Adding an international flair

Yi Rao, right, a first-year student from Zunyi, China, teaches some native calligraphy to Daniel Lee, a Clark College Foundation member, on Monday. Yi is among 79 foreign students this term at Clark, which celebrates its international flavor this week. (Photos by TROY WAYRYNEN/The Columbian)

Yi Rao shows the Chinese characters for “xie xie,” or “thank you.” Full-time international student enrollment at Clark College increased by about 12 percent this year.

Yi Rao used a slender brush to paint Chinese salutations on butcher paper, explaining her calligraphy to a visitor.

With skillful strokes, she drew “zai-jian” (or, “goodbye”) and “xie xie” (“thank you”) — the latter drawn twice, just as pronounced.

But “Hello!” (“Ni hao”) might be the most pertinent phrase for Yi, a first-quarter Clark College student, and dozens more foreign students like her.

Clark is celebrating International Education Week with special activities on its main Vancouver campus through Friday.

While general enrollment has climbed about 6 percent at the 13,000-student school this fall, international student full-time equivalency has risen about 12 percent, officials say.

All told, there are 79 international students from 22 countries enrolled. The growth is a product of aggressive overseas recruiting in recent years and the continued reputation of America as a land of opportunity.

“If you want to be a doctor, America is the best choice,” said Yi, who hails from the city of Zunyi, in Guizhou province, in south-central China. The 18-year-old eventually won over her mother, a physician herself, after her successful home-stay visit in New York state and sightseeing trip across the U.S.

“After that, I like America,” Yi said. “If I get a (physician’s) license in America, it’s very easy to go back to China or to Europe,” she said.

First up is a term of English language study and learning the cultural ropes, not to mention Pacific Coast weather and cuisine (for most foreign students, neither is hot enough). Next quarter will include biology classes, Yi said.

It’s a two-way encounter, said Chanda Kroll, Clark’s international recruitment manager, fresh back from an Asia trip.

“The more international students you have on campus, the more students and teachers have exposure to global issues,” Kroll said. They’re better able to work through accents and cultures, which does take effort but “is a joy, in my opinion,” she said.

Foreign students also bring in more dollars for Clark: They pay $252.85 per credit hour, triple the in-state tuition rate of $81.15, which helps the school budget.

Besides cost, it’s not easy for the international students to earn U.S. visas, though there has been recent relief, they say.

Make no mistake: those who arrive at Clark are high achievers, with solid home support and high motivation.

Rodrigo Cano, 19, also hopes to be a surgeon, with plans to practice cardiology in his Mexican hometown of Saltillo in Coahuila state, south of Texas. An aunt and uncle living in Vancouver helped steer him here.

Cano figures one year in the U.S. to master English will serve his career well. Like Yi, he arrived in early September and quickly grew comfortable, he said.

He said Clark shepherds its foreign students well, and he’s found greater Vancouver-Portland to be a delight.

“People are so warm,” Cano said, although the weather’s colder and wetter than at home. “It’s not rainy (in Saltillo), so that’s a big problem,” he said with a grin.

Cano’s vocabulary is superb, but he knows his English pronunciation needs work, he said.

For Mudassarhusain Bukhari, a confident 19-year-old from Ahmedabad, India’s sixth-largest city of nearly 5 million people, it’s a different adjustment.

India’s students learn under a vigorous school system created by British colonists, unswayed by Yankee slang. “We have proper grammar,” Bukhari said without irony.

A business finance hopeful, Bukhari envisions further study in Atlanta and Florida, close to some relatives. He’ll pursue a master’s degree in England.

Meantime, he’s quite pleased with his Vancouver stay, so far: “It’s very good, here. Very quiet, and good people,” he said.

Howard Buck: 360-735-4515 or howard.buck@columbian.com.