美語情景對話 第1121期:Is College Worth It? 應該上大學嗎?

Todd: So Marianne, we're talking about education. And things are changing. Society is changing as it always is. But these days, you can pretty much learn anything on your own. And there is a new debate going around that colleges no longer serve the purpose that it used to. That basically, you can just learn what you want to learn without going to college. What do you think about that?

託德：瑪麗安，我們來談談教育。情況正在發生改變。社會像往常一樣在發生變化。現在，你可以自學。現在有種新的說法，認爲大學不再像以前那樣發揮作用。基本上來說，不上大學你也可以學到你想學到的知識。你怎麼看？

Marianne: Yes, that's a very good question. I really love this possibility of having access to knowledge just by yourself without having to attend a college for example. It's a great chance for everyone to have access to this knowledge. So I can think it's a good thing. But I don't know why. I'm kind of skeptical because I think at some point, you have to have a time where you can exchange with a teacher or at least with other people who have the same knowledge as you. Because if you never, if you don't have this time and space where you can debate about what you learned, then there is no increase of the level of thinking. Like because you need to debate about things to learn more or maybe to correct things. It's like the Wikipedia, right. Like it's a contributive dictionary or – encyclopedia. But everybody is writing in this page. And sometimes you see some updates but you don't know why, for example, someone made the change because you don't have the space where you can debate about is this wrong or correct about like the information that was uploaded was wrong or correct. And if you just see the correction but you couldn't debate about this, then you cannot understand. So I think for me, having a time and a space where you can debate is very important. And this is a place and the time that college can offer, for example, debate between teachers or debate between students about some topics.

瑪麗安：對，這是個很好的問題，我非常喜歡這種可能性，不用上大學也可以接觸到知識。對所有人來說，這是能接觸到知識的大好機會。所以我認爲這是件好事，不過我說不清楚原因。其實我有點懷疑，因爲我認爲你需要同老師或者同和你擁有同樣知識的人交流。如果不進行交流，不對所學的知識進行討論，那你的思想水平就不會提高。你要進行討論，才能學習更多知識，還有糾正你的錯誤。以維基百科爲例。維基百科是有幫助的詞典或者說是百科全書。所有人都可以進行編輯。但是有時你看到那些更新的信息，卻不知道原因，比如，有人進行了更改，可是因爲你沒有討論空間，不能就這個信息是否正確進行討論，不能糾正這個信息。如果你看到修正信息，可是你不能進行討論，那你就不會明白。我認爲，有時間和空間進行討論非常重要。而這正是大學可以提供的，比如老師之間或是學生之間針對某個課題進行討論。

Todd: Wow! Those are really good points. Yeah, I agree. You know, I've taught at university for a while. And I do see some of the points of being a self-learner and just basically getting what you want – getting the information you want online. But the problem is, when you go to university, you have that void or the vacuum really. And so, you're going to fill that with all these different types of information. And you might see things that you aren't – that you didn't even know that you liked. And also, there's that social element that's really strong in college. I don't think you're going to find that anywhere else where you, you know, make friends, you make relationships that last your whole life. So I'm still a big believer of college but I can see that maybe we need to change the model to make them little bit better.

託德：哇哦！你提出的觀點太棒了。我同意你的看法。我在大學任教過一段時間。我的確看到過一些自學者從網上獲取他們需要的信息。但是，大學有那種真空時間。你可以通過查閱各種信息來填補這個時間。你可以瞭解你甚至都不知道自己是否喜歡的信息。另外，大學有濃厚的社交氛圍。我認爲，除了大學，你在其他任何地方都不會交到可以持續一生的朋友。所以，我依然是大學的堅定擁護者，不過我認爲我們要改變模式使大學變得更好。

Marianne: Uh-hmm.

瑪麗安：嗯。

Todd: Which brings us to another question: how do you think we can change college to make better? Like what are some changes we can make to college?

託德：這就引出了另一個問題：你認爲我們怎麼能把大學變得更好？我們應該怎樣改變大學？

Marianne: Wow.

瑪麗安：哇哦。

Todd: Like I have one idea. One idea I have is that we're starting to see it a little bit with MOOCs but there's no reason that you can't take a class at any other university via video from your university. So example, if you go to UCLA, you can take art classes from Harvard or somewhere else. I think that would be really good if you can start doing that. So you're not only limited to the professors on your campus.

託德：我有個想法。可以先從網絡公開課開始，沒有理由在大學不能通過視頻來上課。舉個例子，假設你在加州大學洛杉磯分校上學，你可以聽哈佛大學或是其他大學的藝術課程。我認爲這樣開始很不錯。這樣就不會只能聽到自己大學的教授講課。

Marianne: Wow. Yes, that's a great idea. Yes.

瑪麗安：哇哦。這個想法很不錯。

Todd: Anything that you, looking back, you wish you could have done differently at university?

託德：回想一下，有沒有什麼事是你希望在大學時能做得更好的？

Marianne: Well the big issue about university especially in the US is that it costs a lot of money. And so, if we could find ways to – because for example, you are talking about having access to a lot of content information for free actually – I mean, for free. Like you just have to pay your Internet connection and suddenly, you have access to a lot of knowledge. But when you go to college, it costs a lot of money. So this is a big issue actually. So if you could find a way to, financially speaking, like if we can find a way to make university more accessible to a wider audience, it could be nice. But I know it's difficult because we have to pay teachers. We have to pay all the infrastructures about university, so it costs a lot of money. So I don't have the solution right now but I think working on this like free education or cheaper education – I mean, cheaper in a way talking about the entrance fee, not losing the quality of education. Yeah. If we can work on this point.

瑪麗安：大學，尤其是美國大學最大的問題就是學費太貴。希望我們能找到免費獲取大量信息的方法。只需要連網就能獲取大量知識。可是上大學要花很多錢。所以這是一個重大的問題。從經濟角度來講，如果能找到使更多人可以負擔得起大學的方法，那就太好了。我知道這很難，因爲我們還要付老師工資。我們要支付大學所有基礎設施的費用，所以會耗費很多錢。我現在也沒有解決方法，不過我想致力於義務教育或者更低廉的教育費用，比如減少學費，但是不損失教育質量。希望我們能致力於這方面。

Todd: Yeah. I totally agree.

託德：對，我完全同意你的觀點。

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重點講解：
1. on one's own 獨立地；依靠自己地；
例句：I work best on my own.
我獨立工作的時候效果最好。
2. look back 追憶；回顧；
例句：I will look back at this one with undiluted pleasure.
回顧此事，我會無比地開心。
3. for free 義務地；無償地；免費地；
例句：Infirmary supplies the normal service for free.
醫務室免費爲員工提供一般服務。
4. right now 現在；此時此刻；
例句：Right now I'm feeling very excited.
現在，我覺得非常激動。