What was the experience of studying at Cambridge and Harvard?

The English gentleman's demeanor is famous all over the world. As soon as you come into contact with them, you will feel that they are polite, very elegant in speech and manners, very aristocratic, and their admiration arises spontaneously. But after a long time of contact, you will find some arrogance and conservatism hidden behind this politeness. They have the same attitude towards everyone, so it is difficult to have in-depth and frank communication. Even after staying in Britain for a long time, it is difficult to integrate into their circle. In Britain, people with different cultural backgrounds prefer to stay in the small circle of their own country, and the integration between cultures is not close. British students gather in bars for drinking and reveling on weekends; Russian students go to the Orthodox Church for worship every weekend; Students in China have dinner and play cards every weekend; French, Americans, Japanese, Koreans ... all have their own small circles. I stayed in England for a long time and hardly made any good foreign friends. It is those students from China who get together every day.

At first, I thought the British and Americans were a group because they both spoke English. It turned out that this was not the case. When I was traveling to Scotland, I met a young American who was traveling to England, and we invited him to eat our cooking together. He was very happy, so he chatted with us. Speaking of Britain, he said, "Our government is ok, but our people are completely different." The British government and the American government always vent their anger on each other in foreign policy, but the British and Americans actually despise each other. The British think that Americans are uneducated and vulgar, and Americans think that the British are arrogant and conservative, cold and rigid.

When I arrived in America, I immediately felt this huge difference. Americans are careless, exaggerated and always full of enthusiasm for people. Because there are not so many rules and etiquette, communication is easier. On Thanksgiving Day, our academic secretary, a retired officer who graduated from West Point Military Academy, invited students from all over the world to his home for dinner, which is almost impossible in Britain. His home is very big. Like a palace, the living room can accommodate 50 people for dinner at the same time. We had a good time. When we delivered a speech at the dinner party, he said: Welcome to America. Please don't think of yourself as a foreigner. There are no foreigners here. My grandfather is German, and I am descended from German. Professor so-and-so is a descendant of the Irish; Professor XXX is Japanese, and our director is a hybrid of grapes and English ... so in fact, we are all the same. Looking back several generations, we are all from abroad. America is a country founded by immigrants. As long as you like it here and are willing to live here, you are an American, or you can come from any other country at the same time.

This sentence makes me feel very moved. This is the tolerance that a big country and people can have. In Britain, it is almost impossible to hear such words-this is a country with conservative religious beliefs and a long history. Even for social parties, everything must follow the ancient tradition. In Cambridge, there are often large-scale dinners attended by students from all over the world, called FormalHall, which should be translated into Chinese as formal dinners. Participants must wear formal clothes. In some relatively open colleges, suits and ties can barely pass, but in some conservative colleges with a long history, such as Trinity College where Newton is located, suits are not accepted. The formal dress is a gown, that is, a black cap and gown-the kind worn in Harry Potter movies. Before dinner, everyone stood up and prayed. The dean of the college said in Latin, "Thank God for giving us food. Amen! " Everyone followed: "Amen! "Then sit down and eat. This meal is always three courses: first, bread and aperitif, then potatoes and steak, and finally dessert, next to each other, eat one for the next. The dining table is arranged in rows, not round tables. You are not allowed to walk around when eating. You can only chat with the people around you. When you meet someone, you can't walk over and strike up a conversation when you see a beautiful woman sitting opposite two places. I thought it was fun at first. I went to different colleges and had a meal. After eating for several times, I feel that this kind of dinner with too many rules is boring, so I am too lazy to go.

On weekends, traditional British people will strictly abide by Christian regulations on Sunday rest. All the banks, supermarkets, markets and so on in Cambridge are closed except the small shops selling tourist goods (because business is good only on weekends), so it is almost impossible to buy some daily necessities on Sunday. The most amazing thing is Christmas. According to my experience in China, there will be many people and interesting programs on such an important festival ... I have an appointment with my classmates in China to go shopping at night. Who knows that when I go out, I don't even have a ghost, it's cold and strange. It turns out that on Christmas Eve, British people are all at home. The only place where people stay is the church. They sat quietly and solemnly, without even coughing, listening to the people above reading the Bible in classical Latin. I have never seen such a serious atmosphere anywhere else. My classmates and I, who didn't know Latin and were afraid to walk around, persisted for two hours, and then we ran away.

