美国教授为你破解出国留学陷阱

　　作者：朱利安·泰普林教授 俄勒冈大学心理学博士，哈佛大学医学院及马萨诸塞州总医院社区脑力保健项目博士后研究员。

　　In the course of 26 trips to China, most of them in the last 10 years, I have been involved with a substantial number of Chinese students pursuing education overseas. I’ve seen some stellar triumphs, some weak outcomes and some really painful and costly failures. Through all of this, I have developed strong feelings about the need to look at big questions first and avoid the pitfalls. Rather compressed, here in this little series of installments, are those questions.

　　我曾26次来到中国，其中大多数是在过去的10年里。在此期间，我遇见过不少追求出国留学的中国学生，也目睹了他们中有些取得了巨大的成功，有些结果并不怎么好，还有一些可以说是经历了惨痛的失败。有感于此，我强烈感到我们需要审视其中的问题，并防止掉入陷阱里。以下我将十分简要地分节说明这些问题。

　　There is a great deal to be said for quality overseas education. It may have wonderful advantages. At its best, it has demonstrated:

　　有关高质量的国外教育可以说的有很多，也有很好的优势。最理想的状态下，我们已经看到的有：

　　World-leading creativity and scientific excellence,

　　展示世界一流的创造力和卓越的科技

　　Great opportunities for finding major fields that truly fit the individual,

　　帮助学生找到真正适合自己的专业领域

　　Wide open opportunity for the late-blooming student,

　　为大器晚成的学生提供广阔的机遇

　　Clearly effective learn-by-discovering, learn-by-doing methods,

　　展示高效的“发现促学”和“实干促学”的教学方法

　　Promotion of creativity, communication, teamwork and leadership that responds to the hunger of business, education and government entities.

　　促进学生的创新能力、沟通能力、团队合作和领导能力，服务于商业、教育以及政府机构。

　　And so many Chinese students, witness the authorship lines in the world’s leading scientific publications, Science and Nature, have established themselves as distinguished, world-class scholars in their own right through US and European universities.

　　有许多中国学生在接受了美国和欧洲大学教育后成为世界著名的学者，并在全球顶尖的科学书刊《科学与自然》中发表过文章。

　　Most nations pay a great deal of attention to the education offered to students. They spend a great deal of money and carefully regulate the quality of the offerings.　China does no less—except for an important minority. That minority is the huge number of students shipped overseas for high school or university education. Judging from the range of outcomes, overseas education is something of a high-stakes gamble.

　　大多数国家对教育都给予许多关注。他们投入大量的金钱，仔细监管入学申请资格。中国对教育的投入不比其他国家少，但是针对一小部分重要人群的投入还不及其他一些国家。这部分人就是跑到海外接受高中和大学教育的众多留学生们。而从他们留学的种种结果判断，出国留学就像是一场高风险赌博。

　　May I give the stories of 2 actual young people who stay in my home at vacations.

　　我分享一下在我家度假的两个年轻人的真实故事。

　　J. At University in the US, J was an honors student and politically active in a number of causes. Toward the end she won a major fellowship to study politics in Washington, DC. Then, after an internship with a national TV network, she won a position as Asia Assistant in the Washington DC head office of a key international news organization.

　　学生J。J留学美国，在大学期间就是校内的优等生，在许多政治活动中也相当活跃。临近毕业，她赢得了专业研究生奖学金，在华盛顿攻读政治学。之后，她在国家电视台实习了一段时间，然后又在一家主要国际新闻机构的华盛顿总部谋得亚洲版块新闻助理一职。

　　E. E studied at a US university, finishing with three honors majors and a record as a teaching assistant in several courses, among other achievements. Three US medical schools accepted her; she chose a world-renowned one.

