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Advantages of Gap Year

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Creative Time, Gap Year

Gap years are something that many people, from students to working people, have and talk about and emphasize the need for. Currently, many Western countries have already recognized the effectiveness of gap years and are recommending them to students. So why on earth, what are the benefits of taking a gap year, and why are they recommending gap years?

In fact, gap years have different meanings for each person depending on how they spend them. Even if some friends take a gap year at the same time and place, the meaning they feel can be different for each person. In other words, the meaning and value of the gap year period for each person is very different. There are such differences, but there are many common advantages of gap years that people talk about. Let’s find out the core advantages of gap years that gap yearers talk about.

1 Opportunity to speak and improve and learn various second foreign languages such as English, Japanese, Chinese, and Spanish, which were usually focused only on grammar.

Friends who take a gap year get to travel and experience different fields of work, and meet various friends in new fields. In particular, friends who take a gap year abroad have the opportunity to talk to various friends of different nationalities while traveling, interning, or volunteering. This will be a time to learn a real foreign language by speaking and listening to it, not just a foreign language that you just memorized. In fact, many friends who plan and take a gap year on their own rather than studying abroad get more opportunities to use foreign languages.

2 A chance to look back on what kind of future I dream of, what I am interested in and value, think about my life once more, and learn about myself that I didn’t know about.

Generally, Korean students have been told that the set course is right when they go to middle school, go to high school, and then to college, and the last is getting a job at a large corporation. They make hasty choices without time to think about themselves, and they believe that it is right without time to look back.
In the process, they don’t even know what they are good at or what they are interested in, and they end up hiding themselves in the shadows. This makes them doubt themselves and at some point, they fall into a slump. ‘Is this right?’ ‘Is this really the right way to win?’ No one knows the answer. Only they know and have to decide for themselves. In order to make decisions for themselves, shouldn’t they know themselves first? That time will never be wasted.

3 Opportunity to meet new friends in a new environment, and broaden your horizons by talking about new fields with them

While taking a gap year, gappers get to do new things and meet new people in a new environment. Meeting people is not just about getting to know people, but it can also be an opportunity to get to know yourself through communication. It will be an opportunity to meet and listen to various people from various fields, broaden your horizons, and gain new perspectives on fields you didn’t know about.

4 Opportunity to broaden your horizons and gain professional knowledge and hands-on experience in the field by participating in various activities such as internships and volunteer work during the gap year, as well as to encounter and experience new cultures and customs.

In reality, students try to seize internship opportunities as a preparatory step for employment and also gain internship experience. However, since internships are considered a means and a way to build up specs rather than learning something, what is left after completing the internship is not an experience for myself, but mainly a career or resume. Rather than simply limiting internships to office work, shouldn’t it be an opportunity to work at a company or field that you want to work in and solidify your dreams and goals by working there and seeing if this is the right job for you and if you can do it well?

If you think that working at a large company would be a good fit for you, apply for a large company internship and gain experience to solidify your dreams. If you have dreams in other fields, try to learn and experience them yourself as an intern in that field. It will help solidify your dreams 🙂

5 An opportunity to learn about other fields for a short period of time or experience them through an internship in addition to the field you want to do or are interested in.

6 An opportunity to break away from the confined school classroom and discover and learn things you couldn’t learn at school.

Usually, the things we can learn at school are limited. Things that teachers teach, and the set textbook courses and theories… However, there is so much to learn in the world outside of school. You can break away from the classroom and discover and learn things you couldn’t learn at school during your gap year. Participate in various activities and do things you couldn’t do before and things you wanted to do. And learn from the world.

7 Opportunity to create your own unique and unique story, your own story, in your self-introduction or resume that society asks for

Generally, companies request resumes and self-introductions to recruit talent. They give you a few topics in your self-introduction and use those topics to judge how you have lived and what kind of person you are. However, many students worry and hesitate about this issue.

Job seekers who worry about various things such as ‘I have nothing to write in my self-introduction…’, ‘What did I do when I was a freshman in college?’…
And in the end, they end up only talking about abstract things about their lives, not their own stories. If we take a gap year to do something that we are truly passionate about and want to do, rather than simply taking a break to build up our qualifications, we can create our own stories, our own stories. Appeal with your own stories, and you can have your own valuable story that cannot be compared to anyone else’s.

The seven advantages of a gap year that we learned above! Are you feeling a desire and aspiration for the challenge of taking a gap year?
Usually, when students take a gap year, they are not able to rest properly, but rather, they are anxious about building up their specs and not doing something.
However, how about changing your thinking about it now? There are many obstacles to overcome, such as the burden of taking a gap year, the burden of my time, and the burden of money, but you will be able to gain valuable things that cannot be converted into value.