Opening Ceremony Speech for Freshmen of 2017
Tao Wenhao
6 September 2017
Boys and girls, faculty members, ladies and gentlemen,
Good evening! My congratulations to you all on coming to the most beautiful campus in Asia, the valley university of BNUZ. Your presence has brought vigor and liveliness to our campus.
During the transitional period from summer to autumn, weather is always changeable in Zhuhai. The city has been attacked by three typhoons in 12 days, with heavy rains, uprooted and leafless trees everywhere, which definitely caused certain trouble for your settling down on campus. Nevertheless, I hope your fatigue and anxiety on the trip to BNUZ has been entirely driven away by the beautiful environment of a new place far away from your hometown, which is your new home for the next four years or two years to come.
Every year at this moment in September, I would be overjoyed and excited, full of hope and expectation, to meet the new family members of the school of foreign languages. I assume most of you have the same feelings as I do: excited and happy about the new things and filled with expectations of great changes in a new phase of life. Today you’ve made it here, which you should owe to the relentless efforts and hard work contributed by your teachers, parents and yourself in the past years. The moment now symbolizes an end as well as a new beginning to the next stage, signifying renewal as well as change. This is the time for you to walk into a new chapter in your life book, the time to explore and shape yourself, to make preparations for the construction of your future life. Welcome to the big family of our school! You’ve become the youngest members here. Some of you may be unfamiliar with our school, so I will start with the introduction to the School of Foreign Languages.
The School of Foreign Languages, founded in June 2003, is comprised of 80 staff members, one of the largest schools of the university, of whom English, Japanese and Portuguese native teachers account for nearly 50%; 1/4 of those native teachers hold a PhD; 1/5 of Chinese teachers are pursuing a doctoral degree and 4/5 of Chinese teachers have the experience of studying or working overseas.
The school aims to train first-rate interdisciplinary, independent English and Japanese professionals for Guangdong Province and the country at large. Since its foundation, the school has been constantly exploring every approach to fine-tune its school-running features. One of the features is the establishment of bilingual orientation. Up to now, we have English-French orientation, English-Portuguese orientation for the English majors and Japanese-English orientation for the Japanese majors. The other feature is that more courses targeting at training students’ practical abilities are incorporated into the curriculum for the third year and fourth year students, with a purpose of enhancing students’ practical skills before entering the job markets. Each year, more than 70% of graduates are employed by the educational institutions, by the government or by various companies. A good number of the graduates go to further studies in prestigious universities either overseas or at home. In 2016, the percentage of English majors for further studies reached 26%. Most of the universities they went for higher degrees are such first-class ones in the world as Edinburgh University, Cardiff University, Sydney University, Melbourne University, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Beijing International Studies University, to name just a few.
Today symbolizes the starting point of your college life. Some of you may still be overwhelmed by the great joy of the success in the exam two months ago, feeling relieved and relaxed. Nevertheless, the past achievements only mean the past, which will never come back. Missions are waving towards us in the future. There is a long way for us to go. As dean of the school, I have some suggestions for you. Hopefully they will be helpful in the next coming four years or two years for the MA students and upgrading students.
First, to learn to know yourself. Going to college is like going on a self-discovery journey, through which you detect your own interests, potential, talent, advantages and shortcomings. It is a process of defining oneself and shaping oneself. “You’ve got to find what you love” as it is often said. In our school and around the university, there is abundant number of experienced, innovative teachers, together with their enlightening lectures and frontier courses, diversified students activities, field work and internship which will help contribute to realizing and shaping yourself.
Next, to maintain a sense of wonder and hunger for knowledge. I believe when Steve Jobs said: “stay hungry, stay foolish”, you echoed his insightful voice. A sense of wonder or curiosity has nothing to do with memorizing so-called standard answers to questions in tests; nor does it have to do with multiple choices in exams. A person possessing strong sense of curiosity should be like this: he/she probes into the outstanding works in different disciplines, seeking knowledge from the greatest people in history and transforming it into his own power. As a student of language, acquisition of language skills should never be your ultimate goal. You should develop a global vision, with cultures and human knowledge behind both languages, with the capability of introducing Chinese culture to the world. I hope you will make wonderful progress in the next four years in these fields.
Thirdly, to make good friends. You are from different parts of the country, so each of you is distinct with regional cultures and different personality. I wish you could be inclusive, comprehending diversity and paying respect to each other and learning from your peers. We believe that everyone has something special from which you could learn.
Last of all, I have a question for you and for myself? What can the School of Foreign Languages provide you with? For this question, I would answer in three words: freedom, character forming and maturity. Here in this school can we all come to one understanding in agreement? We will provide you with the freedom of thoughts and the opportunity of character development and by the time you graduate, you are a mature person of independent thinking and nice personality. The four years of university life is not just a time to study but also a time for the development and formation of your philosophy of life. Each of you in one day will suddenly come to a state that you are enlightened and understand yourself in a philosophical way. This day will surely come to you in the four years of the university life. I am looking forward to this special day of your own when you are a mature person of independent thinking and nice personality.
Our school is a big family. I hope you can discover its beauty and warmth and the love for you. Ladies and gentlemen, learn to know yourself more, acquire full knowledge, have a strong mind and body and make friends with your mentors and students of same interests! We will spend the most unforgettable college time here with you and by the time you graduate, you are no more boys and girls, but really ladies and gentlemen.
