这位女留学生的演讲,杨舒平看了要沉默

时值毕业季,中国留学生的毕业演讲,作为一种荣耀,备受华人关注。前段时间马里兰大学一位女留学生贬低中国、狂捧美国的毕业演讲让留学生们忍不住气愤,不过,今天又一位女留学生的演讲,却分外惊艳。

这位女留学生名叫蔡语婧,2011年毕业于南京外国语学校,被波士顿大学录取,在那里度过了六年的本科和研究生时光,2017 年毕业,取得了数学金融硕士学位。5 月19日,在波士顿大学Questrom 商学院的毕业典礼上,蔡语婧分享了她6 年来与多元文化背景的学生群体互学互鉴的过程。6 月9 日,她的演讲视频通过微博分享,惊艳了网友。

 

在长约7分钟的演讲里,蔡语婧通过讲述自己从自己舒适的小圈子里努力走出,经历了不被理解的尴尬和信念不相容的误解等困难后,最后融入别的文化背景的圈子的经历,从而认识到理解和开放思想的重要性,强调了拥抱文化多样性的意义。

在演讲中,蔡语婧首先向在座所有学生介绍她的家乡—— 南京,世界上最古老的城市之一。随后,她向大家介绍了自己的家人:旅行跨越了半个地球来看他们的宝贝女儿毕业,并用他们不明白的语言演讲。

她在演讲中讲到,在这样一个多元化的群体里,相互理解并不容易,学校的课业和找工作的过程已经让人疲惫不堪,跨出我自己的圈子去和其他人交往看起来是那么的不必要甚至可怕。

而这一天一切改变了。我看到中国的国旗被加拿大,智利,哥伦比亚和刚果民主共和国的国旗很好看地包围着,突然间我惊觉到我并不认识任何这些国籍的人。我意识到,忽略Questrom 这样多元化群体提供给我的多样的经验和观点是多大的浪费!我决心要改变。

她最后讲到,为了应对如此大的不确定性,我们需要储备多样化的技能和知识,而更重要的是,要有一颗开放和包容的思想去学习。

南外学生创办的自媒体平台“南外新鲜事”介绍,蔡语婧毕业于美国波士顿大学Questrom 商学院数学金融研究生项目。她于2015 年至2016 年担任Questrom 商学院研究生学生会的数学金融项目学生代表。在此之前,她以Magna Cum Laude(极优等生)的荣誉毕业于获得波士顿大学Questrom 商学院本科金融学位。在本科的学习中,她参加了波士顿大学在法国巴黎的海外实习交流项目。她在中国,美国和法国的工作和学习经验促使了她对多元文化包容的思考。

对于这个演讲,大部分中国网友认为,这才会是中国留学生该有的风采,跟上次马里兰大学杨舒平的演讲形成鲜明对比,认为同是毕业演讲,差距怎么那么大?不过,也有网友认为,演讲风格是欧式的,而且骨子里还是在夸美国。

 

网友微博评论截图

5月21日,马里兰大学的中国留学生杨舒平在毕业典礼上代表2017届毕业生发表演讲。她主要谈及美国的“新鲜空气”与“言论自由”,演讲过程中将中国作为反面例子进行对比。杨舒平的演讲在中国留学生和华人群体中引发巨大争议;不少人批评她以谎言抹黑中国,助长了外界对中国的偏见。

 

附:蔡语婧演讲全文的中英文对照

Greetings! Friends, family, faculty and staff. Welcome to Boston University on such a beautifulFriday night.

问候!朋友,家人,教职员工。欢迎大家在这样一个美丽的星期五晚上来到波士顿大学。

My name is Yujing Cai, and I am a graduate from the Master of Mathematical Finance program. I come from Nanjing, China, one of the oldest cities in the world. Right now, my family is sitting somewhere over there. They travelled, literally across half of the world to see their baby girl graduate and talk in a language they don’t understand. Therefore, I am tremendously honored to share my perspective of 6 years at the Questrom School of Business.

我的名字是蔡语婧,我硕士毕业于数学金融专业。我来自中国南京,世界上最古老的城市之一。现在,我的家人坐在那里。他们旅行跨越了半个地球来看他们的宝贝女儿毕业,并用他们不明白的语言演讲。因此,我非常荣幸能够在此分享我在Questrom 商学院六年的感悟。

One of the things I always enjoyed doing while waiting for classes was looking at the different country flags in our atrium.Sometimes my friends and I even have silly competitions going on to see who knew more flags, and it often amazed me how many different cultures and nationalities are represented in our community.

