RP is training ground for China's nurses-to-be

TIFFANY TAN in Beijing

03/06/2007 | 04:13 PM

What can be so extraordinary about a group of students studying “The Life and Works of Jose Rizal?" Well, for one, the classes are taught in Beijing, China. For another, the students are Chinese mainlanders who have no stake in Philippine affairs.

“I don’t think we need to learn too much about these matters," says Zhang Chan, a 19-year-old girl from northeastern China. “But students have mainly lost interest because they can’t understand the lessons. Our English isn’t very good and the teacher speaks too fast."

A twin sister younger by 27 minutes, Zhang Juan, realizes the value of learning about another country’s history and tradition but says that “talking about only one person’s life can get boring." The twins, however, are plodding on because they see education as the path to a secure future.

The girls, along with about 50 others, are college freshmen at Beijing’s Yanjing Overseas University.

They have come to the Chinese capital from various corners of the country – from the frigid north to the humid south, from the desert region to the coastal areas – in order to study nursing.

Training in RP

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