Old Business to Report

As I write this, it is Sunday evening, April 15 (taxes!) for the folks back in the states, but it is Monday morning for me. While I was in Shanghai, I wrote several times, but they did not appear to you because I must have clicked on the "draft" button instead of "publish" button. Reading Chinese characters is definitely not one of my strengths! My husband is now able to check my blog and get to the "insides" of it so that he can make sure what I write is actuallly published!

One of the questions I posed is, "Are there more English majors in China than in the United States?"

A friend of mine in Birmingham sent me the information below, and for her research, I will bring her a prize from China!

"To answer your questions about numbers of English majors, I found that there were 53,162 B.A.'s in English awarded in 2001-2002 (4.1% of total graduates). That data came from the U.S. Department of Education. The best statistic I could find for China was 155,771 graduates in Foreign Language (6.5% of total graduates). Presumably, that includes more than just English. I found the China data on the National Bureau of Statistics of China site. It is for 2004. So, not a perfect answer, but there it is."

So, the information is somewhat inconclusive but sheds some light on the sheer magnitude of the population. When we were on the university campus in Shanghai, we heard a lot about how difficult it is to get into college. In the USA, it is a goal of many, many of our students to continue education, and many attend college who are perhaps not the best students. Americans pride themselves with this available opportunity. Not all countries operate this way, and students must work really hard in school and then take tests along the way to get them to the point where they can attend college.

On a sidenote, I have also heard (again, someone please feel free to verify!) that there are more gifted children in China than there are total children in the USA. Another staggering one to ponder.