在等待上课时,我最喜欢做的事情之一就是看着我们商学院大厅挂着的不同的国旗。有时我还会和朋友们傻傻地比赛,看谁认得出更多的国旗。而我时常惊讶于我们的学生群体里有这么多不同的文化和民族的代表。

In a community, so diverse, mutual understanding doesn’t come easily, so I tried hard to be adaptive from the beginning. Soon, I found myself adjusting to the bigger food portion, and railways in the middle of the road. I even tried fortunes cookies for the first time in my life! Soon, I felt so content with this progress and I gradually built a cozy nest with people of my culture, my age, and who thought and acted exactly like I did. Why bother talking to anyone else? The coursework and job-hunting were already so tiring, and meeting people outside my circle just seemed so scary and unnecessary.

在这样一个多元化的群体里,相互理解并不容易,所以我从一开始就努力地让自己适应。很快,我发现自己适应了这里更大的食量,和马路正中间的铁路。我甚至人生中第一次品尝了幸运饼干!(幸运饼干Fortune Cookie: 美式中餐馆提供的打开后有祝福纸条的饼干)很快,我满足于自己的进步,于是我逐渐建立一个充满了与我的文化背景,年龄相仿的人的舒适的窝。他们的所思所想都与我相似,我又何必再和任何其他人交流?学校的课业和找工作的过程已经让人疲惫不堪,跨出我自己的圈子去和其他人交往看起来是那么的不必要甚至可怕。

Then one day something changed. It was a normal school day, and I was in the atrium looking at the flags as always. I saw that the flag of China was surrounded nicely by the flags of Canada, Chile, Colombia, and DR Congo, and suddenly it struck me that I didn’t know anyone of those nationalities. What a waste it was for me to ignore the diversity of experience and opinions that the Questrom community had to offer! I was determined to change, but it wasn’t easy:

而这一天一切改变了。这是一个正常的上课日,我一如既往地在大厅里看着不同的国旗。我看到中国的国旗被加拿大,智利,哥伦比亚和刚果民主共和国的国旗很好看地包围着,突然间我惊觉到我并不认识任何这些国籍的人。我意识到,忽略Questrom 这样多元化群体提供给我的多样的经验和观点是多大的浪费!我决心要改变,但这并不容易:

I experienced the awkwardness of having to explain a joke that no one understood, the nervousness of asking questions about other cultures that seemed so obvious and silly, and the anger of defending my beliefs only to get suspicion and aloofness in return. Fortunately, these discomforts were soon taken over by things like the amusement of teaching my classmates to pronounce my last name, Cai, using apart of their tongue that they didn’t know existed, the excitement of promoting our Math Finance culture awareness events in the Questrom Graduate Council, the satisfaction of knowing all the secret authentic restaurants around Boston and the astonishment of seeing the world and myself in a way that I could never have imaged before.

我经历了不得不解释一个没有人理解的笑话的尴尬,对于别的文化提出问题但担心问题过于明显和愚蠢的紧张感,以及捍卫我自己的信念却只得到怀疑和厌恶时的愤怒。幸运的是,这些不舒适的感受很快就被别的事情替代了:比如当我教会我的同学们发音我的姓氏“蔡”,他们使用到了自己以前都没注意到的小部分舌头的时候的快乐; 当我向Questrom 研究生学生会宣传我们金融数学项目的文化活动的时候的兴奋,当我知道波士顿周围所有最地道正宗的餐馆的时候的满足,以及当我以自己从未想象过的视角去看这个世界,和自己的时候的惊奇。

During the past 2years of graduate school and 4 years of undergraduate before that, I have been so proud to see that our school grew fromSchool of Management to Questrom School of Business, and that our community is growing stronger and more vibrant each year, and this couldn’t have happened without the effort of everyone here to share, to inspire, and to embrace each other.

在过去两年的研究生院和再之前四年的本科生活中,我很自豪地看到,我们的学院从管理学院成长为Questrom 商学院,而且我们的学生群体每一年都越来越强大,愈发有活力。而这样的进步,如果没有这里的每个人努力地去分享,激励和接纳彼此,是不可能发生的。

Let’s now think about the future. 20 years from now, what kind of challenges are we going to face, as family members, as business owners, as human beings? Nobody knows.To cope with that amount of uncertainty, we will need a diverse set of skills and knowledge, and most important of all, an open mind to learn. That’s why we have been so lucky to be part of the Questrom community that cultivated such freedom of an open mind.

现在我们来思考未来。 20 年后,作为家庭成员,作为企业总裁,作为人类,我们将面临什么样的挑战?没有人知道。为了应对如此大的不确定性,我们需要储备多样化的技能和知识,而更重要的是,要有一颗开放和包容的思想去学习。这就是为什么我们非常幸运地成为Questrom 群体的一部分,因为它培养了开放思想的自由。

So, congratulations, class of 2017! For when you walk outside that door today, you are already equipped with one of the most critical skills to succeed in the future, the ability to embrace diversity. Thank you so much!

所以,恭喜在场的2017 届毕业生!因为当你们今天走出那扇门时,你已经具备了未来成功的关键竞争力之一,即拥抱文化多样性的能力。非常感谢!