　　学生E。E也在美国一所大学学习，成绩斐然，毕业后获得了三个专业学位，还创造了一项纪录，那就是同时担任多门课程的助教。有三所美国医学院同时录取了她，她最后选择了世界知名的那一所。

　　These stories warm our hearts and make us enthusiastic for overseas education. But such benefits are not lying about on the ground for easy collection. Overseas education is a little like a jungle. Misinformation abounds. There are real dangers in the unfamiliar complexities. Just how many students fall into them is not known. Here are two stories that I think are more common than we know.

　　这两个故事温暖人心，也让我们对出国留学满怀热情。但是这样的好处不是洒在地上可以轻易拾得的。出国留学就像是走进了丛林，充斥着误导人的信息。处于陌生而又复杂的环境确实很危险，而又没人知道有多少学生掉入了陷进。以下两个故事我想大家一看就会认为很是普遍。

　　Z. Without sound planning, Z determined to go overseas. Despite a seriously unpolished personal statement, he was accepted. His written English was so error-laden that passing the introductory courses turned into a huge hurdle. He was referred backward to easier, non-credit courses. At length, with the prospect of ever graduating becoming smaller and smaller, he withdrew.

　　学生Z。Z在没有计划周密的情况下就决定出国。尽管提交了一份相当粗糙的个人说明，但他还是被录取了。他的英文书面能力很差，错误百出，结果通过基础课程的考核也成了一只拦路虎。他被退到学习一些更简单又没有学分的课程。看着自己毕业的希望变得越来越渺茫，最后他只好选择了退学。

　　C. An unexpectedly low gaokao score forced C to attend a low ranked Chinese college. A methodical worker, however, she prepared carefully and won a place in an overseas Master’s program in Human Resources. On completion, though, the job situation was awful. At last, just to pay bills, she took a position cleaning ladies’ fingernails. (J, E, Z, and C are good friends, but I have disguised their identities.)

　　学生C。没料到高考成绩会如此低的C不得不就读一所排名靠后的国内大学。然而，她利用自己系统的学习方法，认真准备，考入了国外的人力资源硕士专业。但是毕业后工作形势严峻。最后为了糊口，她做了美甲师。（注：J,E,Z和C都是好友，我用代号来隐藏他们的真实身份。）

　　In this little set of articles, I will suggest that there are seven basic issues that must be addressed to give overseas education a decent foundation. My message is that we should worry much more about the big issues and only take up the fun of wrestling with the relative merits of one school vs. another once those big questions are settled　–or there may be trouble and disappointment.

　　在这本书中，我将会指明为了给出国留学奠定良好的基础而必须解决的七个问题。我的观点是我们应该更多担忧这些大问题。一旦这些问题解决了，才可以开始享受纠结于比较学校间的相对优点带来的乐趣，不然的话，最后带来的也许只是烦恼和失望。

　　In the next installments, we will take up one big issue at a time, looking first at how risk may be reduced.

　　在下一节当中，我们要开始将问题逐个解决。首先要看的是如何来降低风险。

　　词汇点津：

　　stellar adj. 星的；主要的；星球的

　　pitfall n. 陷阱，圈套；缺陷；诱惑

　　例句：The road to the conquest of cancer is long and full of pitfall.

　　战胜癌症的征途是漫长的，而且布满意想不到的困难。

　　installment n. 安装；分期付款；部分；就职

　　例句：Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is the highly anticipated installment in the series .

　　《哈利·波特与混血王子》是人们充满期待的哈利·波特系列的第六部。

　　internship n. 实习生；（美）实习期；实习医师职位

　　例句：When I accepted the internship at Morgan Stanley , I had no idea it was the only paying position.

　　当我接受摩根斯坦利的实习机会时，根本不知道这是唯一一个有实习工资的职位。

　　abound vi. 富于；充满

　　例句：The English language abounds in phrasal verbs.

　　英语里有大量的短语动词。

　　unpolished a. 未磨光的,无光泽的,未磨练的

　　例句：The unpolished edges of the glass squares maintain an element of tension and act as an indicator of construction.

　　这些味精琢磨的玻璃方块四边保持著某种紧张元素，同时也成为一种构成的指标。