What We’re “Really” Here For

We were able to meet most of the professors within the program during orientation and one of them pointed out a fact that would come to hinder us in this new environment: Americans tend to be painfully visual learners. We like structure and PowerPoint presentations with clearly labeled lessons.

The European teaching style can be less direct and, while PowerPoints are still used, the professors may go off on more tangents than American students are used to. It all connects and makes sense in the end, but it can make note taking much more complicated – especially when you add in the challenge of deciphering an unfamiliar accent.

Another adjustment for me with classes is the concept of a double class, having two 90-minute sessions of the same class back-to-back so that it meets only once a week, usually to accommodate a professor’s schedule. This is nice because you only have to meet once a week, but it can also be exhausting because of the length and many of these are in the evening.

I strongly recommend stopping at a café on the way to one of these classes to properly caffeinate yourself in preparation. Oh, and bring a snack.

It can also be dangerously easy to procrastinate on assignments for classes when you have a whole week to do them. Trust me, it’s not worth it. A week of time can also mean a week’s worth of homework. Don’t get me wrong, the professors for classes in the program understand that most students are travelling and trying to take in the culture by being out and about rather than stuck inside studying all the time – but this is also still college and there is an expectation that your work will be completed.

Professors can also help with that cultural immersion. Many classes include trips, usually brief around the city in lieu of a lecture, but sometimes day trips as well on Fridays, when most people don’t have classes. These help us learn the city in ways we wouldn’t without a local guide and bring us to amazing places we may never have taken the initiative to see on our own.

When you’re living in a beautiful big city that you previously only hoped to visit, it’s easy to forget the reality of your “vacation” – you still have work to do. But it’s work that helps you understand the place you’re in, it’s history, people, and culture. In the end, isn’t that understanding, that immersion what you really came for?

Halls of Corvinus University of Budapest. Who wouldn't want to go to class here?!