four years ago, i met thavisack litsana while i was taking photos at dongmieng temple in vientiane, the capital of laos. he was a buddhist monk-in-training in the care of a local monastery, having been born poor in the country’s northern farmlands. forty percent of laotians live below the poverty line, subsisting on around seven renminbi per day. even back then thavisack was a very curious young man who spoke english slowly, but well, for a boy of 16. even though he was a “novice” monk, he wanted to study business administration, and to accomplish that he needed to "learn english and computers.” and he knew how to make that happen: “i would get up at four in the morning to pray and learn afterwards,” says thavisack. “i often recited over ten new english words every morning when i walked to beg for alms. this way, i could improve my english skills very fast.”

given such dedication, it’s not surprising that thavisack’s emails to me today are eloquently phrased and full of early wisdom borne of a life of prayer and study. his english is so good, in fact, that this spring thavisack took the ielts exam and scored in the top 97th percentile of all test takers. that accomplishment earned him a spot in a university exchange program in the united states, one of only a handful given to laotian students every year. thavisack believes his austere life at the monastery ╟ where, for the first three years, he shared a room with seven other novices ╟ gave him the discipline to excel. “entering the temple has shaped who i am today,” he says.

so this august, thavisack will move from the shores of the mekong to the sandy beaches of florida, where he will attend a small university as a guest of the u.s. government and forever change his world. thavisack is not alone, of course ╟ in the 2008-2009 school year, a record high 672,000 international students were enrolled at u.s. universities and colleges, an eight percent jump from the previous year. more than half of the students were from asia, driven by a common desire to see the world, experience new cultures, and open their minds.

at the same time, 262,000 americans studied abroad in the 2007-2008 school year. while the proportion of american students studying abroad is smaller their international counterparts, this number is 8.5 percent higher than the previous year, and a four-fold increase compared with twenty years earlier. more than 40 years ago my employer, ef, made its mission to "break down the barriers of language and culture separating people in the world." perhaps these trends are evidence that that mission is slowly being realized.

even the powers that be are beginning to wake up to the power of the study abroad experience. last week, u.s. secretary of state hillary clinton and chinese vice minister hao ping announced the “u.s.-china people to people engagement,” aimed in part at bringing 100,000 american university students to china for immersion courses, while at the same time allowing 10,000 mainland students to get phd’s in america. as clinton said, “we need chinese and americans of all ages to get to know one another, to understand each other better, to connect and collaborate.” (for a transcript of clinton’s speech in english please view http://www.america.gov/st/texttrans-english/2010/may/20100525120827ptellivremos0.9402429.html)

america needs more future leaders who not only speak chinese but also understand the deeper cultural meaning of what is being said. in ef language schools around the world we’ve built a curriculum designed to help students understand the cultures of english-speaking countries without actually going there. but it’s hard, a bit like learning to sing by watching mtv. students who attend our language schools abroad emerge after a few weeks with a cultural understanding that would take many months to gain in our local schools in china. whether it’s a laotian monk studying in florida or an american learning mandarin in china, cross-cultural learning changes lives and promotes global understanding. more connection, more collaboration, and this planet will be a better place.

as for thavisack, well, my dreams for him go beyond simply a year in florida. harvard business school, get ready! or should we aim for tsinghua?!

bill fisher，現(xiàn)任英孚教育中國區(qū)ceo。fisher先生于1996年創(chuàng)辦了英孚教育網(wǎng)上教學(xué)系統(tǒng)englishtown，并擔(dān)任該網(wǎng)站的總裁和首席執(zhí)行官長達(dá)10年之久。2006年，他擔(dān)任英孚中國區(qū)ceo一職，全面負(fù)責(zé)英孚在中國的運(yùn)營與管理。除了供職于英孚的執(zhí)行委員會和 englishtown.com網(wǎng)站的董事會，fisher先生還活躍于一些創(chuàng)業(yè)組織，比如digital divide data、gamefederation ab等等，擔(dān)任他們的理事會成員和顧問。fisher先生畢業(yè)于常春藤盟校之一的布朗大學(xué)，獲得了計(jì)算機(jī)科學(xué)的學(xué)士學(xué)位；其后，在斯德哥爾摩經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)院攻讀經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)碩士學(xué)位。