In contrast, the streets in America are crowded on weekends and important festivals. Weekend dinners at Harvard are much more casual than those at Foerhall. On the stone table on the lawn in the middle of Kennedy College, there are all kinds of foods, including beef, potatoes, fruits and rice ... I pick them up with disposable tableware, then sit on the stool or grass at will, chat in groups of three and five, and enjoy the weekend sunshine ... If we catch up with grand festivals, such as the annual HeadtoCharles, we will arrange all kinds of delicious food on both sides of the Charles River. In this relaxed atmosphere, people-to-people communication and cultural integration will become much easier.

Another more concrete contrast is that there are many kinds of food in American supermarkets, and it is easy to buy food that suits China people's appetite. If you go to China supermarket, you can not only buy all the food in China, but also cheaper than American supermarkets. There are many Chinese restaurants in America, and the prices are reasonable. On the contrary, China food is rarely available in general supermarkets in Britain, while the prices in special supermarkets in China are very high, while the number of Chinese restaurants is relatively small and the prices are also high. This is still related to the tolerance of American culture: Americans basically eat anything as long as it is delicious and do not refuse Chinese food; British people are conservative, so Chinese food in Britain mainly depends on China people, so there are few places to sell these things, and the average purchase cost will be higher. In a word, in life, the living habits of Americans are closer to those of China: they prefer to enjoy the secular life, eat, drink and be merry, and have less rules. So, if a typical Englishman, a typical American and a typical China are together, if they don't have too many communication barriers in language, in most cases, you will find that Americans will get along better with China people. Because of this, it is much easier for foreign students in China to integrate into American society than into British society.

Harvard University

It seems that I have said a lot of bad things about Britain, but I have described the life of studying in the United States beautifully. In fact, if someone asks me, where would I rather miss studying and living? My answer will be very affirmative: Cambridge, Cambridge, England.

Conservative and rigid, also has its advantages. Culture and history can be fully protected and deposited here. When I arrived in Cambridge, it happened to be the 800th anniversary of the founding of Cambridge, and I was a little dizzy. The streets and buildings hundreds of years ago are very well preserved and have not changed much. Trinity college, king's college, queen's college ... these colleges, which have been established for hundreds of years, retain medieval buildings. They are magnificent and beautiful, too beautiful to be described in words. When I first saw them, I was completely shocked. They are not preserved as cultural relics for people to visit, but have been in use. They are dormitories, classrooms, student canteens, teachers' houses and offices. There are modern water supply and power supply facilities here to teach cutting-edge science, but people's living environment, learning methods and teaching methods are still not much different from those of hundreds of years ago. It's almost intoxicating to think that I will live and study in such a place. Xu Zhimo's Farewell to Cambridge can only be written in such a place.

Because of the deep religious tradition, many rules and social activities are not as lively and attractive as in the United States, it is quieter and more peaceful here. Therefore, this is the most suitable place for a person to study, study and think quietly. Every college, the tallest and tallest building, must be a church to show the smallness of human beings and the greatness of God. Those buildings and traditions that have never changed for hundreds of years remind people that you are just a passer-by in the world. Darwin, Newton, Cromwell, Keynes, Churchill … all these people have been here, seen the same scenery and walked the same streets. No matter how pretentious people come here, they will be awed and know how to be modest. Learning with this mentality will obviously gain more than learning with arrogance.

Most academic lectures held in Cambridge will also pay more attention to some eternal abstract topics, such as religious theology. Even the lectures on political economy that are closer to social life tend to be abstract philosophical thinking or mathematical models. In short, normal people will never understand that. They are so far away from the real society and real life. On the contrary, at Harvard, the lectures are all about popular topics, such as the Middle East war, the rise of China, the situation in North Korea, the US election, the financial crisis ... and they are very lively. Even big-name professors give lectures, they usually take care of the tastes of the audience, try to make them easy to understand, and occasionally insert two jokes to win the applause.

