Paving the Future 

cctv.com 06-09-2005 16:45

In recent years, many countries have opened their doors to Chinese

students錛宎nd therefore a great deal of them have decided to go abroad to study. In the past, overseas Chinese students used to study for a bachelor or a higher degree, but nowadays many senior school students who haven鈥檛 finished their study yet are choosing to go abroad, which means young teenagers are now joining in with those marching their way towards a new world outside of China. I鈥檓 Victoria Hamilton and welcome to this edition of Rediscovering China.

In China, for quite a long time, the craze for going abroad has brought about the craze for studying English.

The New Oriental School is one of the most famous English training schools in China. Every year, many students who are planning to study abroad will come here to take English training courses.

I鈥檓 now in one of the classrooms of the New Oriental School, where the students are taking preparatory courses for the IELTS exam and if you look at the crowd behind me, you鈥檙e bound to see many young faces.

Chivast Education International Co. Ltd. is affiliated to China Service Center for Scholarly Exchange. It is the first overseas study agency approved by Ministry of Education, Ministry of Public Security and State Industrial and Commercial Administration Bureau. It has handled many cases of young-age students studying abroad during its years of service.

Chivast Education International Co. Ltd. has set up co-operative relations with many universities in different countries. In order to allow the students who plan to study abroad and their parents to learn more about the universities and make an appropriate choice, from time to time, the company will invite representatives of those universities to give lectures. Every time a lecture is given, many people will come to receive information - especially the parents, who won鈥檛 omit even the most trivial details. These parents have spoken out and said what many other parents may want to say.

Since it is comparatively easier and much more convenient for the Chinese to get a student visa from the UK, a huge number of Chinese will take the UK as their first choice when considering studying abroad. At present, the number of Chinese Overseas Students in the UK is approximately 60,000 and the UK is now one of the countries that has the largest number of Chinese Overseas Students. In order to let the Chinese students know more about the UK and the universities they are interested in, free video tapes, magazines and brochures and even internet access to different universities are provided at the Cultural and Education Section of the British Embassy. And the most direct communication is to invite representatives from different universities to talk to the students face to face.

In recent years, many countries have smelt the huge potential profits brought about by exporting education. The UK has acknowledged its heavy reliance on selling education to overseas students. According to the statistics released by the British government in 2003, exporting education generates more than 1 billion pounds for the UK every year. China alone provides a quarter of it. As great profits are tempting and irresistible, other countries won鈥檛 miss this opportunity, and are rushing to exploit the huge Chinese market. Every year, representatives of foreign education institutions come to China to attend overseas education exhibitions to carry out promotions. They all try their best to catch the attention of Chinese students and their parents.

In order to better understand the situation of young teenage overseas Chinese students, we visited several of them who鈥檝e had the opportunity to study abroad at a young age. So let鈥檚 hear their stories.

Kelly Ho has rich experience of living in the UK, although she is only 25 years old. She was in the UK for ten years.

When Kelly was 12, she moved to Hong Kong with her parents. There she studied for 3 years, and her parents sent her to the UK at the age of 15, hoping she could get better education.

Kelly, who had always been under the protection and guardianship of her parents, was sent to a boarding school. In a completely strange world, young Kelly confronted many difficulties.

With the improvement of her English level, life began to change for Kelly. She started to make a lot of new friends and was no longer lonely. Later, Kelly entered Oxford Brookes University to study Business Management. By the time, Kelly had gotten used to life in the UK she hardly had any difficulties. Both her life and study continued well. Last year, Kelly graduated from university and decided to come back to China.

Coming back to her hometown after ten years, Kelly feels a little bit strange being in the place where she was born.

Kelly had expected to find a good job upon her return, but there seems to be a certain distance between the reality and her expectations.

After saying goodbye to Kelly, we visited another young returned overseas student. This is Shen Lu and she studied in Australia for 5 years. When she went abroad, she was no more than 17 years old and was in the second year of senior high school. Unlike the others, Shen Lu wasn鈥檛 willing to go abroad when her parents decided to send her away.

Shen Lu鈥檚 aunt lives in Australia, so Shen Lu stayed with her when she first arrived. After a year, Shen Lu left her aunt鈥檚 home and began to live on her own.

As the only child of her family, Shen Lu didn鈥檛 have to worry about anything before she studied abroad. But of course, when the time came that she had to depend on herself, difficulties were inevitable. And the first thing she needed, being money to support herself, Shen Lu found a job as a waitress.

