Work Situation in China

The chart gives us a visual result of the going to trend for Liuxuesheng. It shows from 1978 till 2013, there are 30, 586 thousands Chinese students studying abroad and 14, 442 thousands choose to go back. There is 72.38% students have the intention to go back. Most students who majored in Humanities, Business Managements or related went back to China these years. STEM majored students mainly stayed in US. Age is between 22 to 34 years old. Most of them choose financial and educational industry in China to work. They mainly want to stay in big cities like Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.

Reverse Cultural Shock 1

Believe it or not, we need to readjust into our own culture when we go back to China. If it's summer time, it usually takes me one to two month. But if we are going back for a job, it will take us longer to adjust. This sounds ridicules because who can be more familiar with our own culture than ourselves? The place we grow up and stayed for more than 18 years before we come back to US. Also, we've been insisted so much on our Chinese identities and our culture while we are in the US. In no way, there should be any problems to go back but the truth is, we have changed when we were in the US. More or little but influential. This is not a problem I personally met but a common thing we experienced when we go back to China. We become the most familiar strangers of our own motherland.

Language Problem
We speak in a language combination with Chinese and english that our friends, family and others just find it weird and can't understand why we are talking in this way. For example, when I want to explain something to my mom, I use some  English words but since my mom doesn't know what that mean, she wants me to say it in completely Chinese and I just don't know how to say it in total Chinese, which drives her crazy because she just can't comprehend how my language system changed to a way that I can only use English words for some situations. We talk in a way using english words to replace our Chinese expressions unconsciously because we were in US this long time and this is how we learned from friends or professors and this is how school taught us what to say. We lack the college experience in China and it is normal why we don't know what words are being used among Chinese college students. This new way of talking make our friends mad at us especially. Using proper words in Chinese speaking is important. If you play too much with it, it is impolite because they would think you don't want to talk with them that's why you are talking in this weird way. But we didn't do it intentionally. And if we explain, our friends just think we are being hypocratic because we won't even want to talk Chinese in a normal so that to show we are from America. we now talk sentences in an American way just with Chinese words. The word order is not even right in Chinese. We talk translated Chinese.

Reverse Culture Shock 2

Our Voice
We now talk whatever we want because we think we have a right to speak out loud. But this is just impolite in many situations in China and we find it hard to adjust and keep quiet now. We forget our own culture manner etiquettes. We now treat our parents and friends differently. We tend to encourage different voices from everybody and we expect them to speak out also. This is really obvious especially online.

Company culture
Most of my friends and I have been worked in both foreign company and local company these summers to discover what kind of company culture do we like. There is a huge different. The culture in foreign company in China welcomes us and treats us very likely the way we used to in America. The working atmosphere is more relaxing based on equal communication. However, it took me sometime to adjust into our local company culture. The local company would not tell you the job position in advance. Also students need to be really helpful but not in a "loud" way, meaning do your work and speak less. The hierarchy in local company is important and students should bare in mind who is the leader to talk to when having problems. No matter what, being able to experience and adjust into different company's culture is important. It is the professional way.

Our taste changed
I miss everything in the US when I was in China and I miss everything in China when I was in US. This sounds insane but last summer when I was walking down the street some day, a huge craving for hamburger and pizza just make all the food in Chinese restaurants seem tasteless and I need to find a place to buy a sandwich to end my craving. And sometimes in the midnight, I just need a hot chocolate and cookies so bad. Our taste changed. Chinese believed so much in food and if the taste changed, this person really changed because memory is linked with food. The fact that we want American food back in China drive our parents nuts because we used to love the food they make for us. But now they are also forced by us to taste "junk food" that we loved when we were in America. 

Visa Issue

Visa issue is very important to us. No matter it is CPT or OPT or STEM or H1B. All of these will determine how long can we stay in America legally. Visa issue directly affect our plans in America. Maybe there are less students fighting for the green card than the generation decades ago. But we still try to find a better way to stay.



November the 10th, President Obama claimed a change in Chinese Visa to America that from now on, the business travel visa is 10 years and student visa is 5 five years. But the OPT (Optional Practical Training) and STEM still remain the same, which are 12 months and 31months perspectively. This only means we do not have to fill a form called DS-160 every time when we go back to China.

We have a 12-months OPT after college graduation and one after master degree. In order to stay longer in the United States, applying a graduate school or a PhD are the most affective way. But you gotta have the chips to get in because studying in America is not that easy.


