggests.
- How does this study relate to your semester abroad?
I’m glad that I read this before I got on the plane, because I learned something from these students’ mistakes. It makes me want to travel and spend a great amount of time in every major city in NZ. His assignment seemed interesting and makes me want to consider keeping a travel log at least a week.
Aotearoa 