{"id":149,"date":"2015-07-22T21:54:50","date_gmt":"2015-07-22T13:54:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/158.182.41.82\/germany15e\/?p=149"},"modified":"2015-07-22T21:57:49","modified_gmt":"2015-07-22T13:57:49","slug":"number-of-chinese-studying-abroad-is-growing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/localhost\/germany15e\/?p=149","title":{"rendered":"Number of Chinese studying abroad is growing"},"content":{"rendered":"

By YAO Yuxin<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cEntschuldigung, \u201dMichael Mai, 19, says \u201cexcuse me\u201d in German as he walks through a crowd. Mai, from Shenzhen, China, has been a freshman at Leipzig University in Germany for the last 10 months.<\/p>\n

Before Leipzig, Mai studied environmental science and engineering in Guangdong, China. He had wanted to study chemistry, but didn\u2019t get accepted. So he decided to go abroad.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy family members then thought that studying abroad was a better choice. Compared with going to English-speaking countries, I\u2019d like to be somewhere to learn a new language,\u201d Mai says.<\/p>\n

Mai is one of about 2,700 international students, only 10 percent of whom are Chinese, at LU. And he is part of a growing number of Chinese students going abroad for education.<\/p>\n

Because Mai didn\u2019t speak German, which\u00a0his science classes will be taught in, he is only taking language classes his first year.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the beginning, I really doubted that I could learn a new language without the help of another language I knew before. But it did work. Teachers have their own approaches,\u201d he says, adding that his test scores have been high.<\/p>\n

Mai\u2019s new friends are mostly other international students also taking language classes. He doesn\u2019t spend much time with the few Chinese students.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to have the atmosphere to speak German. Also, I find it more interesting to have friends from all over the world than to be with several Chinese friends everyday,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Mai chose Germany based on the German reputation for being rigorous. He thought it would be a good place to study science. \u201cAlso, there\u2019s no tuition fee for undergraduate or graduate students in Germany,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Compared to China, Mai\u2019s lifestyle is gradually changing, he says. \u201cSometimes I go to parks,\u201d he says. \u201dThey are quiet places and I\u2019m afraid that I won\u2019t get used to the crowded streets in Shenzhen when I go back in July.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moving from a city of more than 7 million to just over 500,000 has required other adjustments as well. \u201cShopping malls are rarely found and I haven\u2019t seen any karaoke here,\u201d Mai says. \u201cMaybe life in Leipzig will be different after I know some local friends and join student clubs or societies.\u201d<\/p>\n

The number of Chinese students going abroad for school increased 11 percent in 2014 to nearly 460,000 students, the majority of whom will return to China if trends continue, according to the Chinese Ministry of Education.<\/p>\n

But Mai doesn\u2019t know if he\u2019ll return or not. \u201cI went to the U.S. last winter and I really like some cities in California. Maybe I\u2019ll try American life in the future, for further study or career,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

But he prefers to focus on his present life rather than his future. \u201cFuture is something that hasn\u2019t come, who knows it for sure?\u201d he says. \u201cI believe that as long as I go forward, there will be roads.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By YAO Yuxin \u201cEntschuldigung, \u201dMichael Mai, 19, says \u201cexcuse me\u201d in German as he walks through a crowd. Mai, from Shenzhen, China, has been a freshman at Leipzig University in Germany for the last 10 months. Before Leipzig, Mai studied environmental science and engineering in Guangdong, China. He had wanted to study chemistry, but didn\u2019t […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":152,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[21,11],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/germany15e\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/germany15e\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/germany15e\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/germany15e\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/germany15e\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=149"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/germany15e\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":151,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/germany15e\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149\/revisions\/151"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/germany15e\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/germany15e\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/germany15e\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/germany15e\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}