A popular Beijing school teaches students what they need to know insgroupsto survive studying abroad.

　　By Susan Jakes

　　Standing at the front of a packed lecture hall, a tiny microphone clipped to his blue T shirt, Victor Wang asks his class to define the term“to make it.”more than 150 rapt students momentarily exchange blank stares and then burst out, almost in unison: To succeed!”

　　Making it is the name of the game at Beijing's New Oriental school, where Wang teaches a class called“Thinking American.”It's billed as a course in conversational English. But the class is all about getting to the U.S. today and the topics range from an explanation of the phrase“go get cold feet”to a lesson on the proper way to shake hands. Wang's students, most in their mid-20s, plan to apply to graduate schools in the U.S. and the language insights and intangibles taught in classes like this can make the difference between acceptance and rejection. If you want to succeed in today's China,”says a student in a Star Wars T shirt,“studying abroad in a huge help. And if you want to study abroad, you have to learn English.”

　　A foreign degree has become a status symbol among young Chinese with the requisite funds and ambition. During the 1998-99 academic year, more than 50,000 mainland students were enrolled at U.S. universities (with smaller numbers traveling to Canada, Australia and Europe). The numbers show no sign of decreasing. To cater to this flood of aspirants, Wang's friend Michael Yu, a former English instructor at Peking University, founded the New Oriental School in 1993. Wang, who studied at the State University of New York at New Paltz, joined the faculty in 1996.

　　--From Time of October 23,2000 (节选)