During the five years of studying abroad, Shen Lu gradually became an outgoing and talkative young lady, and was no longer the shy and inward little girl she used to be. After graduation, Shen Lu found a job in Australia, but however, she still decided to come back to China as soon as possible.

When she had just returned to China, like many of those who have had the experience of studying abroad, Shen Lu had very high expectations when she was looking for a job. But before soon, she realized that she had to change her ideas.

The reality made Shen Lu decide to look for a job instead of waiting for a job to find her. The competition for employment is fierce, and once a company sends out the vacancy information, it will receive countless replies with resumes. Shen Lu took great pains in order to make her resume be read by the company. She found out that the last sent email will be the first read. So, Shen Lu stayed up very late into the night to send her resume out. After 3 years鈥of looking and searching, Shen Lu finally found a job she is satisfied with.

A great many Chinese families nowadays only have one child and basically that child is the centre of the family. So how can these parents bear to let their children go so far away to crack open their own new world? The parents have their own explanations.

Mr. and Mrs. He have a son named He Wenjie. He has showed a great interest and potential in painting since he was a child, but he didn鈥檛 do too well in other subjects. In fear of him not being able to get into college, his parents decided to send him to study in the UK when he was 17. He Wenjie agreed happily without any hesitation not only for his future but also for an unspoken secret.

He Wenjie is after all the only child in his family and after deciding to send him abroad to study, it was inevitable for his parents to begin to worry.

Because their son was going far away, the parents took a long time to prepare his suitcase, hoping their son would have a good time. He Wenjie left China with delight and expectations. They never expected however, that he would feel immediately lost the moment he arrived in the UK and opened the door to his apartment.

He Wenjie knew that it鈥檚 useless to cry over spilt milk so he tried his best to adjust himself to the new environment. Living alone in a foreign country, aside from feeling lonely, what impressed him most was that he understood he had to depend on himself.

There is a Chinese saying 鈥淭he mother will worry a lot when Her son is far away鈥 And this is what the couples do. Although they all feel that He Wenjie has grown up and become mature, they never get used to him being away. They get to hear about their son鈥檚 latest situation by emails and giving each other phone calls. His caring and loving mother has printed out every e-mail they have sent to each other and keeps them together.

Time flies so quickly, He Wenjie has been in the UK for about 3 years and he is now a freshman at university. After all these years of living independently, obvious changes can be found in him.

When living alone, He Wenjie got to know that earning money was not easy. So he began to take part-time jobs so as to ease the economic burden of his parents. Now he is working for a pizza shop. As parents, the couple are happy for their son鈥檚 independence, but at the same time, they have some other worries.

In China, just like He Wenjie鈥檚 parents, there are many other parents who want to send their children to study abroad as early as possible with the consideration of their children鈥檚 future. From his own experience, He Wenjie has something to say.

Day by day, time goes by and the parents are becoming Lonelier. And they always dream of seeing their son again.

What will the future be like? He Wenjie has no idea. And the only thing he hopes at present is that he can choose another major that is suitable for him so he can begin his new study. And of course he does hope that he can finish his study smoothly and come back to China as soon as possible.

Due to the increasing demand of young Chinese students wanting to go

abroad to learn about different countries鈥cultures, many schools have created opportunities to meet the students鈥needs.

The experimental high school attached to Beijing Normal University is one of the schools that have launched student-exchange projects with other countries. The school will organize students to go abroad and to communicate with students of other countries during the summer or winter holidays. This can therefore give the students a chance to get to know the outside world.

The only child, the only hope for the family. It鈥檚 only natural for parents to put all their hopes on their children. They want to let their children have the best education so as to have a brilliant future, and sending their children to study abroad has become a way of making this dream come true. However, reports surrounding the issues brought up by underage youngsters studying abroad were widely reported in the media and this phenomenon aroused the public鈥檚 attention.

We cannot obviously determine whether or not it鈥檚 a wise choice for all youngsters to study abroad, and we can only hope that this edition has been of some help. But for a country whose people are beginning to experience new concepts, opportunities available to them are immense. I鈥檓 Victoria Hamilton and thanks for watching Rediscovering China. If you would like to know more about our programme, please log on to our website www.cctv.cn/English.

Editor:Hu  Source:CCTV.com