In order to help students solve the confusion they encounter in the process of graduate school and give them professional insights and guidance, the lecture Graduate School: Meaning and Methods of the College of Foreign Languages Foreign Languages Plus Guidance Series was held in the lecture hall of Foreign Languages Building in the afternoon of October 30. The lecture was hosted by Qian Minfang, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of the College, and was given by Professors Zhang Yan and Bo Zhenjie, with the participation of teachers from the Office of Academic Affairs and undergraduate students from all years.
Deputy Secretary Qian Minfang firstly introduced the two professors and pointed out that in order to let students understand the current situation of graduate school as early as possible, to get guidance on methods as soon as possible, to evaluate their own situation practically, and to make the road to graduate school more stable, the Office of Academic Affairs invited two professors to give this lecture.
Professor Zhang Yan shared her own stories about her own examinations with students, so that they could discover the meaning and value of examinations in different examples. First of all, she talked about the reason why she chose to go to graduate school - after two or three years of teaching, she found that students were improving while what she gave them was rather old, so in order to do a better job of teaching, Prof. Zhang chose to study for a master's degree while working, and then got her doctorate in 2003. Prof. Zhang pointed out that the driving force for his progress was not being satisfied with the current state of his knowledge, and that the meaning of graduate school was to refresh his knowledge of the world, improve his way of dealing with students, and help make his language research better. Then, Prof. Zhang cited three students' examples of graduate school, and their different choices of career paths after graduation inspired the students in the audience to think deeply about the meaning of graduation.
Professor Bo Zhenjie got to the point, saying that meaning and method is to clarify why do it and how to do it. He told the reason for his passive study: after graduating from undergraduate school and working, he found that he was surrounded by graduate students, which gave him the pressure and motivation to work hard. Professor Bo believes that the competition for talents is getting more and more fierce, and the number of graduate students enrolled in various colleges and universities is increasing, so studying for a graduate degree can increase the competitiveness of employment.
In the final interactive session, the students asked questions enthusiastically. The two professors gave detailed answers to questions about the choice of domestic and foreign institutions, the relationship between employment and graduate school, the development direction of academic masters' career after graduation, and the current situation of the master's program in the College. Deputy Secretary Qian Minfang also shared the information that according to the 2019 Soft Science China Best Discipline Ranking, our university is ranked 46th among foreign language and literature colleges and universities with Tongji University, and tied for 4th among Shanghai universities.
(Reported by the College of Foreign Languages office; Written by Heng Shanshan; Translated by Li Huixian)
