一个中国小学生的美国求学记

继美国大学的中国留学生录取人数激增之后，中国人赴美留学呈现低龄化趋势。一位来自中国江西的父亲坦言，“美国的教育更好。”

当Ken Yan（严智耀）的父母为11岁的儿子谋划未来时，他们决定，最佳选择是把孩子送去离家7,000英里的美国南加州。

那时的Ken不会说英语，而且必须和素未谋面的一个美国寄宿家庭住在一起。但Ken Yan一家认为一切都值得。

为了追寻美国教育，越来越多的中国家庭正将孩子送往太平洋彼岸──并且这些孩子的年龄越来越小。

美国中小学的中国留学生数量

据美国移民与海关执法署(U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement)称，在美国就读小学的中国学生人数已经从2011年的500名增至2015年的2,450人。同期，在美国就读初中的中国学生人数从17,914 人陡增至46,028人。

和数以万计赴美就读大学的中国留学生大军相比，这两项数据似乎还不值一提；但预计未来几年这些数据还将进一步攀升。

来自加利福尼亚州亚州尔湾市(Irvine)、专门负责中国市场的教育顾问Emily Li称，“这一趋势显而易见。2004年我来美国的时候，大多数学生都和我一样过来读研。几年后，过来读本科的人越来越多。然后是高中。现在，很多中国孩子过来念小学和初中。”

2016年8月底，Ken Yan离开家乡──中国江西省，告别家人和朋友，远渡重洋来到加利福尼亚州。在这里，父母找了一个寄宿家庭照顾Ken的日常起居，还为他找了一所新的学校。

Ken回忆道，“上学的第一天非常难熬。我告诉妈妈我想回中国。”

Ken的父亲Sam Yan认为，“美国的教育更好。”他指出，美国教育能促进独立思考、带来更多机会，学习压力也更小。

2016年8月，11岁的江西男孩严智耀来到南加州一个寄宿家庭，开始了他的异国求学生活……图片来源：JAKE NICOL/THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

同时，这些家庭希望在美国站稳脚跟。不久前，Ken的父母就加入了中国的赴美置业大军，在尔湾市购买了一处物业。优美的风景、安全的周边环境和高端的购物配套已经令该片区成为中国人在美置业的热门之选。其他人则通过EB-5投资移民方案投资基础设施项目，几年后便可申请成为美国永久居民。

“他们的心态是把孩子送过来，越早越好，”Li女士称，“他们相信，未来申请大学的时候，一口流利的英语能让孩子更有竞争力。”

大多数中国学生就读于私立学校，这些学校通常会协助他们申请签证，并提供英语语言支持。

Sam Yan是一名房地产开发商，他之前已经将大女儿Cassie送去加利福尼亚洲橘郡(Orange County)读高中，住在当地的一个寄宿家庭。目前，Cassie已经19岁，在附近的查普曼大学(Chapman University)读大一。另一个17岁的儿子Gavin也在橘郡读书，寄宿在一个美国家庭。

专门为海外留学生寻找美国寄宿家庭的服务机构Homestay Services International为Ken在美国找到了“新家”，男女主人的名字分别叫Meno Hamid和Kim Letter。夫妻二人在拉古纳尼格(Laguna Niguel)拥有一座三间卧室的简朴民宅。

这对夫妇曾在夏天时接待过几个中国女孩，此后决定为两个学生提供一整年的住宿。现年59岁、已经当祖母的Letter女士说，不久前他们关掉了家里的美发沙龙，希望以此（为留学生提供食宿）来贴补家用。这两个学生就是目前正在上六年级的Ken，以及来自武汉的八年级学生Peter Qu。8月份，两个孩子在迁往“新家”时首次见面。Qu的父母都是会计师。

两个学生每人每月支付1,200 美元的费用，夫妇二人负责为他们准备三餐、陪同外出及接送上学。

Ken Yan在课堂上。他就读于美国加州米逊维耶荷市的Mission Viejo Christian School。 图片来源：JAKE NICOL/THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

Ken在加利福尼亚州米逊维耶荷市(Mission Viejo)的Mission Viejo Christian School读书。该校的小学和初中部共有300名学生，其中一小部分为留学生。国内学生的学费为8,500美元，国际学生是10,000美元。校长Bob Slater表示，该校有意增加中国学生人数。他指出，这能让美国学生接触异国文化，所以“对双方都有好处。”

