Opening Ceremony Speech for Freshmen of 2014
Tao Wenhao
14 September 2014
Be a Person in Need
Good evening, dear boys and girls, ladies and gentlemen, my warmest welcome to the School of Foreign Languages, Beijing Normal University at Zhuhai (BNUZ).
My speech tonight is: Be a Person in Need
On this wonderful occasion, full of joy and expectation, I am as excited as you. I am excited because I owe my thanks to those who have helped to shape you. I am excited because my colleagues and I will accompany you through a new phase of your life, four years, or to some of you, two years in BNUZ. I am excited because our school has stepped up in her second decade and you will witness this wonderful process and together we will compose new poems and prose of the school.
On the same occasions of the past years, I used to introduce the learning style in the university years, our major, our school, our campus and etc. Also I tried to share my thoughts of youth and dreams. I asked them to remember the motto of our university: Of Studies, Be the Master; Of Behavior, Be the Model and to follow the spirit and the motto of our school which are: Love, Knowledge, Morality and Integrity. I truly hope they can stand high and aim far, read widely and think thoroughly, make a lot of good friends, build their character, and cherish their youth. While at this moment, besides these I mentioned before, what I want to wish is: you become a person in need.
What kind of a person is the person in need?
Friends and relatives are in need. The song Little Apple is a hit this year in China. You may disagree with me, but I feel it sings parents’ love for their kids. This love cultivates our courage to learn, to experience and to stand in this crowded world. But, my dear students of all, believe me, one day you will find your parents actually long for your explicit love, they are not as implicit as you think, they need you more than you can imagine. In the four years of university life, the letters from you, the phone calls from you, the joy and progress of yours, and your thoughtfulness and gratefulness are the best rewards for their labor of love. You are the apple of their eye. You are in need.
You are away from your home, and the excitement and joy are fading away, you will find that your new classmates are from all over the country with different dialects and cultural backgrounds which sometimes contribute to conflicts, and find that you have to attend so many courses either compulsory or optional. You will find that either on campus or off campus, you will be overwhelmed by all kinds of students'' activities. You rush around the campus in and out of different buildings. You feel busy and tired. In the evenings or when you are all alone by yourself, you increasingly miss your friends and relatives. You certainly want to be guided and helped by some kind people. You will be happy to find that they are just around you. They are your classmates, your new friends in the university. They will stroll among the flowers of spring with you, they will count the twinkling stars in summer with you, they will walk around the autumn Li Ze Lake with you, they will, on a snowless winter day, soak in a hot spring with you. Human beings are social animals. We need other people and are needed by other people. We should learn to cope with different and diverse people around us because we simply believe that each person has something special from which we can learn. A brave heart is open to accept new people and new environments. A person is certain to be needed and loved by others if he/she is caring, cooperative, compassionate, tolerant, and honest. Wish you a person needed by your classmates and fellow students!
You are a major of English or Japanese, but you will be stressed to find more and more non-English major students with amazing English language competence. Language skills become qualities of most people instead of advantages of certain people. So when you graduate years later, what ensures you to be wanted? A talented person should have certain “transferable skills” not restricted to his/her major, which can be applied to various job environments, such as communication skills, problem-solving skills, the ability to work well in a team, the ability to work independently, information technology ability, data processing ability, thinking ability and etc. These invaluable skills are to be acquired during your college years. As long as you are such a person with these various transferable skills, you are surely to be a hot property in the job market.
On your first day here, you may have felt uneasy and uncertain. At that moment, volunteers came to help. Their devotion and efforts can bring a breeze to you in spite of the scorching heat. And you feel warm and happy deeply in your heart. Who can be volunteers? They are the people who love you by devoting their time with you to help you. The spirits of volunteers are love, devotion, kindness, help and progress. Today a volunteer helps you, tomorrow you return as a volunteer, thus you become a person in need. A person in need is a person in love.
Yu Minhong once said in a speech that his college life gave him many sweet memories as well as growing pains. These complex feelings, frustrations, struggling and progress helped him find his identity and start to do his business and career for himself, his family and the society. I would like to tell you, whether you are a nobody or somebody, if you can find yourself in a way that you are needed by your family, your society, you will certainly feel a sense of belonging, gratification and happiness. Short as several years, the campus life will surely leave you many beautiful memories to last your whole life. And you will always recollect those first thoughts and feelings and touched moments. Some of you will achieve academically and fly from here into a higher and wider world. Some of you may feel blue or feel lost but take pains to find a new self. You may find endless possibilities here and learn to make a choice out of options after you doubt and divide in your mind. You have passion, you have dreams, and you have courage to beat everything. The most enviable thing is you are in the bloom of youth which ensures that you can try again even if you may fail many times. You can find yourself an individual human being, and then you realize there are many other individual human beings around. You are in the wonderful interaction among different people and you find the secret of personal relationship is you need others and you are also needed by others. Being needed is a sort of happiness that is not easily sought. My dear students of all, I sincerely wish you could experience and enjoy this valuable feeling. So here for the life in the university, our task as well as your task is to help you to go through a process of understanding, apprehension and finally to arrive at integrity.
There is a saying “A friend in need is a friend indeed”. Here is a parody as the ending of my speech: “A person in need is a person indeed.”
Thank you!
