What kind of people cannot survive in the European and American art education system when studying abroad in Europe and America? Why do we talk about this serious problem? Some students may ask: "You are not Art study institutions Your teacher? Isn't the more students the better? " From the perspective of the company's profitability, this statement is true, but when we really stand on the side of teachers and art education, the answer to this question will become different, because there are indeed some students, even teachers who have long been engaged in art study or intermediary industry, will not recommend going abroad, Because they may not survive in the "strange" European and American education system, today we will divide these students into the following categories to see why they are not suitable for studying in art.

　　 "Reach out to the Party"

"Reach out to the Party" includes but is not limited to the fields of study and life. I put this kind of students in the first place because "if you can solve it by yourself, you should solve it by yourself and try not to bother others", which should be one of the necessary skills in life. At the same time, behind the "reaching out to the Party", there is also a hidden element of independent learning ability.

When we were at school, we definitely met such a class of students, who were particularly "asking questions" and would habitually "seek help" no matter what they met. Even if you may have entered the society and started your career now, you will inevitably encounter such companions in your life. The biggest feature of the Reach Party is "extreme dependence on others".

I don't particularly recommend that students of this kind choose to study abroad. First of all, although many foreign schools, such as RCA Huangyi , RISD Rhode Island, etc., are known for their "strictness" and "intense learning", but on the whole, the school's learning atmosphere is very "free". Especially in some hand on, studio based and production based classrooms, teachers will give students a lot of free space to create and realize their own ideas, so as to ensure that the final work will be a complete project that can reflect your highest ability and thinking ideas at the moment. Some of these projects have a very short period, such as about one week to complete a quick, difficult and challenging small assignment; Or it will give you a relatively long period of time, such as three or four weeks to do a relatively complete, rigorous, and needs to be more complete theory and data support of the large-scale project.

Such projects especially test the ability of independent learning and project time planning, which is a disaster for the "reach out party". In the domestic teaching environment, many students are used to the fact that the teacher has prepared the learning materials and materials and handed them directly to me. I just need to do the final "completion" step. The teacher will also have a relatively fixed "answer" and method to review the project. For example, in the process of the work, the teacher may directly tell you which material to use to express the theme: "I suggest you use xxx or xxx, because their material characteristics are xxx, which is more suitable for your theme."

But in foreign countries, teachers will not consider you so thoroughly. Compared with giving you an accurate answer, teachers will pay more attention to the process of students' "experiencing and obtaining results". In this process, whether it is research, experiment, trial and error, or building a model and making the final results, you basically need to complete it yourself. Even if you experience failure halfway, the teacher will not directly interfere in your project. He may tell you some cases that can be used for reference, and exchange some interesting ideas with you. But ultimately, you or your team need to independently complete the extension, which is actually practice based guided teaching abroad.

In natural light, many students will not adapt to the teacher's teaching method when they first come here. For example, when we paid a return visit, one undergraduate painting major student responded that in the school's basic painting class, the teacher paid special attention to whether the students' painting posture was correct and whether the lines were arranged according to the specified standards. Every student will correct, and will be asked to erase and draw again if he makes a mistake. The result is that each student's picture effect is very good, but when put together, few works will immediately "jump" out, because each painting is the same composition, the same light and shadow, the same color.

In the foreign teaching environment, teachers attach great importance to students' "self shaping" ability. Students should have their own independent understanding of any knowledge, and as a future artist/designer, they should also have independent ideas and thinking.

Students who often pay attention to us or have participated in the activity of student recruitment officer should have heard that our admissions officer mentioned such a word "Personal Voice". What is "personal voice/opinion" is actually your style and characteristics different from others. To form and have their own style and characteristics, and express ideas from their own point of departure, this is actually a threshold that must be crossed for domestic students who have been accustomed to the teacher giving templates and I just need to complete the project. Because they have been used to setting up templates, or using the matting that others have already done in the early stage.

I was a student who met with the natural light. At the beginning of class, I needed to look up information, but I could hardly start. Even Google keywords need the help of art teachers to sort out and guide. Under the constant running in and guidance, we gradually have the awareness of completing our own thinking and retrieval.

