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“双语视窗”栏目从2006年开办至今，已经走过了2年的历程，这些由在华外国友人撰写的小文章，以他们在华所见所闻为切入点，生动具体地反映出东西方观念、习俗的异同，也向我们提出了一个个既有趣又值得深思的问题。栏目一再连载得益于读者反馈中的正面回应。
“不识庐山真面目，只缘身在此山中”，换一个角度，从外国友人目光的折射中审视一下自己，更有助于全面地了解我们自身。同时，本栏目采用英汉对照形式，这些原汁原味的英文不仅有助于加深对作者原意的理解，也是一本学习现代英语的鲜活教材。
我目前正在北京学习MBA，这一课程是一所美国大学与一所中国大学联合开设的。中国老师与美国老师都用英语教学。对于我——班里唯一的一名外国学生，最有意思的事就是用西方人的眼睛来看用西方最新商业思想教中国学生这一很前卫的方式。我的大学学位是在法国获得的。
教育改革是中国媒体很关注的话题，实际情况怎样呢？我在北京的学习刚刚开始，我在这儿所说的只是我的第一印象，这种第一印象有可能是错的，但有时也是对的，而且这一最初印象特别清晰，它会随着时间的推移变模糊。再有，我所学的这一课程是开拓性的，我能被录取很感骄傲，课程的组织与执教者都很出色，课程开得很快，快得使我不能不承认有时会跟不上。但从一个西方人的角度看，我还是觉得这一课程有它的奇怪之处。
这儿的师生关系与法国不一样。每到课间，我的中国同学都跑到前面围着可怜的老师问问题。他们这样做，是因为真有急迫的问题，还是只想给老师一个印象——我是个非常非常努力的学生？在一小时紧张的数学课后，我必须承认我可是想不出任何问题了，我必须回家后去消化所学的知识，如果发现问题，我就自己先琢磨，如果还想不明白，下节课再去找老师。如果我去问老师一连串经过自己略微思考就能得到答案的问题，我会觉得这很幼稚，很荒唐。
中国学生与西方学生的主要区别则在于学习态度。在这里请让我提醒读者，我们这一课程的学生都是有大学学士学位的25～40岁的人，而且有了几年的工作经验，我这里说的可不是中小学生。学习MBA这门课程，意味着要花很多钱，而且在完成我们现有的管理工作之外，要把三年的周末时间用在勤奋学习上。除了上课和做作业之外，平均每月还要读500页的资料。入学前，我们都投入了很多时间来准备托福、GMAT，以及入学申请的种种事情。但我所看到的是什么呢？我的中国同学不会做作业时就从书上或是从学过这门课的同学那里抄答案；在班里，他们就在教授的眼皮底下相互抄作业！难道这是经过理性思考而为学习投入时间与财力的成年人应有的行为吗？
这些同学对课程的理解并不比我好，但考分却比我高。对他们来说，学习就意味着想办法通过考试，而不是去探究新的知识、新的体验。我再讲一个这种“精明”的短视行为的例子：不久前，一位老师在课上为我们讲解一个相当复杂的问题，而这节课是期中前的最后一节课。有个同学就问老师这一内容期中考试考不考。当老师说不考时，大家都乐了，对这个问题的兴趣也都没了，课堂乱得使老师很难把问题讲完。也许我尖刻了一些，但这种欺骗行为与热衷考试的做法体现不出一个有远见的工商管理精英的思维模式。
如果这种事发生在一所杰出大学，而且是在入学选拔极为严格的课程中，那么在这教育体系的低层所盛行的学习态度也就可想而知了。中国学生以学习与获取新知为乐吗？或是学习仅仅是实现某一目的的权宜之计？学习中是否真正在心智上有所发展？什么时候中国学生能知道成为一个更博学、更有见地的人是多么快乐？我盼着有一天，中国学生在学校学得快乐，再也不厌学，再也不在这种意义与价值都有争议的考试的压力下学习。
原文：
I am currently enrolled part-time in an MBA program in Beijing run jointly by an American and a Chinese university. The Chinese and foreign instructors all lecture in English. It has been most interesting for me, the only non-Chinese student, to cast a Western eye on this very up-to-date effort to educate Chinese in the latest Western business thinking. I obtained my own undergraduate degree in France.
Educational reform gets a lot of attention in the Chinese press, but what is really happening? I have just begun my studies here, so what I am offering in this column are first impressions. Such impressions may be mistaken, but they can also be true, and the freshness of the impressions gives them a clarity that can be worn away with time. Second, the program I’m in is a pioneering initiative that I am proud to have been selected to take part in. The organization and teaching staff are excellent, and the courses move right along – so much so that I must confess I sometimes have trouble keeping up. Still, from a Western point of view the program has its peculiarities.
For one thing, the timetable features long breaks every hour. In a sense this is good, as the math we’re doing studying requires concentration and it’s hard to concentrate for hours on end. Back in France, though, when I was studying philosophy, another subject that demands concentration, I never had more than a ten-minute break every two hours, and the exams were five hours long! In the beginning I found this hard; I was still growing and I could have used a snack. Within two months of starting, however, I was taking the long lectures in stride.
