中国留美本科生众生相
来源：纽约时报中文网&&
新学年刚开始的时候，特拉华大学学生中心的一个大厅里涌进了几十位新同学。其中许多人打扮时髦，穿着打磨发旧的牛仔裤和色彩鲜艳的旅游鞋；一半人在默默玩着手机，其他人在热烈地交谈。但是，对于一个普通话不熟练的旁观者来说，想要偷听他们的谈话会很困难。因为，除了一个神情迷惘的哥伦比亚人之外，其它学生都来自中国。
DOZENS of new students crowded into a lobby of the University of Delaware’s student center at the start of the school year. Many were stylishly attired in distressed jeans and bright- half tapped away silently on smartphones while the rest engaged in boisterous conversations. Eavesdropping on those conversations, however, would have been difficult for an observer not fluent in Mandarin. That’s because, with the exception of one lost-looking soul from Colombia, all the students were from China.
范逸苏（Yisu Fan，音译）就是其中之一，在6个小时之前刚从上海飞来。他兴奋地整夜睡不着觉，一直在等着参加英语语言学院的新生指导会。和特拉华大学的几乎所有中国学生一样，范逸苏是被有条件录取的——就是说，他得顺利念完一个英语项目，才可以开始修读大学课程。他打算念金融专业，毕业后回国，到他父亲的建筑公司工作。他戴着新潮的黑框眼镜，脖子上挂着印有一条中国龙的军牌（俗称“狗牌”）项链。他说，自己选择到离家7000英里的地方上大学，是因为“美国人的教育很棒”。
Among them was Yisu Fan, whose flight from Shanghai had arrived six hours earlier. Too excited to sleep, he had stayed up all night waiting for orientation at the English Language Institute to begin. Like nearly all the Chinese students at Delaware, Mr. Fan was conditionally admitted — that is, he can begin taking university classes once he successfully completes an English program. He plans to major in finance and, after graduation, to return home and work for his father’s construction company. He was wearing hip, dark-framed glasses and a dog tag around his neck with a Chinese dragon on it. He chose to attend college more than 7,000 miles from home, Mr. Fan said, because “the Americans, their education is very good.”
在中国，这个观点很普遍，这是赴美留学的中国本科生数量在仅仅3年中翻了3倍的原因之一。他们的人数已经达到4万，是美国最大的留学生群体。虽然南韩和印度等国家多年来也向美国输送了大量本科生，但中国申请人数突然出现惊人的增长，已经在那些尤其欢迎国际学生的高校中激起波澜。这些大学中很多是设有特别英语项目的大型公立学校。比如，特拉华大学的中国学生人数就从2007年的8人猛增到了2011年的517人。
That opinion is widely shared in China, which is part of the reason the number of Chinese undergraduates in the United States has tripled in just three years, to 40,000, making them the largest group of foreign students at American colleges. While other countries, like South Korea and India, have for many years sent high numbers of undergraduates to the United States, it’s the sudden and startling uptick in applicants from China that has caused a stir at universities — many of them big, public institutions with special English-language programs — that are particularly welcoming toward international students. Universities like Delaware, where the number of Chinese students has leapt to 517 this year, from 8 in 2007.
这些学生绝大多数来自中国迅速壮大的中产阶级，有能力支付全额学费，对于近年来面临预算削减的高校来说，这真是从天而降的礼物。不过，虽然乍看之下这对高校和学生都有好处，仔细观察起来，却是对双方都复杂和棘手的事。
The students are mostly from China’s rapidly expanding middle class and can afford to pay full tuition, a godsend for universities that have faced sharp budget cuts in recent years. But what seems at first glance a boon for colleges and students alike is, on closer inspection, a tricky fit for both.
