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[zharkov]

I think a cliche like "traveling the world" can mean a lot of different things to different people. 

Exactly.  To me, it sounds like going on vacation.  Growing up in the projects, no way would we have thought that "traveling the world" was an option, unless one was referring to the navy.   And, no, I didn't have a credit card, never mind one with a 12K line of credit, so that wasn't an option.

Now the OP mentions East Asian Studies, and if what the person in question really intends to do is visit Japan (say) and work toward mastering the language, living in that culture, then that is a totally different story, IMHO.  And would seem to make one a stronger candidate for grad school.

[litcrittr82]

My comments about the connotation of "traveling the world" were to point out the very fact that regardless of what kind of travel one does during time off and how they pay for it--and contrary to what's being said, I'm not at all making assumptions about those details--if it's described as "traveling the world," it may well be taken very, very differently than what it actually IS.

I say this because I've had some experiences which have led me to some feelings that I self-identified as both bitter and prejudiced about those whose stated activities are "traveling the world," and I don't think I'm alone when I say that the connotation of the phrase "traveling the world" says a lot more than what ideagirl and pink lady seem to want to acknowledge.  And I don't think that anyone, no matter how (self)righteous, operates free of small prejudices and experiences such as mine. That's why we take such great pains to articulate things carefully.  If we want to convey that we did something of value abroad, we should be specific.  I don't think that's a small lesson at all: "travelling the world" sounds very different in an interview or on a CV than "I did X in Y country."  That's really all I'm reacting to.  Regardless of what the person did, would you want to hear that they merely "traveled the world" for a year? If you spent a summer in Rome and a year in Greece and 6 months in Egypt before you went on to study classics in grad. school, would you be content to describe your experiences, in context of your academic goals, as "traveling the world"?

Let's put my comments back into context, because they were ripped out of context pretty quickly: after someone already expressed concern over how the idea of taking a year off "to travel," expressed as such, might sound to people, I commented that my experiences have led me to a similar reaction to the idea of just traveling, or traveling the world, put those ways.  ideagirl then took issue with my reaction to "travel the world," and I then explained clearly that my issue isn't necessarily with what people are doing with their time off, but whether they're charaterizing it as "traveling the world."  From there, the discussion turned away from what I still contend was the useful red flag that seconded, only after someone else aready raised it, on how some people might potentially respond to the idea of taking a year off to just travel, or "travel the world."  Put this way, it certainly comes off as a privilege of someone who has the money to burn, rather than a soul-searching and/or ambitious and/or resourcefully-funded trip abroad to gain crucial perspective.