U.S. students losing interest in China as dream jobs prove elusive

[Angelina]

Earlier stats were about American students losing interest in the traditional exchange programs (not the Chinese language in general), which happen to be extremely expensive. What if more of them are looking for home stays through Chinese-forums.com?

Now, this part was about fields of study, they said how more and more people from developing countries are studying medicine, and there are less people from developed countries going for the language courses. What if it's not that easy to get a scholarship to cover your language course because there is competition coming from scientists?

Also, they mentioned how they actually saw an increase in students coming from Europe. I happen to come from the not so rich part of Europe, however our human development index is high and we are a developed country, not a developing country. I haven't been to Germany or Switzerland, but I would guess they are developed too. Germany is in Europe, stats say there are more students from Europe actually. Stats say less people from developed countries are going for language courses, they never said there are less students from developed countries, and certainly did not say that people in developed countries are losing interest in Chinese.

Show me the right statistics, make a sound argument and I will believe you. I am not saying your argument is wrong, I am saying your argumentation is wrong.

[Meng Lelan]

I am not saying your argument is wrong, I am saying your argumentation is wrong. 

 

 

 

Huh? You lost me here. 

[Kobo-Daishi]

I find it quite interesting that more foreign students are studying in China than ever before and that it's, now, the third most popular country for international students, after the US and UK, having just surpassed France.

 

Even if they aren't there to study the Chinese language.

 

I also didn't know that many schools exclusively use Chinese when dealing with overseas students, even in recruitment and that only 15 percent of schools used English in efforts to recruit overseas students, while their websites are slow and full of errors.

 

It's also interesting that there's a new initiative with the goal to raise the number of foreign exchange students to 500,000 by 2020

 

I wonder if the classes are conducted in English or Chinese.

 

Kobo.

[Angelina]

Let me rephrase it,

I am not saying people in developed countries are not losing interest in Chinese, I am saying your argumentation is wrong.

Also, Simon, can you answer the question raised in #45?

[Flickserve]

Parents of overseas Chinese won't let their children study Chinese at university as it's a mickey mouse subject, and won't provide them with a career. If in doubt, ask a Chinese parent.

However if you've got some level of Chinese and really want to follow your dreams, here's where not looking Chinese will instantly give you an advantage.

http://thevoiceofchina.eu/apply-now/

I have met seven BBCs who did study Chinese as a subject when I was at University in UK. And this is going back more than two decades ago. It's not common but not such a rare event.

[Simon_CH]

Another interesting article on the topic. Seems overall numbers of students is increasing, but Beijing is missing out. 

 

http://www.thebeijinger.com/blog/2015/04/17/foreign-students-abandoning-beijing-second-third-tier-cities

 

 

 

Beijing's 2014 student figures are 3,364 fewer than 2012. In sharp contrast, student populations in Jiangsu, Liaoning and Shangdong have seen increases of 4,000+ each, while overall number of foreign students nationwide grew from 328,330 to 377,054.

 

 

 

In terms of national origin, Korea is at the top, representing 17 percent of the total foreign student population. That's more than three times the students of the next largest national student bodies, those of the US (6.4 percent), Thailand (5.6 percent) and Russia (4.6 percent)

 

Makes sense I guess because for their economies Chinese is a lot more important. 

[tallcity]

at least in Denver, studying Chinese is getting to be popular in middle and high schools. i expect it to reach saturation at some point, as these kids reach working age (quite a few of them are already HSK 6) and standards will get higher, and just NiHao won't quite get you by.

personally I may not return to China due to the mental stress of living there, and the treatment i recieved as not being tall white and blond. but that is just personal.

also, having worked in the Confucius Institute as a work-study, I understand that some Chinese habits really get to me. for example, the loud eating, materialistic viewpoint, unconscious racism towards blacks.. it just gets me annoyed. even if it is during a speech or in a quiet study room, i will still hear insanely loud gulping, crunching, and chewing from coworkers.

I've noticed there are still jobs in languages like Italian, and French is a world business language, so I am not worried at my future depends on learning Chinese. it reminds me a little of the 1980s, when everyone was obsessed with Japan. I will still use my experience in Chinese to try to land a job if I can, but more likely around here, in education or hospitality.

[LiMo]

Do you think the new administration and their current tactics will affect the situation? I'm one of the few idealistic young fools left over heading into Chinese studies (it's my passion so I'm in it for the long haul), and I can say that some of the news of tightening restrictions on freedoms and crackdowns is making me wary. I'm still ready to give them the benefit of the doubt because I hope to develop a career that involves frequent trips to the mainland in the future, but the current trend doesn't fill me with optimism.

[gato]

From what I have seen, Xi Jinping's model for China is more like Singapore than the Soviet Union. A market economy, with a clean bureaucracy, a heavy state investment role, and limited freedoms of press, expression, and culture. I would have liked him to be more liberal and I am not sure that he will get there, but it might not be the end of the world.

[Angelina]

That's a good description. Not sure if it sounds like a place where I would want to stay though.