高校们渴望增加学生群体的多样化并提高国际吸引力，因此急急忙忙地涌入中国招生。中国的高考竞争非常激烈，而留学中介行业更是火上浇油，积极为美国校园招徕生源。高校官员和招生顾问们说，他们发现申请材料广泛造假，有的是中介帮着写个人陈述，有的是英语考试分数和学生的口语能力不相匹配。刚刚进入中国市场的美国高校正在费劲地鉴别哪些是优秀的申请人，哪些则好得不真实。
Colleges, eager to bolster their diversity and expand their international appeal, have rushed to recruit in China, where fierce competition for seats at Chinese universities and an aggressive admissions-agent industry feed a frenzy to land spots on American campuses. College officials and consultants say they are seeing widespread fabrication on applications, whether that means a personal essay written by an agent or an English proficiency score that doesn’t jibe with a student’s speaking ability. American colleges, new to the Chinese market, struggle to distinguish between good applicants and those who are too good to be true.
而一旦入学之后，那些英语水平有限的学生要跟上课堂讨论就非常吃力。尽管他们当中成绩出众、学习费劲或者通不过考试的人的比例和美国同学差不多，但有些教授说，他们不得不改变了教学方法。
Once in the classroom, students with limited English labor to keep up with discussions. And though they’re excelling, struggling and failing at the same rate as their American counterparts, some professors say they have had to alter how they teach.
面对这些挑战，高校调整得很迟缓，但已经开始尝试新的策略，以便让学生更好地适应新环境，同时处理好申请方面的问题。北大附中校长助理兼国际部主任江学勤说，这是美国高校的责任。“美国的大学不高兴吗？因为中国学生和家长并没有不高兴。”
Colleges have been slow to adjust to the challenges they’ve encountered, but are beginning to try new strategies, both to better acclimate students and to deal with the application problems. The onus is on them, says Jiang Xueqin, deputy principal of Peking University High School, one of Beijing’s top schools, and director of its international division. “Are American universities unhappy? Because Chinese students and parents aren’t.”
他说：“除非美国大学向学生和家长表明必须改变，否则还是会一切照旧。”
“Nothing will change,” Mr. Jiang says, “unless American colleges make it clear to students and parents that it has to.”
唐文婷（Wenting Tang，音译）很爱笑，她听RedJumpsuit Apparatus和OK Go这类劲爆乐团的歌曲，并在她的Facebook主页上说自己“真的真的很有趣、真的真的很认真”。她是管理和国际商务专业的三年级学生，说起英语来自信十足，虽然还不是完美无瑕。但事情并非一贯如此。按她自己的评价，当初申请特拉华大学的时候，她的英语非常糟糕。
WENTING TANG is quick to laugh, listens to high-energy bands like Red Jumpsuit Apparatus and OK Go, and describes herself on her Facebook page as “really really fun” and “really really serious.” Ms. Tang, a junior majoring in management and international business, speaks confident, if not flawless, English. That wasn’t always the case. When she applied to the University of Delaware, her English was, in her estimation, very poor.
唐文婷在上海读了高中，当初并没有特意要选特拉华大学。这所公立大学有大约2万1000名学生就读，录取率大约是50%，杰出毕业生中有美国副总统拜登。唐文婷的母亲想让她到美国念大学，于是她们跑了十来家中介公司，耐心听取了他们的承诺和成功案例。
Ms. Tang, who went to high school in Shanghai, didn’t exactly choose to attend Delaware, a public institution of about 21,000 students that admits about half its applicants — and counts Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. among prominent graduates. Ms. Tang’s mother wanted her to attend college in the United States, and so they visited the offices of a dozen or more agents, patiently listening to their promises and stories of success.
她的母亲选定了一家推荐特拉华大学的中介，他们帮她填写了申请材料，指导她完成申请程序，不然她会是一头雾水。由于她的英语还没好到能写申请论文，中介公司收取了4000美元费用后，用中文问了一些关于她本人的问题，替她写了一篇论文。（他们还另外收取了3300美元准备考试的费用。）
Her mother chose an agency that suggested Delaware and helped Ms. Tang fill out her application, guiding her through a process that otherwise would have been bewildering. Because her English wasn’t good enough to write the admissions essay, staff members at the agency, which charged her $4,000, asked her questions about herself in Chinese and produced an essay. (Test prep was another $3,300.)
