Today on behalf of our School of English Language and Culture, I’ll congratulate and welcome all of you, freshmen and freshwomen of 2015.
We will have more chances to meet and talk with each other on the campus now and then, but at this moment, all that I can do is to share only three phrases with you.
Firstly, listening attentively and Reading widely. With this phrase, I want to emphasize the importance of knowledge input. The information through listening and reading is the basis on which we can build our knowledge and form our thought. Listening attentively and reading widely can give us better quality of the information. Without information of high quality, without high quality of knowledge. ZHOU Wengui, one of the distinguished professors of our college, studied for MA in economics at Yale University and can speak very good English. He is over sixty already but still keeps improving his English by listening to English 4 or 5 hours every day. What do you think of it? Reading is of the same importance. May I softly ask you how many pages of English you cover every day? When you cannot speak and write English well, the first question you need to ask yourself is the question “Do I listen attentively and read widely?” Please keep this question with you all the time during your college life, for there are too many other small activities and minor issues that might keep you from listening and reading enough. It makes quite significant difference if you read 50 pages rather than 5 pages each day.
Secondly, looking globally and acting locally. Looking globally means we need an international vision and view, a national plus international dream. We need to learn lessons from the various and different countries, from the whole history and civilization of the world, including our own ancient history and cultural tradition, from the past and the future of this generation. A global view can guide our action and behavior, taking local situation and problem into consideration. Do not expect too much out of the possibility of our college, out of the reach of our parents. Face the reality, confront the real condition and life limit. We can still progress with our best effort and hard work. Acting locally also means getting along with others. Without others without our Selves and we are shaping each other. Acting locally also means acting right now. For fresh students of college, the right thing at the moment for us to do is to take a good and smooth change from our middle school learning style to college studying style. What MA Yun could do in the past is what we can do in the future. As Paul Arden once said in his world’s best-selling book “it is not how good you are, it’s how good you want to be. Do you have the courage, determination, perseverance, making continuous efforts with determination and courage to do the right things in a right way at a right moment for a right purpose?
Thinking critically and creatively. This is the last but not least phrase I’d like share with you, not just because this is the weakness of our Chinese college students but also because we need to be original in thoughts and independent in spirit, and we need to make more contributions to the life and for the earth. We should not be satisfied with “made in China”. In addition, we should be even happier with “Developed in China”, “Designed in China”, and “Created in China”. For that, the condition is thinking critically and creatively first. And we can start with small issues, taking different path for example, especially the one we seldom choose, looking at the familiar things from different perspective and at different time, or in other’s shoes. Why not? When we think critically and creatively, we can live a better and a more colourful life, making people around us happier. Why not？Wholeness in our learning leads to integrity of a person. Put it in Chinese: 学之完整，人之完整。
Let me repeat the three phrases.
Listening attentively and reading widely.
Looking globally and acting locally.
Thinking critically and creatively.
These three phrases are simple but significant to my understanding.
In the end of the welcome speech, I wish you again a pleasant and fruitful college life at our South China Business College.
Thank you for your attention and listening.
Wirriten by Dean of School of
SanShan SHEN
时间:Sep 18, 2015 4:11:00 PM
录入者:陈惠斯