East Asia
East Asia
Some Chinese parents want their children to be proficient in English in order to have a competitive advantage, as only a small fraction in China are fluent in the language.
Students learning mathematics in English at the One Academy foreign education outfit in Shanghai, China.
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SHANGHAI: As six-year-old Sunny Zhao devours his lunch of fried rice, he watches an educational cartoon about cats in English.
His mother Yoyo Zhang is right beside him, eager to help her child to master the language.
“Be it Europe, the Americas, Japan, Southeast Asia, you can use English as a form of communication,” said the Chinese national, who works as a nurse.
“English is a widely used language so I hope he can learn English well. Be it for future work, travelling, or other activities, English will always be very important,” she told CNA.
Only a small fraction of citizens in China can speak English fluently, despite students having to study it as a compulsory school subject. This means those proficient in the language will have a competitive advantage over their peers.
Hence, parents like Ms Zhang have long sought out Western English-speaking countries – especially the United States – when looking to send their children overseas for education.
But with geopolitical tensions and diplomatic upheavals in recent years, a subtle shift seems to be occurring – parents are more open to exploring options in other continents, such as Asia, for school.
According to a 2024 paper released this year by an agency under China’s education ministry, the proportion of Chinese citizens returning with overseas university degrees from Asia between 2020 and 2023 rose from 21.61 per cent to 31.35 per cent.
During that same period, the proportion of those returning from North America dropped from 25.62 per cent to 18.73 per cent.
Chinese students have also been the target of US President Donald Trump since he returned to the White House in January, prompting many to rethink their higher education plans in America.
Official data showed that nearly 280,000 students from China made up a quarter of all international enrolments in the US last year.
Last month, the Trump administration moved to block Harvard University from enrolling international students and issued new measures targeting Chinese nationals, who made up a fifth of Harvard’s foreign student intake in 2024.
On Wednesday (Jun 4), Trump escalated his dispute with the Ivy League school by signing a proclamation to suspend international visas for new foreign students for an initial six months. A court has temporarily blocked the ban.
As Sino-US ties worsen, concerns over safety have also emerged both in America and elsewhere in the West.
Chinese student Rika Li, who speaks fluent English, had completed a year of undergraduate studies in the Canadian city of Montreal when she was assaulted in broad daylight about seven years ago.
“After that, I just didn’t feel safe anymore living alone there. It left me with a kind of mental trauma,” she said.
The 24-year-old, who became more proficient in English when she moved to Toronto for high school, then relocated to Japan to continue her university studies despite barely knowing how to speak Japanese.
Ms Zhang also selected an Asian country for her son Sunny Zhao.
Despite the boy’s interest in ice hockey, she decided against sending him to North America where the sport is most popular. He is now enrolled in an international school in Singapore.
“We learned about Singapore from friends, and we also have relatives and friends living there,” said Ms Zhang on her decision.
“The living environment in Singapore is very suitable. It’s beautiful; it’s a garden city. And the educational environment there is also excellent.”
In fact, Singapore’s system inspired some foreign education outfits in China to seize the business opportunity and attract students through its classes.
For example, Shanghai-based One Academy teaches science and mathematics in English, based on Singapore’s curriculum.
Many of its students are enrolled there due to what their parents see as a way to stay ahead of the academic rat race in China.
One Academy’s co-founder Chow Chin Wei noted that last year, only about 1.5 per cent of Chinese students – or about 240,000 students – who took the notoriously tough gaokao (college entrance) examinations got into the top universities in China.
“The other 40 per cent go to the normal universities in China. So basically, you are looking at about 60 per cent that go … on the vocational route for these people. So, it’s actually very competitive,” said Chow, a Singaporean who has lived in China for 14 years.
His fellow co-founder Algene Tan added that many parents also worry about their children’s job prospects.
Currently, about three in 20 youths in China aged between 16 and 24 are unemployed.
“(Parents) want the best for their child … Some of them might even, in their words, want to change the stars for their child,” Tan said.
“So a lot of them, from the get-go, they will start to tell us I’m sending my kid overseas.”
To prepare her son for an English curriculum in Singapore, Ms Zhang enrolled her son into a mathematics enrichment class at One Academy.
She said she sees vast benefits in studying abroad and becoming more fluent in English.
“Even in supermarkets, many product descriptions are in English,” she pointed out.
“There might be Chinese translations, but when they are unavailable, you can directly read the English. So, I think it’s essential.”
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