如今她能够自己用英文写作了，她觉得当初中介写得并不怎么样。但那已经达到了目的：她被录取了，花了6个月时间参加英语语言项目，然后开始学习大一的课程。尽管一路磕磕碰碰，但她现在成绩不错，也享受大学生活。她用很实用主义的说辞来解释为什么要让中介替她写申请论文：“那时候，我的英语没现在这么好。”
Now that she can write in English herself, she doesn’t think much of what the employees wrote. But it served its purpose: she was admitted, and spent six months in the English-language program before beginning freshman classes. And despite bumps along the way, she’s getting good grades and enjoying college life. As for allowing an agent to write her essay, she sees that decision in pragmatic terms: “At that time, my English not better as now.”
爱荷华州立大学的研究人员在《大学录取期刊》（Journal of College Admission）上发表的研究称，绝大多数在美国大学念本科的中国学生都求助于中介来指导他们完成申请程序。
Most Chinese students who are enrolled at American colleges turn to intermediaries to shepherd them through the admissions process, according to a study by researchers at Iowa State University published in the Journal of College Admission.
教育行业中介一直在对外输送中国留学生方面扮演着重要角色，这可以追溯到几十年前，那时候中国还禁止自由兑换美元，只有中介能确保提供美金支付学费。申请专家们说他们可以提供重要的服务，为看似完全陌生的申请程序担任指导。申请材料通常都是全英文的，而中国学生常常会因为美国学校强调课外活动而一筹莫展，并且可能从来没有写过个人自述文章。在中国，向辅导员要推荐信也行不通，因为很少有高中会有这样的人员。不少人还以为《美国新闻与世界报道》（U.S. News & World Report）的排名是正式的政府出版物。
Education agents have long played a role in sending Chinese students abroad, dating back decades to a time when American dollars were forbidden in China and only agents could secure the currency to pay tuition. Admission experts say they can provide an important service, acting as guides to an application process that can seem totally, well, foreign. Application materials are frequently printed only in English. Chinese students often are baffled by the emphasis on extracurriculars and may have never written a personal essay. Requiring recommendations from guidance counselors makes little sense in a country where few high schools have one on staff. Many assume the U.S. News & World Report rankings issue is an official government publication.
虽然肯定有光明磊落的中介和申请人，但很多留学中介都参与了弄虚作假的行为。北京一所高中的一位行政人员说，中介假造了他们高中的信纸抬头来制作篡改过的成绩单并伪造推荐信，直到一名家长打电话来投诉说中介对学校出具的文件都要收费的时候，她才发现这回事。堪萨斯州立大学国际录取和招生主任詹姆斯•刘易斯（James E. Lewis）说，他曾经收到过一批显然是同一家中介提交的申请材料，因为申请费都是从同一家银行支行扣除的，而这些学生却来自几个相距甚远的城市。他还说，5份成绩单中，有3份的分数都是一模一样的。
But while there are certainly aboveboard agents and applications, other recruiters engage in fraudulent behavior. An administrator at one high school in Beijing says agents falsified her school’s letterhead to produce doctored transcripts and counterfeit letters of recommendation, which she discovered when a parent called to complain about being charged a fee by an agent for documents from the school. James E. Lewis, director of international admissions and recruiting at Kansas State University, says he once got a clutch of applications clearly submitted by a single agent, with all fees charged to the same bank branch, although the students came from several far-flung cities. The grades on three of the five transcripts, he says, were identical.
