Speech at Opening Ceremony for Freshmen of 2009

2009级新生开学典礼讲话

Tao Wenhao

14 September 2009

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Warmly welcome to the Faculty of Foreign Languages, Beijing Normal University at Zhuhai. I assume that everybody of you is in great excitement and happiness sitting in the classroom, the room long away from your hometown, your high school and your relatives. Congratulations to you on the realization of your life dream of being university students. Each of you is of high expectation of the new life and study here in the university. Some of you would think you will become interpreters, translators, university teachers four years later. Some of you would think you will be Masters and even PhDs either in China or abroad in the future.

亲爱的新同学们，下午好！我们热烈欢迎你们考入美丽的北师大珠海分校bat365在线官网登录！虽然你们远离家乡、远离父母和亲人、远离你们曾经求学的中学，大家坐在这里一定非常激动，异常高兴，因为你们实现了人生的理想，考上了所喜爱的大学! 我祝贺你们！大家现在一定憧憬着新的大学生活和学习。有人毕业后想当翻译，有人想当大学老师，甚至有人想考取研究生，读硕士，读博士。

Let me share with you the happiness and new dreams. I am positive you must be deeply attracted by the beautiful scenery of the campus, the blue sky, the green grass, the unknown and smiling trees, the quiet lakes and the strong mountains. It is a dream land. Your old dream of coming here in the high school is now reality, but the new dreams of future awaits you. How can you realize your new dreams in the four years life of the university? I would like to quote the advice of the president of Harvard University for you as my advice:

此时此刻，我愿意和大家一起分享你们的喜悦和新的人生之梦。我敢肯定，在座的每位同学都被我们校园的美景深深地吸引了，那蓝蓝的天空，青青的草地，静静的湖水、健壮的山峦，多么迷人啊！就连不知名的树木也似乎路出笑脸招呼新来的面孔。这是梦幻般的境地！同学们的中学梦想不就是要来到这样的地方吗？如今这一切都是现实了，都在你的眼前，然而，在这样的美景中，同学们如何实现你们新的人生梦想呢？在此我愿意把美国哈佛大学校长的新生寄语作为我的期望送给你们。

In just 45 months most of you will be Harvard alumni. How can you get the most out of your time here? It was William Butler Yeats who said, "Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire." If I have but one wish for each of you, it is that in the years ahead you be set on fire, that your mind be captured by some area of human understanding, that you develop a passion for understanding, for comprehending, for progressing, that is so central to successful people everywhere. The University and its faculty have no more important goal than helping you in this quest.

再过45个月，在座的大多数同学将会成为哈佛校友。那么，你们如何充分利用大学的四年，取得最大的收获呢? William Butler Yeats说过：“教育不是把一只桶灌满，而是要点燃火焰。”如果我对每一个人只有一个希望的话，那就是在未来的岁月，你们必须点燃火焰，让你们的大脑被某些领域所吸引，让你们满怀激情去理解、去领会、去发展。你们要想成功，就必须这样去做。哈佛大学及其全体老师最重要的目标就是帮助你们进行如此探索。

Fires cannot be controlled, passions cannot be predicted, and you are all very different people. But let me give you this advice as you embark on your journey here at Harvard. First, follow your passion, not your calculation. Yes, you should choose courses that cohere and follow a program towards your objective, but most importantly, do or pursue what captures your imagination. Don’t let anything stand in the way of your curiosity, of what you really want to do. Be open to every possibility. For most of you sitting in this place, four years from now what will have been most important at Harvard is something you do not now imagine.

火焰无法控制，激情难以预测，同学们也是千差万别的。当你们开始哈佛之旅的时候，我愿提出以下建议： 首先，让激情而不是算计来引导大家。是的，同学们所选的课程应该与你们的目标保持一致，保持相关，但最重要的是，你们要充分发挥想象力。不要让任何事情阻挡你的好奇心，去做真正自己想做的事情。 要相信任何可能都可能成为现实。在座的大多数，在未来四年里，在哈佛所学，什么最重要，现在我们根本无法想象。

Second, remember the faculty is here for you. There is no more important responsibility for any of us as members of the faculty than teaching and working with you, the students of Harvard College. Rabbi Judah the Prince once said, "I have learned much from my teachers, I have learned more from my friends, but I have learned most from my students. " I am confident that every member of the Harvard faculty would agree.