Ken的老师Ruth Pavey回忆道，9月份入学的第一天，“Ken畏畏缩缩，状态很差。”她还记得， Ken弓着身子，眼睛一直往下看，“异常拘谨，很不自信。”

Pavey女士说，虽然Ken一开始什么都不懂，但 “我们做所有事情，例如在进行关于美索不达米亚神话或者圣经章节的讨论时都会顾及他，设法让他融入进来。”

一位名叫Carolina Abdella的同班同学对这个戴眼镜的异国来客颇感兴趣。她说，“我们会，比如说，开始在休息时间一起出去走走。”

不久，Carolina开始跟着他正在学习中文的哥哥学一些汉字。她背汉字给Ken听，而Ken会通过Google翻译把自己想说的话用英语表达出来。Carolina说，“他很有勇气，背井离乡只身来到这里学习英文。”

Pavey女士让Carolina 把座位调到了她的中国小伙伴旁边。Ken说，“每当我有疑问的时候，她总是帮我解答。”

按照Pavey老师的说法，时间一天天过去，Ken逐渐地建立了一些自信。他开始用磕磕巴巴的英语分享自己在美国生活的故事，比如自己第一次洗衣服，肥皂泡从洗衣机里涌出，地面被水淹没。老师还记得，当时大家和他一起笑得前仰后合。

渐渐地，Pavey老师感觉到，对于自己以及住在橘郡这片小天地的六年级学生而言，Ken的到来就像是一份“礼物。”

Ken Yan和老师。图片来源：JAKE NICOL/THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

Hamid先生是一位退休的厨师。在家里，他带领Ken和Peter品尝各种国际菜式及美国本土菜肴，例如由鸡蛋和香肠组成的丰盛早餐。他注意到两个孩子小小年纪就在数学表现不俗，于是每天早上开车送他们上学的路上都会考一些数学公式。他们结伴去购物，一起在好市多(Costco)大口大口地吃热狗。

谈到这两个孩子，Hamid 先生说，“这真是我人生中一大乐事。”

经父母和Hamid夫妇达成一致，每天放学后， Ken在家教的辅导下完成家庭作业，9点之前上床睡觉。有时候Hamid夫妇会逮到Ken在玩电子产品，敦促他关掉。

除了语言障碍之外，美国的学校没有中国的学校要求高。Ken说，“这里有更多的自由时间。”

每隔一周，姐姐会过来接Ken一起购物，这是他最爱的活动。他还经常通过Facetime和妈妈视频聊天。

在Ken显得有些空荡的卧室里，一只好奇猴乔治(Curious George Monkey)毛绒玩具摆放在抽屉柜上。“妈妈送了我这只猴子，她希望我看到猴子就能想起她”，Ken说，“有时候我会和猴子一起睡觉。”

当被问到在美国过得怎么样时，Ken回答，“我觉得很好。所以我不哭了。”

LAGUNA NIGUEL, Calif.—When Ken Yan’s parents were contemplating his future, they decided the best option for the 11-year-old was to send him 7,000 miles away from his home in China to Southern California.

Ken didn’t speak English, and he would need to live with a host family in the U.S. he had never met. But the Yans felt it was all worth it.

In their quest for a U.S. education, more Chinese families are sending their children to America—and at younger ages.

The number of Chinese students at elementary schools surged from 500 in 2011 to 2,450 in 2015, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Over the same period, the number of Chinese nationals attending secondary schools in the U.S. jumped from 17,914 to 46,028. Those numbers pale compared with the tens of thousands of Chinese students enrolled at U.S. universities, but are expected to soar in the next few years.

“It’s an obvious trend,” said Emily Li, an educational consultant in Irvine, Calif. who specializes in the Chinese market. “When I came in 2004, there were mainly students like me attending graduate school. A few years later, there are college students. Then high-school students. And now there are junior high and elementary school students coming.”

In late August, Ken Yan left his home, family and friends in Jiangxi province for California, where his parents had found the host family to take care of him and a new school to educate him.

“The first day at the school was hard,” said the boy. “I tell my mom I want to go to China.”

