开卷有益----A Girl's Guide to College
Zhenmafudan @ 2008-01-07 01:48



最近，在书店里买了一本Traci Maynogo写的A Girl's Guide to College: Making the Most of the Best Four Years of Your Life。这本书讲的是美国高中生进入大学本科以后，应该怎么适应大学生活。我已经博士毕业了，为什么要读这样的书?我把本书当作是英语学习、了解不同书的写作方法、了解美国大学生活、了解不同作者个人理念的书。同时，如果以后要教大学生的话，读了这本书就会知道美国大学生在想什么?他们平时在谈论什么?下课后都去哪里了?他们具体说的某些话某些词，如"random hookup"(也经常出现在这本书里面)是什么意思?怎样指导大学生消除生活和学习的难题?我进一步提出的思考题是:中国和美国大学教育有什么区别?进大学的哲学意义和对自我的价值是什么?社会活动人际交往在大学里重要不重要?除了读书以外，个人独立品格的形成重要不重要?相信如果我回过头去再读大学，一定能读得更好。

第一章讲拿到大学录取通知书以后的那个暑假应该干什么: 珍惜和高中朋友、家庭的美好时光，学会更加独立、找暑期工作、锻炼身体、了解更多有关录取大学的信息，并和高中结交的男朋友分手。为什么和高中男朋友分手呢?因为"Long-distance relationships are unfulfilling and emotionally draining. They hold you back and keep you from meeting new people and growing as a person. As much as you might be secure in your relationship, you will soon find that holding on will cause more pain than pleasure. And, as I've said, you will be inevitably change. And so will he."作者的要点是在家乡留着一只拖油瓶，或者被放风筝似地上大学会阻碍自己成为一个独立的人，阻碍和大学同学的交往，影响学习。[注: 我看这本书说的这个现象不但针对高中升大学的，对应中国大学生出国读博士也有一定通用性。社会现实不就是这样的吗?]

第二章讲轻装上阵、打包装箱子。

第三章讲到了宿舍如何摆放东西。

第四章讲如何和室友相处。除了不要挑刺、不要动她的东西、不要在她的床上做爱、不要背后说坏话、不要追求同一个男生以外，一个要点是:不要粘在一起. "Remember that she is just your roommate. No one ever said you had to become best friends with her, and in fact, it's probably better if you don't. Don't attach yourself to her."为什么呢? "The more you and your roommate depend on each other socially, the less likely you'll be motivated to go out and meet new people."

第五章讲选课和学习之道。这里面对于任何人都适用的话是:"Give yourself more time than you think you need. You never know what might come up, so it's better to get a head start on things. You may be halfway done with a paper and suddenly want to change your topics. You may want to start early so you can leave some time to meet with your professor or teaching assistant and get some feedback on where you're headed with your paper."这段话不但对大学本科生适用，对于我们做科研的做实验写文章、老板写项目申请书、社会人士准备结婚典礼、国家办奥运会都适用。一句话: 做一件事情实际所花的时间往往比预期的时间长，因此要早做准备。这一章还说:"Pace yourself so you don't have to cram later."意思说，平时就要把握好学习进度，那么考试之前就不会硬塞了。这句话也能和我们做科研的联系在一起。好比说现在学术界有很多"deadline"，比如邀请写综述的截止日期、会议论文投稿的截止日期。我喜欢拿到综述任务后，首先写综述，在截止日期之前提前投出去，了却一件心事; 而不是先不行动，等截止日期快到了才行动，造成恐慌。

第六章讲怎样解决个人经济问题: 打工和存银行。这里面有两段关于校内打工和校外打工优点和缺点的比较，读起来象是在写TOEFL作文或是回答TSE问题。这是美国人常见的分析问题方法，比如在At the Helm: A Laboratory Navigator一书里面，作者也分析了在工业界和学术界工作的优点和缺点。

第七章讲关心自己的身体健康: 锻炼身体、饮食起居。这里面有句话很好:"Remember: With all the changes that will be going on in your life in the next four years, the one thing that will always remain constant is yourself. So, take care of yourself--physically, mentally, and emotionally. College life is hard enough already. Don't make it harder by depriving yourself of sleep, exercise, and a healthy diet."这句话有启发性，它不但适合本科生，而且适合更大的范围。它可以引申到:好比说一个博士生或者博士后在规定的时间内拼死拼活出了别人五倍的成果，把身体累坏了，老板不但不记功，却不断压任务。这时候，这样的博士生或者博士后应该每天晚上对着卫生间的镜子说:老板是不能更一辈子的，the only thing that will not change is myself。

第八章讲和周围人交往的社会活动，包括参加聚会和社团。

第九章讲谈朋友和性。这里面说到:"One thing to note: freshman guys, for the most part, only have two things in mind, beer and sex. Regardless of what they say or do convince you otherwise, the underlying motivation for all of their actions are these two things. Like hungry dogs, they are twitching with anticipation of the sexual opportunities the pains of being at home prevented them from having. To them, college is the perfect site for finally satisfying their carnal desires. As we can say beer is essentially their fuel, or secondary impetus, for achieving their first: sex. Beer is an excuse and also a relaxant. It erases inhibitions and somehow justifies otherwise off-the-wall behavior."



这里面还讲到两个重要的爱情哲学:"If you start to become interested in someone, remember these tips: 1. Be yourself! You'll be the most comfortable getting to know a guy if you act naturally. And believe me, no matter who you are trying to be, the real you is more acctactive to any guy rather than a fake anybody."说的是恋爱中要保持自己，而不能把自己伪装成对方想要的那样的人，造成自我的迷失。 "4. Don't let him get under your skin. The point of dating is that you get to hang out with guys and have fun without having to think about them all the time. And, if he turns out to be a jerk, he isn't worth your time."讲的是不要全身心扑在谈恋爱上，一旦失败会很痛苦。

总结: 这本书按时间顺序介绍了一些大学生活的，书的章节结构是合理的。从语言上讲是好的，因为作者是耶鲁大学英语系毕业的; 从实用角度来说对美国的高中生和大学低年级学生是有用的。缺点是一些东西，市场上其它类似书里也覆盖了，因此缺乏特色、缺乏深度，作者自己的哲学思考表现地还不够。

Thanks for your sharing. I agree with you that reading leisure book is actually a fantastic opportunity to learn day-to-day English. As a matter of fact, I learnt a resonably amount of English from movies.

Another thing I'd like to share if you are studying abroad, try talking more to native speakers. It is very natural that Chinese stay together because of similar background. Yet, beware that you have no time to speak in English! Sometimes it takes effort at first to get along with people; that is because they would be hard to understand your accent at first. However, if you have an attitude to learn and have a cheerful character, people will like you! Telling jokes is one of the key to friendships in North America.

native english learning is easy, or  not?

Thanks for your sharing.

thanks for your sharing
that·s impressive