If there are classmates in the same group who can supervise you and ensure the progress of the team project in the team work project, then you can only plan the big project that needs to be completed independently. During the project, the teacher is not responsible for expediting your progress, nor will he give you materials or materials at a fixed time node. He will only tell you: "We will conduct one-on-one critiques or talking to talk about your homework before xxx time."

Before this DDL, the teacher will not tell you how to complete the project (of course, you can take the initiative to talk to him about your own ideas on the subject); It will not directly give you a theme he wants you to do; It will not help you to find information and organize material data. You will have enough space and time to play freely. How to plan and how long it will take for each step of the 3-4 weeks; What preparations need to be made, what materials need to be collected, and how to proceed with the next step according to the materials should be completed independently.

This kind of curriculum arrangement, for non reaching party students who have a strong sense of autonomy and are good at completing their own plans and projects, can really maximize their ability to develop their own ideas, think about their own creation, and integrate more inspiration and creativity into their own works, so as to obtain the most dimensional professional ability and cognitive ability. But for the Reach Party, it is easy to be at a loss in the face of such a learning atmosphere and disrupt their learning life.

　　 Intended major No matching major abroad

On this point, in the previous article: Today when 700000 examinees are disqualified for "art promotion", talk about the problems and advantages of domestic and foreign art environment , once mentioned briefly. Many students come to Natural Light for consultation and say they want to go abroad to study calligraphy and traditional Chinese painting. I don't recommend going abroad because these majors are highly culturally and geographically restricted. If you like these Chinese traditional culture and art majors, but want to go abroad, you can first consider one question: Am I not a major in traditional Chinese painting (calligraphy)? If the answer is "No, I can also consider other majors when going abroad, but I don't want to give up my interest in these fields completely", then you can actually consider going abroad.

My colleague once led a classmate Liu in 2017. She was in a similar situation. She had a family of calligraphy and painting since childhood, and her grandparents and fathers were both Chinese painting artists. In this family atmosphere, she has always been very interested in calligraphy and Chinese painting and is also very good at it. When she was a sophomore, her family and she thought it would be a good choice to continue studying abroad, but she was reluctant to give up her solid background and ability in Chinese painting and calligraphy. Therefore, after many communications with the teacher, she determined that her major was pure art. In her collection of works, she reinterpreted the "light at night" in traditional Chinese painting with a group of sculpture works combined with interactive devices; In another project, we extracted some unique elements from the techniques of traditional Chinese painting, combined some special materials with interesting commonalities, and made a second creation.

For the admissions officers of foreign colleges and universities who have not seen similar expressions, like Liu, it is very competitive and interesting to bring his own expertise in the field of traditional Chinese painting into play in his works collection, which can easily attract their eyes and imagination.

Secondly, some traditional majors with high matching degree at home and abroad can also consider going abroad, such as ceramic manufacturing, ancient architecture research, cultural relic restoration, art history research, etc. Although such a major also requires profound cultural background and quality, at least there are similarities at home and abroad in the study and exploration of some theories, techniques and time clues.

But if your answer to the previous question is absolutely positive, it is not Chinese painting/calligraphy. Well, I really don't recommend you to study abroad. The first reason is the cultural precipitation. There is still a big difference between Chinese painting and Western pure art. Some students may think that pure art has many similarities with Chinese painting/calligraphy and other majors, but in fact, the concept of pure art in the West originated in Europe, and when it began to form a complete art teaching system, the framework it relied on has tended to modern and contemporary art. For fine traditional professional fields, the choices that can be made are also based on European classical art, such as oil painting, printmaking, sculpture, etc. Take the ceramics manufacturing major mentioned above as an example. If you want to learn blue and white porcelain manufacturing, there is no great learning space and opportunity abroad.

So, in contrast to the above question, what kind of major do I recommend studying abroad? If your major selection scope covers the Department of Design Innovation, I would recommend you to study abroad. The Department of Design Innovation covers global innovative design, data visualization, interactive design, human-computer, new media art, interactive installation art, computer art, comprehensive design, etc. Most of these art design fields are emerging in recent years, and it is almost impossible to find highly matched majors in China.