为美国高校提供中国事务咨询的公司Zinch China在2010年发布了一份报告，根据对250名准备赴美留学的北京高中生、他们的家长以及12位留学中介和升学顾问的采访写成。该公司得出结论认为，90%的中国申请人提交了假推荐信，70%让别人代写个人陈述，50%伪造了高中成绩单，还有10%列举了他们没有获得过的学业奖项和其他成就。报告预计，随着更多学生前往美国，“申请造假的浪潮”可能只会恶化。
Zinch China, a consulting company that advises American colleges and universities about China, last year published a report based on interviews with 250 Beijing high school students bound for the United States, their parents, and a dozen agents and admissions consultants. The company concluded that 90 percent of Chinese applicants submit false recommendations, 70 percent have other people write their personal essays, 50 percent have forged high school transcripts and 10 percent list academic awards and other achievements they did not receive. The “tide of application fraud,” the report predicted, will likely only worsen as more students go to America.
Zinch China公司主席、该报告的作者汤姆•麦彻（TomMelcher）说，诋毁那些提供这类服务的中介又显得把事情简单化了。他表示，中介是在满足学生和家长的需求。
Tom Melcher, Zinch China’s chairman and the report’s author, says it’s simplistic to vilify agents who provide these services. They’re responding, he says, to the demands of students and parents.
由于中国的一胎化政策，如今的大学生属于独生子女这一代，他们刚刚富裕起来的父母——十有八九还有祖父母辈——为了他们能取得成功不惜花费。在中国一家大型的大学申请咨询公司澳际教育集团，最受欢迎的服务之一就是“保证录取”套餐：申请五所大学，如果学生没有被任何一所录取的话，能得到全额退款。在该公司位于北京的美国录取部工作的凯瑟琳•奥海赫（Kathryn O’Hehir）说：“如果一个学生没被录取，家长就会在前厅里大吵大闹。他们不想要回钱。他们就是想让孩子进一所常春藤学校。”
Thanks to China’s one-child policy, today’s college students are part of a generation of singletons, and their newly affluent parents — and, in all likelihood, both sets of grandparents — are deeply invested in their success. At Aoji Education Group, a large college counseling company based in China, one of the most popular services is the guaranteed-placement package: apply to five colleges and get your money back if you’re not accepted at any of your choices. “If a student isn’t placed, we’ve got screaming, yelling parents in the lobby,” says Kathryn O’Hehir, who works in the company’s American admissions department in Beijing. “They don’t want their money back. They want their kid in an Ivy League school.”
在中国以考试为中心的文化里，学生把高中的大部分时间都用来备战高考。他们能否入读已经人满为患的大学，高考成绩是唯一决定因素。因此，对于那些想要去美国留学的人来说，花费几个月时间临时抱佛脚准备SAT大学入学考试和托福（TOEFL）并不罕见，因为大多数学校都要求这两项成绩。
Students in China’s test-centric culture spend most of their high school years studying for the gao kao, the college entrance exam that is the sole determining factor in whether students win a coveted spot at one of China’s oversubscribed universities. So it’s not unusual for those who want to study in the United States to spend months cramming for the SAT and the Test of English as a Foreign Language, or Toefl, which most campuses require for admission.
爱荷华州立大学有超过1200名中国本科生就读。该校的录取主任助理帕特丽夏•帕克（PatriciaJ. Parker）说，学生们会得意地告诉她自己记住了成千上万个单词、正在研究词汇问题的答题套路、学习猜测正确答案的捷径。
Patricia J. Parker, assistant director of admissions at Iowa State, which enrolls more than 1,200 Chinese undergraduates, says students have proudly told her about memorizing thousands of vocabulary words, studying scripted responses to verbal questions and learning shortcuts that help them guess correct answers.
她曾看到一些有条件录取的学生会在暑假之后，在满分为120分的托福考试中把成绩提高了30到40分，而他们的英语口语能力却并没有明显提高。她说，学生们并不觉得这种强化备考有什么问题。“他们觉得目标就是通过考试。他们不是为了学习英语，而是为了考试在学习。”
She has seen conditionally admitted students increase their Toefl scores by 30 or 40 points, out of a possible 120, after a summer break, despite no significant improvement in their ability to speak English. Her students, she says, don’t see this intense test-prepping as problematic: “They think the goal is to pass the test. They’re studying for the test, not studying English.”
