VOA慢速英语--一些国际留学生令“总统川普”头疼

‘President Trump¹’ Worries Some International Students 一些国际留学生令“总统川普”头疼

Hussain Saeed Alnahdi was one of the almost 400 international students attending the University of Wisconsin-Stout.

Twenty-four-year-old Alnahdi was from Saudi Arabia. He began his studies at the school in the Midwestern part of the United States last year. But early on the morning of October 30, Alnahdi’s experience as an international student came to a violent end. An unnamed attacker beat him until he died outside a restaurant in the city of Menomonie.

A few weeks later, police announced they had arrested a suspect. They said they do not believe the attack was a hate crime, or a crime influenced by race.

But events like the attack in Wisconsin have raised concerns for many international students living and studying in the U.S.

Study in the U.S.A. is a company that supports international students who want to study at American colleges and universities. A few days before the U.S. presidential election, the company released the results of an opinion study of 1,000 international students from 130 countries. Over 65 percent of the students said they would be less likely to study in the U.S. if Donald Trump were elected president.

FPP EDU Media also works with international students. The company released its own survey of 40,000 students in June. Those results suggested 60 percent of their students felt the same way.

During his campaign, President-elect Trump made statements about Mexican people that many critics called racist². At one point, he called for a ban on all Muslims entering the U.S.

The Southern Poverty Law Center is a civil rights group based in Montgomery, Alabama. The group says it has received 437 reports of incidents of intimidation³ and harassment⁴ in the six days following the election.

Renait Stephens is the chief executive⁵ officer of Study in the U.S.A. She says international students and their parents are worried. However, she is also hopeful. She argues that what a politician says during a campaign and what they do once they are in power are two different things.

Stephens says international students will have to wait and see what happens.

"It’s early days. And until we know something more about any policy changes, then I think we just have to really emphasize that and hope that our education system will continue to be how it is right now. So right now we’re just trying to reassure⁶ students that nothing has changed. U.S. campuses are still safe. They’re still open. They’re still diverse. And you still get a fantastic education."

Other experts say there has never been any real threat to international education. The Institute of International Education (IIE) is a nonprofit organization that studies and supports international student exchanges.

Together with the U.S. Department of State, the IIE releases a report every year on the number of international students in the U.S. The 2016 Open Doors report says about 1,044,000 international students attended American colleges and universities last year. That is a record number.

Peggy Blumenthal is an official with the IIE. She says the organization has been recording⁷ international student numbers for over 90 years.

She says international students are mostly concerned with the quality of the education they can get in the U.S. The rest of the world still values the strength of the American higher education system above almost any other country, she adds.

Blumenthal points to historical examples. When the U.S. accidentally bombed the Chinese embassy⁸ in the capital of Serbia in 1999, major protests took place at the U.S. embassy in Beijing. But, she says, shortly after the protests, Chinese students were complaining the American embassy was not processing their visas fast enough.

Blumenthal says this shows world events do not easily affect international student exchanges.

"International students really value their opportunity to study in the United States. And throughout the whole history of our collecting data, there has almost never been a drop in the number of international students coming to the United States. There have been many important changes in American policy, in international circumstances, in the economy. But the numbers of international students pretty much continues to rise regardless of what’s going on elsewhere around them."

Blumenthal admits there may be a small decrease in the number of Muslim students coming to U.S. schools. That also happened after the terrorist⁹ attacks in New York on September 11th, 2001. But she says a decrease in students from one country is often balanced by an increase in students from other countries.

Foreign students bring a lot to the economies of many towns and cities across the U.S. The U.S. Department of Commerce says international students added about $30 billion to the U.S. economy in 2015. Blumenthal argues that no politician is willing to risk losing that.

However, Philip Altbach remains¹⁰ worried. Altbach is the director of the Center for International Higher Education. The center works through Boston College to research and support international study.

Altbach says there are examples of decreases in international study in other countries. He notes the major decrease of Indian students studying in Australia after several Indians were attacked there in 2009 and 2010. He also says the language Trump and his supporters used during the campaign has lowered the world’s opinion of the U.S.

"I think that the toxic¹¹ discourse¹² of the campaign and of what Mr. Trump has said for a long time actually is extraordinarily¹³ damaging for the image of the United States in general and in the thinking of students and faculty¹⁴ members overseas who may be considering studying in the United States or coming here as professors. Because the choice of where to study in the world depends very significantly on the comfort that students and their families will feel about the country to which they are planning to go."

Altbach says international students and professors bring different perspectives to the universities where they study or teach. Losing them would cost the American students a lot -- educationally and financially.

