Home » Feature » News Feature
American couple counters trend, brings kids to China for primary schooling
Print Edition
CHINESE-AMERICAN Michelle Woo quit her job as a high executive in New York to bring her two children, 7 and 12 years old, back to Beijing. Woo and her husband wanted their children to receive primary education at public schools in their homeland.
“It’s much easier to learn English later than Chinese,” she tells Shanghai Daily.
Friends and relatives noted it ran counter to the trend of Chinese parents sending their children abroad, and at increasingly younger ages, but Woo and her husband were insistent and suggested their way might represent the future.
“I don’t want them to feel distant from China, the birthplace of their parents and ancestors, and a place full of opportunities for growth and business in the future,” she says. “In addition to the language, it is difficult to fit in later if you didn’t grow up here. I want them to go through the fierce competition in China and to understand how Chinese think from the very beginning.”
Woo’s choice has been gaining over the past two years, as more foreign students are coming to study in China. In the past, most of them were from Africa, but the number of Westerners is increasing, especially those of Chinese heritage.
In an interview last November, Ministry of Education official Zhang Xiuqin said more than 330,000 foreign students were currently studying in China, and the number is expected to reach 500,000 by 2020.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