In Britain (in fact, including the whole of Europe), there is a classical academic atmosphere in its universities, which emphasizes that a person has been engaged in abstract theoretical research alone for a long time. The United States, on the other hand, pays more attention to applying what it has learned and cares about the practical application value of knowledge. As many people know, Cambridge University has trained the most Nobel Prize winners in the world. Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) next to Harvard-the status in the United States is roughly equivalent to Peking University and Tsinghua in China-are not as much as Cambridge. When I went to Cambridge, it happened that someone at Trinity College won the Nobel Prize. It's not surprising that people in Cambridge basically win the Nobel Prize every one or two years. They just posted a short news on the school's home page. The title of the winner is doctor, that is, doctor XXX. The title itself can explain the characteristics of Cambridge-conservative and traditional.

Because of the classical university system in Europe, there is only one professorship in a major. As long as the professorship has not retired or died, no one else in this major can become a professor. Therefore, this guy who won the Nobel Prize, despite his remarkable achievements, was given the title of Dr. XXX instead of Professor XXX. Some people think that this conservative approach has led to many outstanding talents being poached by American universities. Because no matter how high your level is in Britain, you may still be a lecturer. If the senior who occupies the position of professor pays attention to exercise and longevity, there may be no hope for you to try your best to replace him in this life. And if you come to America, you can become a professor immediately. Although my tutor in Cambridge is a doctoral tutor, she still holds a doctoral title. Her colleagues in China once wanted to invite her to give lectures at a key university in China, and the materials were reported to the relevant departments of the school, but the application failed: the school stipulates that only professors from internationally renowned universities can be invited, and she is only a lecturer, which does not meet the requirements. If she wants to come, she will have to pay for it at her own expense-according to this regulation, the former Nobel Prize winner will give lectures in China at her own expense.

This system does look a bit out of date. On the other hand, under this system, the professor is only an honorary position (some departments are professors, so they are also administrative positions), which is not the standard of academic evaluation. Research and teaching staff in universities don't have to break their heads every day to figure out how to evaluate professional titles. The evaluation criteria of various professional titles seem very important and reasonable, just like our students' exams, which can urge teachers to study hard. However, really important scientific discoveries may consume a person's life's efforts. If you focus on those assessment indicators every year, it may be difficult for a person to make a long-term plan, and many studies will inevitably be quick and quick. Like the British model, a person can concentrate on a certain field for decades without worrying about the results in three to five years, and may eventually study deeper and make great research results. The disadvantages of this system are also obvious: if a person lacks ambition and just wants to make a living, then he will be content with the status quo, because he lacks hard assessment standards and does nothing. Reflected in the cultivation of students, Britain is also more relaxed than the United States. There are basically no hard and fast indicators for doctoral research in British universities, mainly because students discuss with their tutors, and finally submit doctoral theses and obtain doctoral degrees through defense. In Britain, doctors usually have three years and masters only have one year. Moreover, excellent undergraduates can directly apply for a doctorate without a master's degree. This has led to the situation that some excellent undergraduate students in China directly apply for doctoral studies in the UK. Three years later, his classmates just graduated from China with a master's degree, and he is already a doctor from a famous British school. Save a lot of time-of course, the specific quality is hard to say. It may be high-level or it may not be worthy of the name. In China, the core idea of British education is: the master leads the door, and the practice is in the individual.

On the contrary, the doctoral training system in the United States is very strict. They believe in institutions, not subjective qualities such as personal interests, ambitions and patience. It usually takes five years for a doctor to graduate. In the first two years, you need to systematically study various courses of this major and pass the exam. Then you need to read hundreds of professional books designated by this major and take the doctoral thesis application examination, including both written examination and interview. You can't start writing your doctoral thesis until you pass the exam. Before passing the exam, your identity was "PhDstudent", and after passing the exam, you can be called "PhDCandidate". Many people find it difficult to pass the exam, or the innovation level of doctoral thesis is insufficient. It is common for doctors to study for seven or eight years. In the United States, there are also a large number of people who can't continue their doctoral studies, can't see the prospect of graduation, and give up school to find a job halfway. As for the cultivation of master's degree, the United States generally takes two years, which is also stricter than Britain.

Therefore, the reason why I like Cambridge better than Harvard is very personal: I don't pay much attention to life. Although I don't like discipline, I am not afraid to live a frugal life in Britain. But in my study, I hate too many assessment criteria and like to learn to think alone. Then, I like quiet, wandering alone in the ancient and quiet campus to meditate, enjoying the feeling of escaping from the secular pure learning and thinking about some messy things that are not so closely related to reality and not so utilitarian. There is no better place in the world to do such a thing than Cambridge.