帕克估计，在录取季节，她每隔一天就要和主办托福考试的非营利机构——美国教育考试服务中心（ETS）联系，对可疑的分数进行调查。她和很多教育者一样，希望看到事情有所改变，让学生更难用投机取巧的方式通过考试。
Ms. Parker estimates she contacts the Educational Testing Services, the nonprofit group that is in charge of the Toefl, every other day during the admissions season to investigate suspicious scores. Like many educators, she would like to see changes to make it harder to beat the exam.
2011年秋季，几名中国学生来到堪萨斯州立大学念书，但他们的长相却和几个月前参加托福考试时采集的照片不符。美国教育考试服务中心称其采取了额外的预防措施，比如采集笔迹样本，来减少学生在考试休息过程中让“枪手”溜进来代考的几率。如果欺骗行为被发现的话，该中心的政策是取消成绩，但ETS不愿意透露这种情况发生的频率和地点。堪萨斯州立大学也不愿对处分措施发表评论，不过该校已经任命了一个委员会来起草一份针对托福作弊情况的政策。该校国际招生主任刘易斯说：“（我们）身在美国，很难去判断（那里）什么是假的。”
At Kansas State this fall, several Chinese students showed up for classes but did not match the security photos that were snapped when they supposedly took the Toefl months earlier. E.T.S. says it takes additional precautions, such as collecting handwriting samples to reduce the chance that students will hire someone to slip in, in their stead, after breaks. If cheating is found, E.T.S. policy is to cancel a score, but the organization won’t say how often that happens, and where. Kansas State, too, won’t comment on disciplinary measures, but it has named a committee to draft a policy on dealing with fraud on the Toefl. Says Mr. Lewis, the international admissions director, “It’s very hard, sitting here at a desk in the U.S., to judge what’s fraudulent.”
在特拉华大学纽瓦克校区，2011年秋季的新生入学指导会上，该校英语语言学院主任斯考特•史蒂文斯（ScottStevens）站在了济济一堂的剧院的舞台上。他身后的大屏幕上显示着一张照片：两名白人大学生坐在课桌边，男学生探过身子去偷看女学生的试卷。史蒂文斯对主要由中国学生组成的听众恩威并施地说：“我们都是很有独创性的，那就意味着我们永远不会作弊。你们都很聪明。就用那种聪明去写你自己的试卷吧。”
DURING this past September’s orientation on the University of Delaware’s Newark campus, Scott Stevens, director of the English Language Institute, stood on stage in front of a mostly filled theater. Behind him, on a large screen, was a stock photo of two white college students seated at desks. The male student was leaning over to look at the female student’s paper. “We are original, so that means we never cheat!” Dr. Stevens told the audience of primarily Chinese students, mixing compliments and warnings. “You are all very intelligent. Use that intelligence to write your own papers.”
史蒂文斯从1982年起就一直在语言学院工作。在过去几年中，新生英语补习项目不断壮大，该研究所的主楼已经容纳不下，扩展到了校园主道上国际饼屋后面的教室里。看着史蒂文斯一天的上课安排，显然他分身乏术。还有一点也很明显：他为自己备受尊重的学院感到自豪，并且很关心学生。他把自己的手机号码发给学生，告诉他们，如果需要的话，随时可以给他打电话，即使是在半夜里。
Dr. Stevens has worked at the language institute since 1982. As the program has swelled in the last few years, the institute has outgrown its main building and expanded to classroom space behind the International House of Pancakes on the campus’s main drag. Watching Dr. Stevens over the course of a day, it’s clear that he is a man with more tasks than time. It’s also clear that he’s proud of his well-regarded institute and that he cares about students. He gives out his cellphone number and tells them to call any time, even in the middle of the night, if they need him.