其次，记住，这里的教职员工随时都会为你排忧解难。作为教职员工，我们每一个人最重要的职责莫过于为哈佛学子传道、授业、解惑。拉比犹大王子说过：“我从老师身上学到不少，从我朋友身上所学更多，但最大的收获还是来自于我的学生。”我深信哈佛的每一位老师对此都会表示赞同。 Do not be shy. One of the stars of our economics department was at one time a sophomore at Harvard College while I was a professor here. He knocked on the door of my office and I said hello. He said hello. I said, "What’s up?" He said, "Prof. Summers, that paper you wrote on unemployment is really pretty good, but it has a number of mistakes. I’d like a job as a research assistant." That led to an enormously productive relationship for both of us. It may not be everyone’s chosen approach to the faculty, but I promise you that you will find faculty very willing to respond to your interests, to your curiosity, and to your invitations. Do not feel that you are ever wasting anyone’s time pursuing your curiosity or your interest. That is what we are all here for.

不要害羞。我们经济系的明星人物之一，在我当教授时，他还是个二年级的学生。他来敲我办公室的门，我说 “你好”，他也说 “你好”。我问：“你有什么事吗?”他说：“Summers教授，你那篇关于失业问题的论文确实写得不错，但是里面有些错误。我想找份工作，做您的科研助理。” 这件事使我俩成了好朋友，我们也在学术方面颇有成就。 当然，这可能不是每个人接近老师的首选方式，但我敢说，老师们会非常喜爱你们的兴趣、好奇心、以及你们的邀请。你们千万不要认为对于知识的追求所产生的好奇，兴趣是在浪费别人的时间，因为这正是我们的职责所在。

Third, learn how to learn. Any fact that you encounter in your studies now is not very likely to remain very relevant and important over your whole career, unless of course you want to retire when you are 37. For centuries, we’ve all existed on what I like to call the fuel tank model of education, where you fill up the tank when you are young and empty it out over the years, till you no longer know anything relevant and retire. In a world of multiple careers, more rapid change, and longer lives, it is continuous learning that will be the key to success. Almost no one who is involved in managing the Internet majored in it during college, because when they went to college, it wasn’t there to study.

第三，要学会如何学习。你们现在所学的知识不一定就是你将来所要从事的整个事业，当然，除非你打算在37岁时就退休。 我总说教育一种燃料罐式的教育，多少世纪以来，这就是我们的生存状态。年轻时你把罐子装满，然后一年年地把它掏空，直到与时代脱节，然后老了退休。如今的社会，行业众多、变化飞快、人的寿命日增，只有不断学习才能确保成功。 比如现在从事因特网管理的人上大学时都没有学过这个专业，因为那时这东西还没有出现。

Fourth, learn from each other. Much of the most important learning you do here will be from each other. You will maximize that learning if you take advantage of the diversity of the Harvard community, reaching out to people from very different backgrounds than your own. A century ago, this was a place where New England gentlemen taught other New England gentlemen. Today, we are so much better because of our diversity, because of our commitment to seeking excellence everywhere, because of our commitment to assuring diverse perspectives in all that we think about. Follow your passions, take advantage of the faculty, learn how to learn, and learn from each other ? I hope these ideas will contribute in some small way to your experience here.

第四，要互相学习。你们在哈佛的所学，其中最重要的，都是相互之间学到的。如果你们善于利用哈佛社区的多样性，善于和那些背景与你不同的人接触，你就会在学习中取得最大的收获。 一百年前，这里是新英国人教育其他新英格兰人的地方。今天，由于我们来自五湖四海，由于我们不遗余力追求卓越，由于我们思考问题，追求不同的视角，我们已经有了长足的进步，超过他们了。总之，同学们，跟着激情走、借助老师的指点、学会怎样学习、互相取长补短，我希望这几点建议对你们在哈佛求学期间多少有些帮助。

This is the advice from the president of Harvard University. As you are students of the Faculty of Foreign Languages of the University, here in conclusion, I would attach special importance to you in terms of the character forming, morality and quality establishment. Only those with positive qualities will make contributions to the society and the human world. Please always remember the motto of our university: Of Studies, be the Master; Of Behaviour, be the Norm. To the parents, I would say, your children are our children. We will help them with everything possible and positive, and make every effort to make them useful talents for the development of China and the world.

Thanks!

以上是美国哈佛大学校长的新生寄语。同学们，你们作为北师大珠海分校bat365在线官网登录的学生，作为结束语，在此，我要对你们提出特别的要求，那就是我们注重对你们人格的培养、道德情操的培养以及各种综合素质的培养。因为只有具有正面素养的人才能对人类和社会作出贡献。请我们同学们永远铭记我们北师大的校训：学为人师，行为世范。对于孩子的家长，我要说，请你们放心，你们的孩子就是我们的孩子，我们一定竭尽全力给与他们最正面的教育，把他们培养成为祖国有用之才，建设祖国，为世界文明做出贡献！

谢谢！