Patrick Wang Quotes

I had the opportunity to come to the United States of America as an exchange student, so I had to come for four months, work, and then go back.

When I got to college, my sister was starting work, and she realized she had two weeks of vacation a year, so she called me and said, 'Go abroad.' So right after my freshman year, I went and I studied in Guatemala, and I studied in Kenya, and I studied in Italy, and it was incredible.

I spent my last year of high school in Latin America, and there's a edge of salsa under all of my rhythms.

When I was 12, we began hosting exchange students from Norway, Sweden, Japan and Spain. I soon realized there was a whole world out there. I was determined to spend my sophomore year in high school abroad. My school taught only Spanish, but I wanted to go to France, and I did.

We learn English from fifth grade on in school, and I was an exchange student when I was 17 in Houston.

Cross-cultural learning and studying abroad can be transformative.

When I was 13, I moved from New Jersey to Germany with my family. The high school was so supportive of my dream to continue with my theater training; instead of taking PE, I would get credit for dance lessons.

After college, I went to England and studied for a couple years.

When I was a senior in high school, I went to Ireland to study Irish Gaelic. And after one semester at Trinity College, I went way out to the west coast of Ireland and rented a little house by myself.

Following my junior year in high school, I went on a camping trip through Russia in a group led by Horst Momber, a young language teacher from Roosevelt.

When I was at U.C.L.A., I decided I was going to go to Japan and learn Japanese.

When we were 15, my girlfriend Ruth Kaplan and I applied to the Universidad Ibero-Americana in Mexico City. We were accepted into a program that placed us with a lovely Mexican family. We lived with them for six weeks while studying Spanish poetry and Mexican anthropology.

I wanted to learn a few foreign languages, and therefore I had to go abroad.

I have a one-question language test that people who have lived abroad do better on than those who studied in a classroom. Try my test yourself: In a foreign language you've studied, how do you say 'doorknob'?

I would love to travel around the world working for a travel company taking students abroad on cultural immersion trips.

I went to England for five months when I was in high school, by myself, so I did experience a bit of being the fish out of water.

It was pretty awful for us children because we never really knew the local children. Mother was keen for us to learn languages, so our travels took us to France and Italy, as well as the West Country.

Every year, I send 1,000 students to China to study Chinese history, language, and culture.

I think young people should travel and travel often to other countries... like I do.

Whether it's in America, Quebec, or France, if I can tell a story that takes me out of my comfort zone, then I'm surfing.

The benefits of studying abroad are huge. You can pick up a new language, develop a love for another culture, and pick up new skills, hobbies and work experience to boost your CV.

I positively encourage time abroad to anybody. It's worth taking the time to suss out which countries in the world are well funded for your subject and look for opportunities there.

Years ago, I worked briefly as a consultant for Sciences-Po, one of Paris's famed grandes ecoles, encouraging American high school students and their parents to pursue an English-language education abroad.

I'm a kid from a small town in West Texas, and I've gotten to travel the world. I got to live all over the world.

I'm doing great in England.