Yesterday, Mz Xu,the director of personnel division of our work unit told me that her biggist wish was sending her son to go abroad. Yes, her family is affluent and definitely can afford her son’s astronomical expenditure on study at abroad. But after learnt of her wish, I have been thinking about the reasonableness of her decision. I hearsay that more and more students are sent abroad by their parents before 18 years old. In the eyes of those avid parents, experiences at abroad would guarantee their offspring brilliant future. Is this right? I think it depends. In fact, some youngsters just goof about at abroad and can’t learn something useful. Could such playboys contribute more to the construction of China? Please don’t count on them. Trust me.

Students who are engaging in learning English must know Yu Minhong, headmaster of New orient English Training School of Peking. He did not study abroad at all. But nearly all his urderlings have experiences at abroad. So we can draw a conclusion that we must not have a blind faith in going abroad. Only if we have creativity and confidence, we can do better than those guys who are studying at abroad.

Chairman Mao is another example. He never went abroad at all though he had such an opportunity. A person influenced Mao Zedong in his choice. His name is Hu Shi. Hu Shi was two years older than Mao Zedong. Hu Shi had already gained his fame for his advocation of New culture movement, encouragment of using vernacular when Mao Zedong still studied at Hunan Normal college. When Mao Zedong came to Beiping and served as a mediocre librarian in Peiking University library,Hu Shi had been the youngest new-style professor of the same campus. Mao Zedong once called himself as a student of Hu Shi. 

In April 14, 1918, Mao zedong, together with Cai Hesen, He Shuheng, established Xin Min Society, a revolutionary organization whose aim was reforming China and the World. Shortly after its foundation, some ambitious youngsters were eager to head west to seek for truth, and Mao Zedong was one of them. But before departure, he changed his idea. Mao Zedong explained it in this way: “I think study is a thing need not to be linked with special places. Going abroad, for some persons, has become some  kind of blind faith. Among those tens of thousands of person who have experieces at abroad, excellent ones are not many. For more, they are still confused with the truth of revolution. I once solicited the suggestion of Hu Shi, they all agreed with my thought.”

Nearly one hundred years have past, but as to the choice of studying at home or at broad, I think we should keep a level head as Mao Zedong and Yu Minhong.