This is the VOA Special English EDUCATION REPORT.

Each year about two hundred fifty thousand Americans study in other countries. Some study-abroad programs are trying harder to get students to learn about the local culture. One student on his first morning in Beijing was brought to a distant part of the city. He received money and instructions how to get back. It took some time but he succeeded.

William Finlay heads the sociology department at the University of Georgia in the United States. He says challenges like this help students experience another culture.

WILLIAM FINLAY: "It's absolutely crucial that they know something about how people in other parts of the world live and think and how they behave. Often those students go in large groups and they hang around with each other. We felt that they really weren't getting to know the local inhabitants."

In two thousand eight, Professor Finlay started a program with South Africa's Stellenbosch University. The program combines traditional classroom learning with community involvement through a nongovernmental organization.