The interest among American students to go to China and study the Chinese language is waning, as indicated in the significant decrease in enrollment in recent years.  

Student applications for enrollment in schools in China has dropped, based on the record of the University of California Education Abroad Program (UCEAP).

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A leading agency for study-abroad programs, CET, says, it has been experiencing the slump in enrollment among American students since last year.

Robert Daly, the director of the Kissinger Institute on China, sees a big implication of this situation on China.

He says, "having a group of Americans across differenct industries who speak Chinese and understand the culture is a matter of national interest for China."

The Institute of International Education estimates that the number of U.S. students who are studying in China has dropped to 14,413, or equivalent to a decrease of 3.2 percent from 2012 to 2013.

Massive air pollution is being cited by American students as among the reasons why they do not want to study and live in China.

They also notice that China is not as open to foreigners as before when it comes to employment opportunities.

These days, multinational companies in China hire mostly local Chinese.

These firms now have lesser need for foreigners who speak Chinese, since there already is a growing number of local Chinese who have studied overseas.

Ian Weissgerber, who is a 25-year-old American graduate student in China, says, "I came to China thinking I could learn Chinese and get a high paying job. I learned quickly that this was not the case."

He notes, "a lot of Chinese can speak English just as well as I can, and Chinese is their native tounge too."

While fewer American students want to go to China, more Chinese are getting interested in acquiring their education in the United States.

From 2013 to 2014, the number of Chinese who are studying in the United States rose by over 274,000, indicating an increase of 16.5 percent.  

John Thomson, a veteran executive of programs that enable American students to study in China, says, "it really comes down to money. You are taking  yourself out of the job market for a couple of years to study an exremely difficult language, with no guaranteed pay-off at the end."

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