[ti:T program aims to increase the number of Americans studying in China] [ar:Jim Tedder] [al:Education Report] [by:www.51voa.com] [00:00.00] From VOA Learning English, this is the Education Report in Special English. [00:04.82] Last year 200,000 Chinese students were in the United States. [00:11.84] That was a 23% increase over the year before. [00:17.08] The Institute of International Education in New York [00:22.15] reported last month that 26,000 US students were in China in 2011. [00:30.41] They included 15,000 studying for academic credit and 11,000 [00:37.66] taking part of other kinds of educational activities. [00:43.09] A program called the ¡°100,000 Strong Initiative¡± aims to [00:50.03] increase the number of Americans studying in China. [00:54.52] The State Department launched it in 2010. [00:59.30] The goal is to send 100,000 students from the United States [01:03.87] to China over a four-year period. [01:07.03] Christie Civetta is studying in Beijing as part of the initiative. [01:13.04] She is taking Mandarin classes at Beijing's Language and [01:19.15] Culture University. [01:20.48] ¡°I think it really opens your eyes to what actually is [01:24.10] here, like what truly is going on in China, what truly is happening. [01:27.12] I think that¡¯s incredibly important to know if you want to [01:29.58] be educated to chat about it at all.¡± Last year a [01:32.27] non-profit organization called the ¡°100,000 Strong [01:37.19] Foundation¡± was launched. [01:40.17] One of the groups that the foundation supports is Project Pengyou. [01:46.18] It connects students who have lived or studied in China. [01:51.78] Project Pengyou is based in Beijing and led by Holly Chang. [01:58.79] She says personal ties formed during study abroad can [02:05.27] have an effect on relations between the United States and China. [02:10.47] ¡°We live in this bipolar world where there is [02:12.91] increasingly, there¡¯s power struggle, but there¡¯s still [02:18.08] a huge level of misunderstanding I think on a cultural [02:21.54] level, and it¡¯s not until you actually create those [02:23.96] people-to-people relations and strengthen personal bonds [02:27.23] between people that they actually strengthen their capacity [02:32.60] to work together.¡± The Chinese government has offered [02:37.40] 20,000 scholarships to Americans under what is known as the [02:41.65] US-China Consultation on People-to-people Exchange. [02:46.88] The 100,000 Strong Foundation has no official relationship [02:53.40] with the Chinese government. [02:55.89] The foundation says it works closely with Chinese government [03:00.76] officials to encourage more Americans to seek these Chinese scholarships. [03:06.96] The aim is to give more Americans a chance to get a taste of Chinese culture. [03:14.16] As part of her study abroad program, Christie Civetta is [03:20.27] also taking cooking classes at a restaurant in Beijing. [03:24.54] She not only learns how to make traditional Chinese dishes, [03:30.30] she also gets a chance to practice her Chinese language [03:34.48] skills with the employees. [03:37.03] ¡°That though may not be the direction I want to go for my [03:41.05] final career life if you will, I am very excited to get that [03:44.58] alternative perspective on the whole world of culinary arts [03:49.73] through a Chinese lens.¡± And that's the VOA Special [03:55.17] English Education Report. [03:56.75] I'm Jim Tedder.