Ken’s father, Sam Yan, said that the “U.S. education is better.” It promotes independent thinking, offers more opportunities and is less pressured, he said.

The families are also eager to gain a toehold in the U.S. Ken’s parents recently joined the ranks of Chinese families who have bought property in Irvine, Calif., which has become a magnet for the Chinese because of its picture-perfect, safe neighborhoods and upscale shopping. Others have invested money in infrastructure projects, under a federal program known as EB-5, which makes them eligible for U.S. permanent residency in a few years.

“It is the mentality to bring kids over as early as possible,” said Ms. Li. “They believe speaking good English will help them be more competitive in the future” when they apply to college.

The majority of the Chinese students attend private schools, which usually sponsor them for a visa and provide English-language support.

Sam Yan, who is a real-estate developer, had already sent his oldest child, Cassie, 19, to live with an Orange County family during high school. She is now a freshman at nearby Chapman University. A 17-year old son, Gavin, also lives in Orange County with a host family.

Homestay Services International, which places foreign students with American families, found a home for Ken with Kim Letter and Meno Hamid, who have a modest, three-bedroom house in Laguna Niguel.

Having hosted a few Chinese girls during the summer, the couple had decided to take two students year-round. They wanted to supplement their income after recently closing their hair salon, said Ms. Letter, 59, who is a grandmother. Sixth-grader Ken and eighth-grader Peter Qu, the son of accountants in Wuhan, met for the first time in August when they moved in with Ms. Letter and Mr. Hamid.

For the $1,200 that they receive monthly per student, the hosts are responsible for preparing the boys’ meals, taking them on outings and transporting them to school.

Ken attends Mission Viejo Christian School, in Mission Viejo, Calif. It has a handful of international students among 300 overall in elementary and middle school. It charges $10,000 in tuition for international students compared with $8,500 for domestic students. Principal Bob Slater said the school is interested in expanding its Chinese student body. “It’s good for them and good for us,” he said, because it gives the Americans exposure to another culture.

On Ken’s first day in September, “he was a shriveled mess,” recalled his teacher, Ruth Pavey. “He was frightfully formal and unsure of himself,” she said, demonstrating how he stooped over and gazed downward.

Although Ken barely understood anything at first, Ms. Pavey said “we entrenched him in everything we were doing,” she said, such as discussions about Mesopotamia or biblical passages.

A classmate named Carolina Abdella took interest in the bespectacled boy from a faraway land. “We, like, started hanging out at recess,” she said.

She soon began learning words in Mandarin from her brother who studies Chinese. She recited them to Ken, who used Google translator to look up what he wished to say in English. “He’s so brave to come here and learn English without his family,” she said.

Ms. Pavey asked Carolina to switch desks to sit beside her buddy. “When I have some questions, she always tell me,” said Ken.

With each passing day, Ken raised his shoulders a little more, his teacher says. In broken English, he began sharing stories about acclimating to America, like the first time he did his own laundry and soap suds seeped out of the washing machine, flooding the floor. Everyone laughed with him, his teacher recalled.

Ms. Pavey said that she came to regard him as a “gift” to her and to the class of sixth-graders “living in their Orange County bubble.”

At home, Mr. Hamid, a retired chef, introduced Ken and Peter to international and American cuisine, like hefty breakfasts with eggs and sausage. He noticed their precocious math skills and began quizzing them on equations on the morning drive to their respective schools. They have become companions on shopping trips. At Costco, they devour the hot dogs.

“It’s really a good thing that happened in my life,” said Mr. Hamid of the boys.

Ken’s parents and his hosts agreed that after school he would do homework with a tutor and get to bed by 9 p.m. Sometimes the couple catches Ken on his electronic device, and urge him to turn it off.

Despite the language barrier, school in the U.S. is less demanding than in China. “Free time is more here,” he said.

Every other weekend, Ken’s sister picks him up and they go shopping together, one of his favorite pastimes, and he often Facetimes with his mother.

In his sparse bedroom, a stuffed Curious George Monkey sits on a chest of drawers. “My mom gave me a monkey and she hope when I see this monkey I can think to miss her,” he said. “Sometimes I will sleep with that monkey”.

Asked about life in the U.S., Ken said, “I think it’s very good. So I don’t cry again.”

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