For International students, life in a foreign country is something they should be well prepared
for. Thanks to today’s world of smart phones and apps, there is a lot of technological
available to them to help them get organized and stay organized while studying abroad. Let’s
take a look at some of the essential apps an international student must have in his smart phone
which will help in making their lives easier.
Google Maps
One of the most important apps for any student studying in a foreign country is of course,
Google maps. This app would help you navigate the city you are currently at and would give you
directions for the nearby restaurants, hospitals, landmarks, etc. One can also get the shortest
routes and also voice prompts from the app, to get to a certain place. So make sure you
download this free app when you are studying at a new place.
Google Translate
Studying in a different country often means the language of the host country would be different
from the language spoken at your home country. If one is not at all familiar with the language
of the host nation, then basic conversations and things like asking for help when necessary
will turn out to be a huge problem. An app that can help you out in such situations is the
Google translate app. It has translations available for over 90 languages and helps you to
translate to and from the language of your choosing. You can even draw or speak the word to be
translated and it does the job for you. It can even translate real-time conversations between
people. It also has a world lens tool which lets you hold the phone over foreign text and it
translates the text for you.
Converter+
Converter+ is another extremely handy app for someone adjusting to a new country. This app
allows you over 100 types of conversions for measures such as currencies, temperature, length,
weight, etc. Make sure you have it ready when you are going to a country with different units
of measurement, compared to your native country.
Messaging/ Calling apps
For students studying abroad, staying in touch with family and friends back home and also local
friends is of utmost importance. Normal international calls can turn out to be very expensive.
So it is essential to have apps like Whatsapp or LINE or Facebook Messenger, which use data to
make calls and send messages and makes contacting your dear and near ones nearly free of cost.
My Data Manager
My Data Manager is another app that is very useful for international students. One may not be
familiar with the data plans of the host country they are residing in. My Data Manager is an
app which allows the user to monitor the data usage by his smart phone and alerts him about it
when the data limit approaching. A small purchase in app will let one use it to its full
potential by allowing the user to plan the usage and other features.
Data backup apps
Data and files backup is very important for any student. This is because even if the smart
phone being used gets lost or all its stored data gets corrupted, if the important data is
backed up, there is almost nothing to worry about then. Apps like Google Drive, Dropbox, etc
allows one to backup all stored pictures, videos, documents, etc and access them from any
device connected to the internet.
Studious
Studious is an app that keeps the class schedules, deadlines and exam dates for a student in a
single place. This life-saving app is essentially an alarm, which alerts the students about any
upcoming important dates or deadlines. The user can customize how and when the alarms should go
off so that they can make sure it doesn’t go off at an inconvenient time, like…during class
hours.
Eventbrite
“All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy”. It is essential to have adequate amounts of
leisure time and time to socialize during the course of study abroad. Apps like Eventbrite help
the user to search for events, festivals, concerts, etc which are happening in your city. Users
can buy tickets for these events and can also share their plans so that they can invite
interested friends to join them for the fun times.
These are some of the apps which are essential for an international student while studying
abroad, which will make their stay easier and more pleasant. Hope you find them useful during
your stay abroad and make full use of them. All the best!