Taking interaction design as an example, most of the interaction design in domestic schools is based on UI and UX, and most of the professional basic courses are based on the visual communication major. After graduation, students are engaged in a series of related designs in the interface dimension. But in fact, interaction design is a very large professional system, which includes many branches. In addition to UI and UX, there are UE, HCI, interactive devices, user experience, service design, AR based, VR based design, etc.

Taking the case of students around us as an example, Hu, who won the double offer of RCA Digital Direction and Service Design in the application quarter of 2019, is a student majoring in industrial product design. After graduation, he worked in the so-called interaction design. But he didn't know until he prepared his overseas portfolio and had a systematic study, There are so many specific majors to choose from in the field of interaction. And his previous work was just a little bit on UI/UX.

Secondly, comprehensive design is a thorough interdisciplinary major, which integrates almost all design and art fields. This major is not found in domestic colleges and universities. If you are interested in this kind of "interdisciplinary" emerging major, and there is no major to choose in China, I would recommend studying abroad. Because most foreign colleges and universities have formed a relatively complete and systematic teaching system for such majors, there is sufficient room for development. For example, in RCA Huangyi, GID, IDE, IED, Service Design and other majors, students can not only cooperate with students in school, but also participate in exchanges and cooperation in various countries and complete projects with schools around the world.

　 "Passive" going abroad, not sure whether to go abroad

Is it your decision to study art/design abroad after careful consideration? I hope that every student, whether you are an art student or a major international student, should carefully think about this problem before starting to prepare for going abroad.

I have been engaged in art study for many years, and I have met many students who chose to go abroad not out of their own subjective will. There are many reasons for this situation. It may be that parents see children from other families studying abroad and develop well after returning home, so they follow the trend and ask their children to study abroad; It may also be the students themselves. Seeing that most of their friends have gone abroad, they want to go out and have a look; There are also those who choose to go abroad because they really can't go on learning in China and their grades are too poor

I have seen more than one of them. As the first point I mentioned at the beginning of the article, whether you study art and design or not, the ability to study independently is an element. In the above question, I specially marked the qualification of "myself", which is also because of this reason. The strong drive of self-consciousness is also very important.

Many students did not think carefully before going abroad. After going abroad, it is difficult to adjust their mentality for a while because they do not adapt to the life and learning style abroad. They will not only delay their study, but also become anxious and confused in their own life.

Two days ago, I chatted with a student majoring in architecture. A year ago, he got the AA Architectural Alliance College and UCL University College London , Xie Fei and other schools' Grand Slam offers. His collection of works was basically completed by DIY. His parents, who are architectural engineers, helped to coach and review some of them. Each project is very exciting, which can be said to be very envious. When asked why he chose to go abroad, it was because his parents wanted him to study abroad. During the preparation of his application, he did not raise any objection, nor did he seriously think about going abroad. He always had an indifferent attitude, thinking that he would go out to study. Anyway, he went on to study architecture, but changed his country. When I think about my previous overseas travel experience, it seems that I am very happy. But when he really arrived in Britain, he found that he could hardly adapt to the overseas life and learning mode. For one thing, he never left his parents for a long time when he was young. He also went to college in this city. His only experience of traveling abroad was with his parents; Second, during the application period, he did not participate in or experience any courses connected with overseas classes in the early stage, did not really feel the atmosphere of overseas teaching, did not know how foreign institutions teach, and how students learn. When the inherent domestic teaching mode of thinking collides with the dilemma of not adapting to the local environment, his parents who have always depended on can not give him real help, and his mood nearly collapses, which has affected his normal life. Only then did he feel that he should have seriously considered whether he was really suitable for going abroad. When I chat with him, I can also strongly feel his depression.

So, once you have the idea of studying abroad, no matter what the reason, I hope you can seriously think about whether you are determined to go abroad. If the overall intention is to go abroad at present, but there are still some concerns and entanglements, I don't know whether I can adapt to the overseas teaching mode, or whether I can go through the transition period by myself after going abroad, then I suggest that such students can try to participate in some short-term projects in winter and summer vacation first.