The relation between students and teachers is very different here too. My Chinese classmates jump on our poor professor with questions at every break. Do they do this because they have urgent questions, or is it just to give him the idea that they are terribly serious students? After an intense hour of math, I must say I really can’t think of any questions. I have to go home and mull over what I’ve learned; if I find I have questions, I first try to answer them myself, and if that doesn’t work, then I approach the teacher at the next class.I would feel very childish and ridiculous bombarding the teacher with questions I could answer for myself with a little thought.
The main difference between these Chinese students and their Western counterparts is in their attitude towards studying. Here let me remind readers that all the people in the program are 25-to-40-year-old holders of bachelor’s degrees with years of working experience. I’m not discussing schoolkids! Doing this MBA program means spending a lot of money and putting in three years of assiduous weekend work on top of the managerial jobs we already hold. We have to read an average of 500 pages a month in addition to the time we spend on classes and homework. And we all devoted many an hour to preparing for the TOEFL and the GMAT and putting together our applications. But what do I observe? My Chinese classmates get the answers to the homework problems from books and former students, and they copy one another’s homework in class, right under the professor’s nose! Is this the behavior of adults making a rational investment of time and resources?
These people don’t have a better understanding of the course material than I do, yet they get better grades: for them studying means finding a way to pass exams, not really exploring a new body of knowledge and experience. Here’s another example of this sort of “clever” short-sighted behavior: Recently one of our teachers was explaining something quite complex to us. It was the last class before the mid-term.Then somebody asked the teacher if this material would be on the test. When he said no, people laughed and losing all interest in the problem, proceeded to make so much noise that the teacher had difficulty finishing his explanation. Perhaps I am being harsh, but all this cheating and exam mania does not suggest the mindset of a far-sighted business elite.
If this is the way things are in a highly selective program at an excellent school, then I can imagine what attitudes prevail at lower levels in the educational system. Do Chinese students take any pleasure in studying and acquiring new knowledge, or is it all just a cynical game? Is there any real intellectual development going on? When will Chinese students learn to have fun becoming more learned and insightful human beings? I long for the day when young Chinese are happy in school, never bored and not under pressure to pass exams of questionable significance or value.
（本栏目文章选自《北京青年报》“双语视窗”，得到栏目编辑张爱学的授权。英文部分的稿费由本编辑部支付，请作者本人看到此启事后与编辑部联系，或发邮件至[email protected]）
责编：周 瑾
“双语视窗”栏目从2006年开办至今，已经走过了2年的历程，这些由在华外国友人撰写的小文章，以他们在华所见所闻为切入点，生动具体地反映出东西方观念、习俗的异同，也向我们提出了一个个既有趣又值得深思的问题。栏目一再连载得益于读者反馈中的正面回应。
“不识庐山真面目，只缘身在此山中”，换一个角度，从外国友人目光的折射中审视一下自己，更有助于全面地了解我们自身。同时，本栏目采用英汉对照形式，这些原汁原味的英文不仅有助于加深对作者原意的理解，也是一本学习现代英语的鲜活教材。
我目前正在北京学习MBA，这一课程是一所美国大学与一所中国大学联合开设的。中国老师与美国老师都用英语教学。对于我——班里唯一的一名外国学生，最有意思的事就是用西方人的眼睛来看用西方最新商业思想教中国学生这一很前卫的方式。我的大学学位是在法国获得的。
教育改革是中国媒体很关注的话题，实际情况怎样呢？我在北京的学习刚刚开始，我在这儿所说的只是我的第一印象，这种第一印象有可能是错的，但有时也是对的，而且这一最初印象特别清晰，它会随着时间的推移变模糊。再有，我所学的这一课程是开拓性的，我能被录取很感骄傲，课程的组织与执教者都很出色，课程开得很快，快得使我不能不承认有时会跟不上。但从一个西方人的角度看，我还是觉得这一课程有它的奇怪之处。
这儿的师生关系与法国不一样。每到课间，我的中国同学都跑到前面围着可怜的老师问问题。他们这样做，是因为真有急迫的问题，还是只想给老师一个印象——我是个非常非常努力的学生？在一小时紧张的数学课后，我必须承认我可是想不出任何问题了，我必须回家后去消化所学的知识，如果发现问题，我就自己先琢磨，如果还想不明白，下节课再去找老师。如果我去问老师一连串经过自己略微思考就能得到答案的问题，我会觉得这很幼稚，很荒唐。
中国学生与西方学生的主要区别则在于学习态度。在这里请让我提醒读者，我们这一课程的学生都是有大学学士学位的25～40岁的人，而且有了几年的工作经验，我这里说的可不是中小学生。学习MBA这门课程，意味着要花很多钱，而且在完成我们现有的管理工作之外，要把三年的周末时间用在勤奋学习上。除了上课和做作业之外，平均每月还要读500页的资料。入学前，我们都投入了很多时间来准备托福、GMAT，以及入学申请的种种事情。但我所看到的是什么呢？我的中国同学不会做作业时就从书上或是从学过这门课的同学那里抄答案；在班里，他们就在教授的眼皮底下相互抄作业！难道这是经过理性思考而为学习投入时间与财力的成年人应有的行为吗？
这些同学对课程的理解并不比我好，但考分却比我高。对他们来说，学习就意味着想办法通过考试，而不是去探究新的知识、新的体验。我再讲一个这种“精明”的短视行为的例子：不久前，一位老师在课上为我们讲解一个相当复杂的问题，而这节课是期中前的最后一节课。有个同学就问老师这一内容期中考试考不考。当老师说不考时，大家都乐了，对这个问题的兴趣也都没了，课堂乱得使老师很难把问题讲完。也许我尖刻了一些，但这种欺骗行为与热衷考试的做法体现不出一个有远见的工商管理精英的思维模式。
如果这种事发生在一所杰出大学，而且是在入学选拔极为严格的课程中，那么在这教育体系的低层所盛行的学习态度也就可想而知了。中国学生以学习与获取新知为乐吗？或是学习仅仅是实现某一目的的权宜之计？学习中是否真正在心智上有所发展？什么时候中国学生能知道成为一个更博学、更有见地的人是多么快乐？我盼着有一天，中国学生在学校学得快乐，再也不厌学，再也不在这种意义与价值都有争议的考试的压力下学习。
原文：
