A Semester Abroad Opinion

In Hui xi Yao’s “International perspective: a Chinese student in New Zealand” and Eric Fish’s “How Chinese overseas students are learning harsh life lessons”, which one author discusses about why she, as a Chinese international student, chose to leave her own country and study abroad and another discusses about how will Chinese international students disappointed by studying in their study destination, the united states, the land of the free (or rather the land of racism?). Hui xi Yao highlights the positive aspects of overseas or intenational study, while Fish’s article focuses on several of the negative aspects or on the unfavorable opinions of Chinese students, who came to study in America and found out that everything there is actually far from their expectations. They thought of the United States as symbol of freedom, liberalism and openmindness. All in all, studying in a foreign country especially in the country with higher education will benefit the graduates in term of bringing up the knowledge into a more comprehensive level and language proficiency as well as contacts with other people from all over the world, which could be useful in the future. There’re also some similarities between the articles; both Hui xi Yao’s and Fish’s articles points out to some problems coming up when study abroad such as communication barriers and financial problems; however, both of which focus on the reasons Chinese students tend to leave their country to study in a country, where there’re nothing alike and what really happen in the reality when they come to study abroad.

Chinese students continue to be the majority or fulfill at least one fourth of international students in several cities, whether it is in Europe, America, Austria or even in Asia itself. As Chinese’s market grows, Chinese spending rises, and middle-class families tend to spend on education ahead of any other section, after education followed by real estate and savings when they’re old, more and more parents are willing to send their children to study in countries with higher education, especially in university level, which leads to the rising number of Chinese international students in every popular study-destination. Studying abroad has become a trend, as the Chinese have become less narrow-minded to non-domestic goods (Products and services), which helps determine their status in the society. Apart from the pull factors, or the reasons why the Chinese go to study in other countries (freedom, safety and opporunities), there’re push factors, or the reasons why students choose to leave China, their own country to other foreign countries. Hui xi Yao mentions that she wanted to study abroad since she was in her eight-grade because she has always disliked the intense competition in educational field in China, due to crowded population and limited places of study within the country. China is based on exam-oriented education, to be able to evaluate huge number of students’ abilities. That means Chinese education is of very high-pressure. Most of the students have to be up at 5 am, be in school from 6 o’clock in the morning until 6 in the evening studying and study at home or if the students are in boarding school, they even have to study until midnight, in order to keep pace with other students. It could be said that they spent most of their childhood and adolescence in school studying instead of getting the most out of it; instead of going out and see the world more. Many of the Chinese international students in Eric Fish’s interview thought that they may escape the high-pressured and test-oriented schooling and would be independent adolescent students and be able to speak their mind freely. Though their expectations were not met when they arrived America. When it comes to studying abroad, some may gain worthwhile experience, others, in return, may be disappointed by discovering the truth that the country they thought to be wasn’t as how they thought, in fact, far from what they expected, which I believe, depending on their environment, by whom they are surrounded. If they’re surrounded by lovely open-minded people like what Hui xi Yao’s home-stay family is like; they were helping her to get used to the culture differences by explaining her their social norms and cultures and understood that English isn’t her first language and was therefore, patient with her English skills, they’re likely to think that foreign education is diverse and dynamic. However, if they, on the other hand, are surrounded by pretty narrow-minded people, like how Lian and many other Chinese students in the United States, Chinese students who were interviewed are surrounded by those people, who think of Chinese as lovers of dictatorships and called them ‘brainwashed’, are likely to become more patriotic or are likely to love their country even more than how they used to. Sometimes they’re even thought to be the hands and eyes of their government. The Chinese notice how ignorant and biased Americans are about China. Whenever it comes to politics, they try to put us under one very radical label, said one Chinese student on Fish’s article. There’s no fun surrounded by those who see so little from the world and always judge those who are different from them- the racists. I, though, disagree with the saying that studying abroad causes less pressure than studying in China, as the competition is still there. As there are more Chinese students coming to study in other countries every year, they still have to compete with their own kind, which are likely to happen to have the same educational background and not only to be as good but also as hard-working as them. Other than competing with the other Chinese, they will have to unavoidably compete with other people of diverse nationality from all over the world. It could mean that the competition is even higher when they study in their own country, since those people must also be as diligent as them to be able to get international education, as money is not the only determinant to get accepted into those world-famous universities in developed countries. Not everyone who has money is accepted in to these universities.

Education in Thailand, especially the country’s tertiary education system is relatively low, comparing to those countries in Europe or even to Asia like Korea and Japan. Thus, Thai students these days with sufficient funds are likely to go study abroad. Their most beloved study-destination would be UK and followed by US, which are the two of the most popular countries among all the intenational students. Other abroad study destinations are Australia, Canada and New Zealand. The primary barrier to abroad study in Thailand is likely to be their level of English skills. The reasons Thai students, who go or want to study abroad, study abroad is very similar to the motives of the Chinese. Most of the Thais who go study abroad, for example, in Europe, however, despite language and culture barriers, become more matured, punctual, responsible, well-organized and gain surprisingly more self-confidence and self-esteem.

Despite what states on Fish’s article, I believe, there will still be more and more Chinese students study abroad and probably will continue to be the majority of international students in most of the cities. Aside from the pull and push factors mentioned earlier on this article, another reason that the number of Chinese international students increases can be because the total number of the students in China might increase, since people can now have two children without being penalized.

The Chinese have several motives for abroad study- higher education, future employment prospects, language skills, better environment, status symbol. Some may have the opportunity to study overseas, some may not. For those who have the opportunity to study overseas, some may experience unforgettable experience and decide to work or even live there after graduation, while some may be unsatisfied, as things are not like how they want them to be in reality and may feel disappointed choosing the wrong study destination. My own feeling on the subject is that no matter what background you have, where you from, where you study, by whom you are surrounded, when you got the chance that not everybody will get it, you should make the best out of it. You should be physically, emotionally and mentally prepared in order to be or to live in a land with total differences in cultures; in the land, where people have different thoughts and norms. You should not only expect others to do as you want or to please you, but you should either adapt to the cultures or just let it go, try not to take any offence. Like what Hui xi Yao says, that you should step out of your comfort zone, especially when you come study abroad, this will be the one of most important experiences you will have in your life. It’s the experience you won’t really experience if you are not willing to step out of your comfort zone, even if you’re abroad.

 

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