How will you spend your Thanksgiving break?
When President Obama visited China for the first time last month, he announced an effort to increase the number of American students studying abroad there.
While there were 67,723 Chinese students studying in the U.S. in 2006-7, according to the Institute for International Education, there were only 11,064 Americans studying in China. Obama's initiative, though not a policy, aims to have 100,000 American students in China every year.
"In theory, it's a great idea, a great goal," said Steinhardt professor Jonathan Zimmerman, director of the school's history of education program.
Zimmerman said he hopes the initiative sets a more serious tone to the idea of sending students abroad to China. "We've got a long way to go before we can get there," he said. "The major obstacle will be language."
Zimmerman explained that Chinese students must prove some English proficiency in order to study in the U.S., while American students often go to China without knowing any Chinese. American students often spend just one semester in China, compared to Chinese students who usually spend several years studying in the U.S. Before closing that gap, Zimmerman said there needs to be improvement regarding "the sorry state of our foreign language [education] in the U.S."
"We won't have real parity unless we each understand one another's language," he said.
Steinhardt professor Marcelo Suarez-Orozco reiterated the importance of serious engagement and urges students to first consider studying abroad in China, before they consider other places such as Europe. He said he understands how China is the timely destination of choice for the initiative.
"[China] currently represents a long and robust history," he said. "[It is] a major player in the here and now, and [its] footprint of China in the world stage grows larger and larger."
The international trends persist at NYU too. The university has 680 Chinese students on campus, compared to 100 NYU students in China, according to 2008 data from the NYU study abroad office. Director of Office of International Students and Scholars David Austell said most Chinese students studying at NYU are graduate students. NYU's study abroad site in Shanghai opened in fall 2006.