He says international graduate students and professors are involved in much of the research done at most U.S. universities. Also, decreases in international student numbers may not affect large, well-known universities, he says. But many others need international students to pay the full price to attend. Having international students pay more makes it possible for schools to let American students attend at reduced cost, he says.

Altbach admits there is no way to know what will happen until the new administration takes office. But until then, universities must make clear public statements saying they will support and protect international students. If not, Altbach says, America may no longer be the first choice for people seeking the best education in the world.

Words in This Story

hate crime – n. a crime influenced by an unfair feeling of dislike for a person or group because of race, sex or religion, typically involving violence

influence(d) – v. to affect or change someone or something in an indirect but usually important way

survey – n. an activity in which many people are asked a question or a series of questions in order to gather information about what most people do or think about something

racist – adj. showing belief that some races of people are better than others

intimidation – n. enforcing agreement by making someone afraid or using violence

harassment – n. constant or repeated action causing someone to feel slightly angry or troubled, worried, or concerned

emphasize – v. to give special attention to something

reassure – v. to make someone feel less afraid, upset, or doubtful

diverse – adj. made up of people or things that are different from each other

toxic – adj. very unpleasant

discourse – n. the use of words to exchange thoughts and ideas

perspective(s) – n. a way of thinking about and understanding something, such as a particular issue or life in general

graduate student(s) – n. a person who is working on a degree or diploma from a school, college, or university after earning a bachelor's degree or other first degree

1 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

2 racist   

n.种族主义者，种族主义分子

参考例句：

• a series of racist attacks 一连串的种族袭击行为
• His speech presented racist ideas under the guise of nationalism. 他的讲话以民族主义为幌子宣扬种族主义思想。

3 intimidation   

n.恐吓，威胁

参考例句：

• The Opposition alleged voter intimidation by the army.反对党声称投票者受到军方的恐吓。
• The gang silenced witnesses by intimidation.恶帮用恐吓的手段使得证人不敢说话。

4 harassment   

n.骚扰，扰乱，烦恼，烦乱

参考例句：

• She often got telephone harassment at night these days.这些天她经常在夜晚受到电话骚扰。
• The company prohibits any form of harassment.公司禁止任何形式的骚扰行为。

5 executive   

adj.执行的，行政的；n.执行者，行政官，经理

参考例句：

• A good executive usually gets on well with people.一个好的高级管理人员通常与人们相处得很好。
• He is a man of great executive ability.他是个具有极高管理能力的人。

6 reassure   

v.使放心，使消除疑虑

参考例句：

• This seemed to reassure him and he continued more confidently.这似乎使他放心一点，于是他更有信心地继续说了下去。
• The airline tried to reassure the customers that the planes were safe.航空公司尽力让乘客相信飞机是安全的。

7 recording   

n.录音，记录

参考例句：

• How long will the recording of the song take?录下这首歌得花多少时间？
• I want to play you a recording of the rehearsal.我想给你放一下彩排的录像。

8 embassy   

n.大使馆，大使及其随员

参考例句：

• Large crowd demonstrated outside the British Embassy.很多群众在英国大使馆外面示威。
• He's a U.S. diplomat assigned to the embassy in London.他是美国驻伦敦大使馆的一名外交官。

9 terrorist   

n.恐怖主义者，恐怖分子

参考例句：

• Without the gun,I'm a sitting duck for any terrorist.没有这支枪，我就成了恐怖分子下手的目标了。
• The district was put on red alert during a terrorist's bomb scare.这个地区在得到恐怖分子炸弹恐吓后作了应急准备。

10 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

11 toxic   

adj.有毒的，因中毒引起的

参考例句：

• The factory had accidentally released a quantity of toxic waste into the sea.这家工厂意外泄漏大量有毒废物到海中。
• There is a risk that toxic chemicals might be blasted into the atmosphere.爆炸后有毒化学物质可能会进入大气层。

12 discourse   

n.论文，演说；谈话；话语；vi.讲述，著述

参考例句：

• We'll discourse on the subject tonight.我们今晚要谈论这个问题。
• He fell into discourse with the customers who were drinking at the counter.他和站在柜台旁的酒客谈了起来。

13 extraordinarily   

adv.格外地；极端地

参考例句：

• She is an extraordinarily beautiful girl.她是个美丽非凡的姑娘。
• The sea was extraordinarily calm that morning.那天清晨，大海出奇地宁静。

14 faculty   

n.才能；学院，系；(学院或系的)全体教学人员

参考例句：

• He has a great faculty for learning foreign languages.他有学习外语的天赋。
• He has the faculty of saying the right thing at the right time.他有在恰当的时候说恰当的话的才智。