Chinese Students in an American Professor’s Eyes
If you already have an offer at hand, work hard on your spoken English.
See the below.
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Chinese Students in an American Professor’s Eyes
Try a little to stretch yourself and integrate into the greater society around you. It’s definitely a challenge. It can be difficult and unpleasant. But it can also be fun and enriching, rewarding and of the utmost benefit in the long run.
By George Tseo, the author of Two Skies
September 25, 2001
Being an American born Chinese, I realize I don’t have perfect credentials for addressing questions of what it takes for Chinese born Chinese to be successful in America, but one of the first and foremost factors has got to be language mastery. Not just in reading comprehension and writing, but in speech. Chinese TOEFL scores are averaging a little above 600, an amazing standard. At least three admissions officers of U.S. universities that I have spoken with testify to the fact that they compare foreign applicants against their compatriots. That is to say Chinese applicants are compared to other Chinese applicants and not, say, Russians or Africans. In this way the different national averages are taken into account. For U.S. admissions officers are keenly aware that elevated TOEFL scores do not necessarily indicate truly superior command of the language.
The phenomenon of the Chinese graduate student who can’t speak English is quite common and widespread among U.S. universites. For many Chinese graduate students this is not necessarily a big problem. They attend classes and work for their advisers in the lab. They are more or less closeted away. Rare is the instance in which they must interact directly with a non-Chinese. On the other hand, many other Chinese graduate students do not enjoy the luxury of seclusion. They are expected to help teach undergraduate courses, either in part (i.e. a lab or tutorial section) or in total. When they arrive with stunted verbal skills, this brings into serious question their competence and, in many cases, the continuation of their scholarships. Indeed, just the other day my wife spoke with a first-semester Chinese graduate student from Beijing University who admitted to not being able to “understand a single word” of what her professors were saying in class or what her adviser was saying to her in his office.
Some U.S. universities now conduct phone interviews of prospective Chinese grad students. I even know of one university that organizes face-to-face interviews between Chinese applicants and its professors who happen to be in China for research or conference. All this to insure that students culled from the highly reputed Chinese talent pool have the linguistic skills to bring their talents to bear on those tasks with which the university needs help.
For most Chinese graduate students the language problem soon begins to resolve itself after arrival in the U.S. Slowly, lectures become comprehensible. Hours spent in front of the TV are not wasted. (Hasn’t China’s great women’s soccer Sun Wen star learned to speak basic English after only a summer with her new professional team the Atlanta Beat?) There are American friends to be made in the classroom and research lab.
Be that as it may, a large number of Chinese graduate students continue to struggle with English years after arrival and even years into their professional lives here, which does have a negative impact on employment especially in times like these when market downturns dictate massive layoffs across many industrial sectors. In any corporate department, when it comes to giving people the pink slip and showing them to the door, friendship and cameraderie do factor in heavily. If you were a manager would you rather keep someone who was fully integrated into the work place, a real team player so to speak, or someone who barely spoke to his colleagues and spent most of his time isolated in his cubicle or lab?
The crux of the problem lies in the Chinese student community. Not surprisingly, most Chinese graduate students begin their U.S. experience in a shared apartment or house exclusively with other Chinese. If they happen to work in a lab where there are other Chinese graduate students then there is often hardly any need to interact with Americans. I know of students with Chinese advisers, Chinese office mates and Chinese roommates. They shop in off-campus Chinese grocery stores. They rent Chinese videos from a Chinese student association service. If they are so inclined, there are Chinese churches in the area for them to join. If they happen to have families and bring their families over, they can if they wish engage the Chinese parents of other Chinese students to help take care of their children. What need to ever speak English? Thre are people like this. Who go through their entire U.S. graduate experience practically as if they had never left China.
While this type of thing may sound cozy and inviting to the prospective Chinese graduate student setting his sights on America, it is definitely not advised. In the professional realm I know people whose very poor English is jeopardizing their positions right now as I write. I am privy to information from both sides of the issue-the Chinese employees and their American colleagues. The inability of these Chinese to communicate with their office mates does significantly impact their work, resulting in tens of thousands of dollars of misspent funds, tens to perhaps hundreds of dollars in lost revenues due to design and production delays. The co-workers around them are talk openly about the need to lay these people off. This isn’t prejudice or bigotry. Included among those “voting” for their ouster are Chinese and Taiwanese colleagues who do not want to see their company hampered by incompetence. Afterall, we’re talking about business survival and livelihood here.
The long and short of this is that it is well worth a Chinese student’s trouble to learn English well. Spoken English. Not just test-taking, TOEFL-blasting English. U.S. university admissions officers are less and less to be fooled by only a poor to middling command of the spoken language. And for those with little or no opportunity of improving this aspect of their foreign language skill while still in China, if you are lucky enough to get a chance to come to the U.S. for study, take full advantage of opportunities here. Take an English as a second language class. Most universities have them. City governments and community colleges offer them. Join some university clubs to begin to get to know some American students. Get to know your American classmates and office mates. Don’t be shy. DO NOT BE SHY. Force yourself to join conversations. Find an American roomate. This last can be such a big boost in so many ways if you find the right match. My own cousin is doing swimmingly well in all respects after living with the same American roomate for the past four years.
One needn’t give up “being Chinese”, but there is value in trying a little to stretch yourself and integrate into the greater society around you. It’s definitely a challenge. It can be difficult and unpleasant. But it can also be fun and enriching, rewarding and of the utmost benefit in the long run.