2014级新生开学典礼讲话
陶文好
2014年9月14日
成为被需要的人
亲爱的同学们，晚上好！欢迎你们考入北师大珠海分校外国语学院！
今晚，我演讲的主题是：成为被需要的人
在这喜悦与期待满满的时刻，我和大家一样激动。这激动因为感激，对成就你们、为你们奉献过的人的感激；这激动因为展望：我和我的同事即将参与你们人生又一重要阶段,这四年北师大珠海分校的大学生活；这激动更因为我们学院迈入了她的花季第二个十年。各位同学你们将和我们一起见证这段美好岁月，为外语学院谱写新的如诗篇章。
往年的这个时刻，我都会向新同学介绍我们的校园、学院、专业，大学学习方式等，或者是分享关于青春与梦想的感受。我会告诉他们，我们的校训是“学为人师、行为世范”，外语学院的院训是“博文博爱、厚德厚道”。我希望他们志存高远、博学多思、广交好友，健全人格、珍惜青春。而今年的这个时刻，我要和大家说的不仅于此，我最想对大家说的是：成为被需要的人。
什么样的人才是被需要的人呢？
亲友被需要。今年《小苹果》歌曲很火，每个人的感受不一样，我从这首歌听出了父母对孩子的爱，正是这种爱给了我们在这个世界上学习、历练、经受的勇气。但是亲爱的同学们，相信我，有一天你会突然发现父母也会需要你所表达出来的爱，他们没有你们想象的那么含蓄，他们会比你想象的更为需要你。你们在大学里给他们写的信、打的电话、你的欢喜与进步、你的体贴和感恩都是给他们辛苦的付出的最好回报。你是父母的小苹果，你是他们所需要的人。
你们离开家乡，来到这里，发现同学室友来自五湖四海，语言文化难免冲突，发现大学课程必修选修数不胜数，发现社团活动校内校外琳琅满目。奔波于课室，餐厅，宿舍加上思念亲友带给你的是忙碌和痛苦，当激动与兴奋消退，你需要的是能给你建议和帮助的好朋友。他们春天陪你漫步在盛开的花从中，夏天夜晚陪你一起看星星眨眼，秋天黄昏与你徜徉在丽泽湖边，冬天没雪飞舞却和你去泡温泉。他们是谁？是同学们自己，就是新同学！人是社会动物，我们需要他人也被他人需要。我们要善于和那些和我们不同背景的人打交道，因为每个人身上都有闪光的东西，都有值得我们学习的东西。我们要勇于敞开自己的心接纳新的人、新的事物。我相信任何时候关心他人、团结他人、有同情心、宽容心、诚实的人都会被人需要。希望你成为一位被同学需要的人。
你学习外语，却发现非外语专业同学的语言能力越来越强，外语只是必备素质而非优势时，你如何成为被就业单位需要的人？好的人才具备一定的“可迁移能力”，它们不局限于所学专业，可以应用于多种环境和工作之中。比如：沟通能力、解决问题能力、团队合作能力、个人独立工作能力、信息技术能力、数据处理能力、思辨能力等，这些是你大学生活能带给你的宝贵财富。只要你是一个具备各种“可迁移能力”的人，你就会成为一位被单位所需要的人。
在报到时，你初来乍到，感受一切陌生新奇，对一切都不太确定时，这时志愿者被需要。志愿者的奉献和帮助让你在炎炎烈日下也如沐春风，心存感谢。志愿者是什么人？是不为任何物质报酬的情况下，带着对新生的爱，愿意奉献自己的时间，愿意来帮助你们。志愿者的精神是爱， 是奉献、友爱、互助和进步。今日你接受志愿者服务，明天你就成了一名志愿者，成了一位被社会所需要的人。一个被社会需要的人是一个具有博爱品行的人。
俞敏洪说，大学给他留下了一连串美好的回忆，也留下了一连串的痛苦。正是在美好和痛苦中，在挫折、挣扎和进步中，最后找到了自我，开始为自己、为家庭、为社会能做一点事情。我想名人也好，凡人也好，能够找到自我，能够被家庭、社会所需要，才会有归属感、满足感、幸福感。大学校园生活虽然只有短短几年，却能给人留下贯穿一生的美好的记忆，留下生命中的许多情怀与感动。你可能学业成功，从这个校园出发，飞向更广阔的世界；你可能难免失落，感受青春彷徨，但却能发现一个全新的自我；你可能在这里发现了无数的可能、在疑惑犹豫之后学会了选择和取舍；你有激情、有梦想、有征服一切的勇气、最令人羡慕的是你有飞扬的、哪怕失败可以重来的青春，你可以发觉一个独立的自我，甚而发现世界上无数独立的自我，你会发现人与人之间奇妙的互动，会发现需要和被需要是缔结关系的奥秘，而被需要是更难做到的幸福的事情。亲爱的同学们，我衷心地希望你能时刻感受和体验到这种难得的幸福！因此大学的时光里，你们的任务也是我们的任务，就是陪伴你们度过这样一个人生周期，学会理解，学会悟道成为一个社会有用之人，成为一个健全人格之人。
英语有个谚语“患难见真情”，我把这句话改了一下，让它作为我今天演讲的结尾：“人到用时方知真”.
谢谢大家！