For example, most British and American colleges and universities have Summer/Winter Programs for winter and summer vacations Art study institutions And intermediary agencies will also organize admission experience courses abroad from time to time. In fact, this is a good opportunity to help you determine whether you like the foreign classroom atmosphere and can adapt to the independent life abroad in the short term.

The Summer/Winter Program usually lasts about 5-20 days, which is basically enough for you to have a certain understanding of local life and schools. However, when choosing, we should pay special attention to the contents of these projects, because some projects are actually just similar to the form of Open Day visits, but some are hard core projects that enter the school classroom and experience with students.

This kind of genuine learning project, sometimes, school instructors, professors will give excellent students a recommendation letter; Some schools will also record the Pragram learning results directly for credits. If students finally apply and are admitted by the school, these credits can be used for conversion. So if you decide to participate in summer school or similar projects, you should distinguish between them.

　　 The economic conditions at home are not enough to support overseas study

To study abroad, it is not necessary to have a mine at home. It is undeniable that with certain economic conditions at home as support, it will greatly reduce the resistance to studying abroad; However, if your family is in a tight situation and you really want to go out, there are also many options, such as going to Europe, where public schools are free of tuition, or applying for scholarships, you can also earn money by working after school.

But I would like to make a special point. If your family conditions are really not enough to support the cost of studying abroad, you need a loan, or even sell a house (there are 10 suites in your family, and one house is sold for you to study abroad, which is not within the scope of this discussion), you can barely support part of the expenses. I suggest you think carefully and choose whether to go abroad as appropriate.

Art and design majors often have certain requirements for students' creativity and imagination, and have sufficient support power, so that you can try, try and make mistakes in various fields, understand different artistic expressions, obtain new ideas from different materials, and achieve breakthrough progress in continuous cognitive improvement. Most of these developments have the property of burning money. If you have some financial support at home, it can really reduce your burden and give you more opportunities to try and make mistakes.

Of course, I'm not saying that if the family's economic conditions are not so comfortable, they can't choose art study abroad. Economic conditions are limited, but you can not be so embarrassed. You can also consider applying for scholarships. For example, many schools will provide students with work study opportunities in school, some with monetary rewards, and some can exchange credits.

However, if your family conditions are really difficult, in fact, I do not recommend going abroad. First of all, although most of the employment conditions in the art industry are "high investment, high return", it takes a certain amount of time to accumulate in order to exchange for the return of money equivalent. In a short time, it is not likely to get high returns. Secondly, I hope that students in this part of the situation should think more carefully about the question "Is the idea of going abroad a decision they have made after careful consideration?". If you choose to go abroad because you want to "join in the fun", or because you want to live in the delicate life of the circle of friends like others. Then I sincerely advise these students not to embarrass themselves and their families. After all, studying abroad is not as beautiful as in the circle of friends.

Studying abroad with the idea of satisfying vanity will not bring you real and effective substantive improvement, but will probably push you deeper into the mud. You should know that any "high return", corresponding to "high pay", is not only about money. If money is the starting point, your 200%+effort is the key to the final result. "High return" is definitely reserved for those who are prepared and have made real efforts.

　　 Other factors

Other factors include some special circumstances besides the above points, including your physical condition, psychological condition, age, etc. For example, in terms of health, if you are not in good health and decide to study abroad for a long time, you must make preparations in advance. Understand the local medical mechanism, and see if it is necessary for domestic doctors to issue relevant medical documents and associate cases so that they can get medical treatment at any time in the local area.

What kind of people cannot survive in the European and American art education system when studying abroad in Europe and America? As mentioned above, I have summarized five categories of student groups. Whether you are in the above five categories or not, studying abroad in arts is a question with "selectivity". It has neither standard answers nor single choice questions. On this choice question, everyone should make the most suitable decision according to their own conditions.

Natural light shares more topics for you:

The real life of overseas students, talking about the "ideal" before going abroad and the "reality" after going abroad

Which city do you choose to study abroad: Britain, France, Italy, Australia, Japan and other famous school cities

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