Some students choose to work after graduation. That is a tougher situation for all the international students because even though we get a work offer, the company might not be able to sponsor our working visa H1B. And even if the company has money to apply the H1B for us, the working visa works as a lottery. PhDs and masters first, then undergraduates. STEM majors first. It means after a year of working, without the working visa, we have to leave.

I am not saying this whole Visa system is unfair for us. Actually it is very fair and make students competitive. However I just want to point out the fact that how visa status plays a huge role for us and affect our decisions and plans in America that most Americans do not realize.

How Chinese Media Reports Us

Sina, a Chinese media website, recently reported the real life of Chinese students in America. These are the students from Ohio State University. Even though it was reported in a passive and negative perspective, it is actually somewhat true. 

The student is worrying about his grades and the workload. 

How students get together and celebrate Chinese holiday. 

 Students, who did not pass the TOEFL exam, need to take a year to learn language and then can be accepted.

         Chinese students play Majiang in leisure time to get rid of the boringness.

Go back or Stay? This is a question.

This is a very complicated question that most Chinese students do not have a solid answer. But everybody asks everybody. The topic is just unavoidable. If we really have to give a pros and cons list for this question, there are actually just two simple ways to solve the problem. The core issue we are weighing here is the opportunity in China and in US. We either choose to go back to work, or stay to pursue a master degree or a PhD. Go back to work. The job market is tough for students with a degree in a foreign country. But if stay, do we have the qualification to really pursue an academia road and make contributions?

Summer Schools & International Schools in China

Two types of summer schools are very popular in big cities in China. One is like SIE, which provide college credits course for Chinese students with a cheaper price then the summer schools in America. The other is like Fujen Summer School, which provide high quality small size college credit course but for excellent high school students, who are going abroad to America to study or have already been admitted in the spring. 

https://www.facebook.com/FujenInternational/info

http://summer.sieschool.org/en/

Professor from Columbia University in Fujen Summer School

International schools are also growing rapidly in China. These schools are for students who want to go abroad to study. Students take exams like SATs instead of normal Gaokao. Due to the regulations from Educational Department, international schools can only co-exist with a local normal high school or university. The school campus environment usually is in very good condition. All the teachers are native english speakers who possess a teaching certificate. The courses being taught are mainly IB and ALevel. The whole english teaching environment and teacher sources are two big benefits for students and the tuition is also very expensive. 

Students from an international school

An area of an international school

New Oriental School

Founder Yu MinHong and his two partners. 

The one on the very left is the film director. 

     

The film that is based on their real life stories. 

New Oriental School was founded in 1993 by Yu Minhong, who was a student from Peking University. The other two business partner are his friends. Their company and their dream is about learning English and go to America. Their stories were filmed by a Hong Kong director few years ago and it was such a hit and touching because excluding the regular school we attend, New Oriental School is the second "school" and also a place to grow our dreams. 

I learned my TOEFL, SAT, IELTS there. And many other students just like me did the same in order to go abroad. Yu Minhong had an American dream when he first founded the school. The visa to US was very limit in 1990s. He did not get the visa but his friend did. He determined to learn good english and to teach students to learn good english that one day, everyone can go to America with good quality English to see this country and study or even live there. Teachers in New Oriental School are young and energetic. They are all good at a specific part of English and they all have their own learning style and patterns, which should be very effective, to teach students. 

Some direct statistic reference from its own website.

-approximately 19.6 million student enrollments

-approximately 2.7 million enrollments in fiscal year 2014

-a network of 56 schools and 711 learning centers

-31 New Oriental bookstores and over 5,000 third-party bookstores

-over 16,700 teachers in 50 cities

-online network with approximately 9.6 million registered users. 

http://english.neworiental.org/Default.aspx?tabid=3463

New Oriental New York IPO Video

Chinese High School Students In America

The number of Chinese international students in US has reached 27.4 million. Moreover, the tendency of high school students going abroad these years is just crazy. It is not about how Chinese parents suddenly become rich that most money is self-paid. Since Chinese parents would always love to spend huge mount of money on children's education, by sending kids out to America in their teenage years is just worrying. They are at the age that should be staying with their family to build emotional and world values.  But now students need to face much more pressure than the peer students alone in America. 

  Around the world, 31% international students are from China. 

    California and New York are the top two cities hosting international students.

Reference: http://www.collegedaily.cc/blog/1169/

CCTV Exclusive Interview With The Founder of New Oriental Education Yu Minhong