Tao Wenhao
28th June 2013
Good evening, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, staff members of the School of Foreign Languages, parents and above all, graduates!
Ten years is not long in history but is long enough for the School of Foreign Languages (SFL), BNUZ, because it is the tenth anniversary of this wonderful beauty. I fell in love with her ten years ago and I am confident that I will be with her for the rest of my life. For the graduates of 2013, I would say to you that you are so special, because today is not a day of saying good bye but a day of celebration of both you and the tenth anniversary of SFL though you will leave tomorrow.
In June, ten years ago I came to this wonderful land of BNUZ, I was deeply attracted by the beauty of the landscape, the enthusiasm and the hospitality of the people on campus. Particularly I appreciated the hard-working spirit and the prosperity of the new-born university. This was just the place where I could spend my whole life on the establishment and development of the School of Foreign Languages. Therefore I decided to stay here and started my lifelong journey with my total sincerity. The memory of the great events of the faculty, my explorations into teaching reforms, the creative modules of English, Japanese majors and College English are all evidences of my devotion to the foundation and development of the faculty. Now I am proud of having such a strong staff of 81 members of the faculty with 30 native English and Japanese teachers working with more than 1000 students of English and Japanese majors of BA and MA besides offering over 40 different courses of College English to over 22,000 students of the university. In the "12th Five-Year Plan”, supported by our team members, SFL would like to recruit more native staff of English and Japanese with PhDs and by the end of the “12th Five Year Plan” period (in the year of 2015), they will have made up half of the staff.
After 10 years of development, this beauty has grown up, I love her more than I did ten years ago for some other reasons too. This beauty is special in the following ways: for the English majors, we educate her with two foreign languages throughout four years such as French and Portuguese, for the Japanese Majors, we educate her with both Japanese and English for four years. So this beauty is not only beautiful but also intelligent and multilingual. A good data is: more than twenty percent of our BA graduates every year go on to read for MAs either in China or in other famous overseas universities.
For the graduates of 2013, I am happy to tell you that you are lucky to live in such a happy family for the past four years, which will never be back to campus but memory. The four years of the university is the days rooted not just in your memory but in your soul and spirit for your whole life. You may still remember your first day on arrival at our campus, your first class and your first absence! Your first love, your first cry and your first reward! For the year of 2013, you may love the movie: Ode to the Youth (---致青春), and my recalling of my university days are pretty much the same as what the movie described. We had been once ridiculous, foolish, naïve and of course may be very clever to cheat our exams. However, we are grown up now, these minor things will not come back. We are just as brave and strong enough to make this country powerful and realize “China Dream”. A few days ago, the manned Shengshi (神十) had a perfect round trip over the space, the astronauts were once as young as you are. I know that many of you are very happy with your brilliant achievements in the university days.
When you say goodbye to your teachers and classmates, to this most beautiful campus in Asia, you will, I believe, take with you a sweet, unforgettable memory, which will be a constant source of nostalgia no matter where you are in the future.
For the fragrant memories, these popular words as “江南style”; “正能量Rip it up ”，“郭美美Guo Meimei”，“表叔Uncle Watch ”and “房姐Sister House”，你幸福吗? Are you happy？Of course, one more, 雷政富Lei Zhengfu！Your bedroom talks, classroom presentations, graduation thesis defence, etc. are all back again at this special moment! No matter what they are, they are fragrant. We have been gratified to witness every little step of your progress in independence and academic excellence. You have been part of this big family of the School of Foreign Languages, worked hard on your studies, and explored your potential by participating in the campus activities. Your GPA, your scores in the TEM 4 and TEM 8, your good command of English and a second foreign language, your expertise in business English, English education, or English language and literature, your outstanding performance in competitions are all an embodiment of your hard work over the past four years. Congratulations, my dear graduates! I’m fully convinced that your parents are proud of you. I am proud of you! We are all proud of you!
On the day I fell in love with this beauty 10 years ago, I had a dream that I would make her the strongest in our university. Today, I would say that she may not be the strongest but is certainly one of the strongest on campus. Now I have a new dream that I would like make her one of the most influential in Southern China in the next ten years, will you join us? I am pretty sure with your support and our mutual cooperation, this new dream will come true. For the staff members, I have a wish. I wish half of you could have PhDs and promoted as professors in the next ten years. I wish you a happier and healthier life. For our graduates today, I wish you found your best love, your favourite job and your favourite university for higher degrees!
East or west, home is best! For both our staff and graduates, I wish School of Foreign Languages the best home in the world. Thank you！
