China's emergence has made it "hugely important" for American students
to be fluent in Mandarin according to Margaret Spellings, US education
secretary.
Spellings made the remark after she signed a new memorandum of
understanding with China's ministry of education late last week to expand
language and academic exchanges.
"It's in their [US students'] interest to come and learn from and about
China and the Chinese people," she said. "You can buy in any language but
you have to sell in the language of the buyer."
Research supported by the US state department has found the number of
Americans studying in China jumped 35 per cent in 2004-05 over the
previous university year. Spellings said her agency would work to continue
the trend.
According to the Chinese ministry, 10,340 Americans studied in China
last year, a smaller cohort than the 54,080 from South Korea or 18,870
from Japan.
The Bush administration plans to spend $114m in 2007 to fund its
national security language initiative, which aims to increase drastically
the number of Chinese, Arabic, Russian, Hindi and Farsi speakers in the
US.
The US state department estimates that 200,000 Americans study abroad
each year, a significantly smaller group than the 550,000 students from
around the world who go to the states for an education.
Of those studying in the US, 62,580, or roughly 11 per cent of the
total, came from Chinese mainland this past school year. China is second
only to India, which sent 76,500 students to the US, as a source of
students for US schools.
Spellings said that the Bush administration was now working to make
visa application procedures
"easier and more transparent" to encourage international students.