I am currently enrolled part-time in an MBA program in Beijing run jointly by an American and a Chinese university. The Chinese and foreign instructors all lecture in English. It has been most interesting for me, the only non-Chinese student, to cast a Western eye on this very up-to-date effort to educate Chinese in the latest Western business thinking. I obtained my own undergraduate degree in France.
Educational reform gets a lot of attention in the Chinese press, but what is really happening? I have just begun my studies here, so what I am offering in this column are first impressions. Such impressions may be mistaken, but they can also be true, and the freshness of the impressions gives them a clarity that can be worn away with time. Second, the program I’m in is a pioneering initiative that I am proud to have been selected to take part in. The organization and teaching staff are excellent, and the courses move right along – so much so that I must confess I sometimes have trouble keeping up. Still, from a Western point of view the program has its peculiarities.
For one thing, the timetable features long breaks every hour. In a sense this is good, as the math we’re doing studying requires concentration and it’s hard to concentrate for hours on end. Back in France, though, when I was studying philosophy, another subject that demands concentration, I never had more than a ten-minute break every two hours, and the exams were five hours long! In the beginning I found this hard; I was still growing and I could have used a snack. Within two months of starting, however, I was taking the long lectures in stride.
The relation between students and teachers is very different here too. My Chinese classmates jump on our poor professor with questions at every break. Do they do this because they have urgent questions, or is it just to give him the idea that they are terribly serious students? After an intense hour of math, I must say I really can’t think of any questions. I have to go home and mull over what I’ve learned; if I find I have questions, I first try to answer them myself, and if that doesn’t work, then I approach the teacher at the next class.I would feel very childish and ridiculous bombarding the teacher with questions I could answer for myself with a little thought.
The main difference between these Chinese students and their Western counterparts is in their attitude towards studying. Here let me remind readers that all the people in the program are 25-to-40-year-old holders of bachelor’s degrees with years of working experience. I’m not discussing schoolkids! Doing this MBA program means spending a lot of money and putting in three years of assiduous weekend work on top of the managerial jobs we already hold. We have to read an average of 500 pages a month in addition to the time we spend on classes and homework. And we all devoted many an hour to preparing for the TOEFL and the GMAT and putting together our applications. But what do I observe? My Chinese classmates get the answers to the homework problems from books and former students, and they copy one another’s homework in class, right under the professor’s nose! Is this the behavior of adults making a rational investment of time and resources?
These people don’t have a better understanding of the course material than I do, yet they get better grades: for them studying means finding a way to pass exams, not really exploring a new body of knowledge and experience. Here’s another example of this sort of “clever” short-sighted behavior: Recently one of our teachers was explaining something quite complex to us. It was the last class before the mid-term.Then somebody asked the teacher if this material would be on the test. When he said no, people laughed and losing all interest in the problem, proceeded to make so much noise that the teacher had difficulty finishing his explanation. Perhaps I am being harsh, but all this cheating and exam mania does not suggest the mindset of a far-sighted business elite.
If this is the way things are in a highly selective program at an excellent school, then I can imagine what attitudes prevail at lower levels in the educational system. Do Chinese students take any pleasure in studying and acquiring new knowledge, or is it all just a cynical game? Is there any real intellectual development going on? When will Chinese students learn to have fun becoming more learned and insightful human beings? I long for the day when young Chinese are happy in school, never bored and not under pressure to pass exams of questionable significance or value.
（本栏目文章选自《北京青年报》“双语视窗”，得到栏目编辑张爱学的授权。英文部分的稿费由本编辑部支付，请作者本人看到此启事后与编辑部联系，或发邮件至[email protected]）
责编：周 瑾