Thank you！
2017级新生入学开学典礼致辞
陶文好
亲爱的同学们，老师们，女士们，先生们：
晚上好！我谨代表北京师范大学珠海分校外语学院热烈祝贺你们考入我们这个亚洲最美丽的山谷大学！你们的到来给南国美丽的校园增添了许多活力。
珠海夏秋之交，气候最是多变之时，12天之内，这个美丽的海滨之城受到三次台风的袭击，你们经历了瓢泼大雨，看到了惨树断枝，这可能给你们的出行带来许多不便，但是远离家乡的新环境，美丽的珠海分校新家，一定顿时驱除了旅途带来的困顿与疲惫。你们将在这个新家生活四年或两年。
每年的这个季节，我的内心都充满着兴奋与期待，迎来了外语学院新的家庭成员！我想你们也与我一样，对于新事物与新环境的兴奋；对于新生活和新的人生阶段的期待。今天你们的成就是过去几年坚持奋斗，努力花开的结果，祝贺你们！今天又是你们开启新的人生征途的时刻，是新的探索与成长的起点，是构建未来的开始。此时你们是最年轻的外院人。再次欢迎你们选择和加入外语学院！对于学院，你们了解可能不够多，首先我想向同学们介绍一下外语学院。
外语学院始建于2003年6月16日，是本校最大学院之一。外语学院现有职工80人，其中近一半为外籍教师，且1/4具有博士学位，1/5的中方教师在攻读博士，4/5的教师有海外学习或工作的经历。
外语学院办学的宗旨是为广东省和全国培养一流的复合型，有特色的，有国际视野的外语应用型人才。虽然外院年轻，但却有自己的办学特色。特色之一是设置了英法，英葡和英日双语方向。特色之二是在高年级的课程模块上增加了很多实用、实践类课程，以促进应用型外语人才的培养。我们每年为中小学，政府部门，教育培训机构和企业输送大量毕业生。另外，也有相当一部分同学进入国内外名校继续深造。 举例来说，2016届英语专业出国考研率达到26%，这些学校当中不乏名校，如英国伦敦大学，爱丁堡大学，澳大利亚悉尼大学，香港中文大学，北京第二外国语大学等等。
同学们，初入校园的你们可能还沉浸在“金榜题名”的轻松和喜悦当中，但是过去的成就终将逝去，未来的理想正等着你们去实现。而这需要你们坚持不懈的努力和付出。如何使大学四年过得更有意义？作为院长，我有几点建议送给新同学，希望对你们有所帮助。
一是要认识自己。上大学是一段“自我发现”的旅程。在这段旅程中，你们会发现自己的兴趣爱好，自己的潜能，发现自己的长处与短处。大学是个发现自我、塑造自我的过程。学院内外优秀教师和前辈的言传身教，校内外大量启迪智慧的课程，前沿的讲座，丰富多彩的学生活动和实践活动都有助于大家更好更充分地发现自我，塑造自我。
二是保持好奇心和对知识的渴求。乔布斯在斯坦福大学学生毕业典礼上提到：“求知若渴，虚心若愚”，我相信这对很多人有启迪。好奇心不仅仅是指对考试相关的内容好奇，对ABCD的选项好奇，或者对标准答案好奇，而是对广泛的人类知识的好奇与渴求。知识从来不是通过灌输获得，这需要你们主动去涉猎，去批判性阅读与思考，去理解，去应用。我们语言类的学生更不应该满足于语言技能的训练，而需要通过外语学习，了解西方历史与文化；广泛涉猎群书，培养国际视野和深厚人文素养。反过来，也能用外语传播中国优秀的文化，把中国介绍给世界。希望你们通过四年的学习，学业和研究有长足的进步。
三是结交益友。同学们来自不同的省份，难免存在文化和习俗的地域差异。希望你们能互相包容，相互尊重，相互学习。如果你们善于学习身边人群中每个人身上的优点，你也将收获一生的友谊和信任。我们相信，每个人身上都有闪光的东西，都值得我们学习。
最后，我问大家一个问题，也是问自己一个问题：外国语学院能给大家提供什么？
对于这个问题，我还用三个词回答：追求自由、性格塑造和成熟成长。在外国语学院，我们是否能达成一致意见？我们将竭尽全力给大家提供一个追求思想自由的场所、一个人格塑造的机会，到大家毕业时，你们将会成为一个成熟的年轻人，具有独立思想和人格健全的可爱的人。大学四年时光不仅仅是学习的时光，而是你的人生观发展和形成的过程。每位同学会在这个四年时光的某一天，突然感到开窍了，顿悟了！这一天一定会在这四年里到来！我期盼这一天的到来，期盼着属于你自己的特殊的日子，那时你就是一个具有独立思想和人格健全的可爱的人。
外语学院是个温暖大家庭，期待你们能尽快发现外院的最美之处，发现我们对你们的爱，尽快融入外院。珍惜校园时光，更清楚认识自我，收获丰富的知识，锻炼强壮的体魄，在精神上强大起来，结交良师益友，渡过人生中最难忘的大学时光。在你们毕业时，你们就不再是孩子们了，你们已经成长为真正的先生们，女生们！
谢谢大家！
2017.9.6
