Transnational Students in my Family

My wife and I have followed these principals.  She lived three summers in Cuernavaca, Mexico, two hours southwest of Mexico City, with the children to open their minds and learn Spanish.  Both Katrina and Alexander attended a private language school in Cuernavaca, learning Spanish and Mexican culture.

Katrina attended college in Canada, partly for the experience, but also to save money.  She attended Crandall University (formerly Atlantic Baptist University)  in New Brunswick, Canada, at a cost of about $6,000 per semester, total. We saved tens of thousands of dollars over a Texas public college.  Neither she nor we borrowed money.

As a result, Katrina obtained a job teaching in South Korea, which she loves, on her first telephone interview.  The job pays a good salary, as well as an apartment, health insurance and airfare.  Had she returned to Texas, she would likely be unemployed.  At the same time she graduated, the Dallas Morning News ran an article of a pretty young woman, the same age, graduating from Texas Woman's University in Denton with student debt and utterly unable to find work as a teacher.  This unfortunate young woman is now one of the educated and skilled unemployed.

Alex attends Beijing Language and Cultural University, and the opportunities for a young American able to speak Mandarin.  Round-trip air to Beijing in the spring is about $1,100.  Tuition at BLCU is $3,500 per year.  Shared apartments run about $300 per month.

Alex has adapted to China like a duck to a pond.  He speaks Mandarin so well he translates.  When he returns next summer, he will be able to speak fluently, and this is a skill he will use in future to close deals.  And best of all, he has learned to identify and develop opportunities creatively as he sees them.  He recently recorded his third Chinese commercial. He can now go on to military service and college to acquire technical skills and a traditional liberal college education.  I predict that he will later be sought after and well paid.

I plan to send our son Nick to Panama next summer to study Spanish.  At 15, he will have to learn to live on his own in another country and culture.  Upon completing high school, I plan for him to head for Beijing for a year.