Every young white American should spend at least six months to a year in East Asia (preferably Greater China) doing anything but teaching English or some "save the world" kind of bullsh**t. (real expat job/secondment, foreign service, international internship, academic program, etc.) Everyone I know who's done it is a far more developed individual than those who have not. I say white because anyone who is not white will have a miserable time due to the extreme levels of racism in those countries.
One of my good high school friends (and college roommate freshman year) is White/ethnically European/whatever but was born in China and lived there until he was in high school because his parents were missionaries. He loves East Asia. He has some crazy stories about what he could get away with as a White person in China compared to non-Whites.