但在谈到中国学生从几个增加到几百个给特拉华带来的挑战时，他也直言不讳。最严重的问题是剽窃。史蒂文斯还记得，有个学生背下了4个维基百科词条，以便在一次课堂论文写作时选用最合适的一个，这真是一个让人难以忘怀的“壮举”，只是力气没用在正道上。对于来自视个人主义为异端的国度的学生来说，要接受美式的知识产权观念并不容易。（史蒂文斯说，在该语言课程里，并没有发生正式纪律处分大幅增加的情况，因为教师们倾向于在课堂里解决剽窃问题。）
But he is candid about the challenges Delaware is facing as the population of Chinese students has grown from a handful to hundreds. Confronting plagiarism is near the top of the list. Dr. Stevens remembers how one student memorized four Wikipedia entries so he could regurgitate whichever one seemed most appropriate on an in-class essay — an impressive, if misguided, feat. American concepts of intellectual property don’t translate readily to students from a country where individualism is anathema. (In the language program, Dr. Stevens says there has been no surge in formal disciplinary actions, as instructors prefer to handle questions of plagiarism in the classroom.)
对于著作权的理解根植于文化之中，对于权威的认识也是如此。史蒂文斯说：“这不单纯是语言和文化的问题，还有政治因素。我们都知道中国人在宣传中长大，而美国的形象并没有被描绘得很正面。如果你生命的头18年都在那样的环境下成长，当归结到他们要信任谁的时候——他们会互相信任。他们并不特别信任我们。”
Just as an understanding of authorship is bound up in culture, so are notions of authority. “It’s not simply the language and culture but the political element as well,” he says. “We’re well aware that the Chinese are raised on propaganda, and the U.S. is not portrayed very positively. If you’ve been raised on that for the first 18 years of your life, when it comes down to who they trust — they trust each other. They don’t particularly trust us.”
史蒂文斯说，很多来自中国的大一学生并不和校方随机选择的美国学生住在一起，他们会缴纳学校要求的住宿费，却在校外合租公寓，这是违反校方规定的。他们极少参加语言学院的志愿者活动。在2011年夏季的一次聚会上，有来自40个国家的将近400名学生参加了活动，其中只有10个来自中国。史蒂文斯还说，中国学生还经常转班以便和自己的同胞在一起，而不是留在他们的指导老师所指定的班级里。
Instead of living with a randomly selected American, Dr. Stevens says, some freshmen will pay their required housing fees but rent apartments together off campus, a violation of university rules. And they rarely attend voluntary functions at the institute. At a gathering this summer, of the nearly 400 students from 40 countries, about 10 were from China. Also, according to Dr. Stevens, students regularly switch classes to be with their countrymen, rather than stay in the ones they’ve been assigned by their advisers.
该校商学院本科生指导办公室的项目协调人詹妮弗•格里根-帕克斯顿（Jennifer Gregan-Paxton）就是指导老师之一。她说自己对中国学生的职业道德和礼貌印象深刻。他们会经常给她和其他教授带小礼物以表示感谢；最近，在一天之内，她就收到了一把折扇、一条项链和一块丝巾。对于他们想要待在一起，她并不感到意外。她说：“即使有一些中国学生想要冲破小团体，他们也不一定能得到美国人最友好的对待。”
One of those advisers is Jennifer Gregan-Paxton. Dr. Gregan-Paxton, program coordinator of the business school’s office of undergraduate advising, says she is impressed by the work ethic and politeness of her students from China. They regularly bring her and other professors small gifts to sho on a single day recently, she received a folding fan, a necklace and a silk scarf. She’s not surprised that they would want to stick together. “Even if there were Chinese students who wanted to break out of their pack,” she says, “they wouldn’t necessarily get the warmest reception.”
例如，市场营销专业的唐文婷回忆说，在一次课上，教授无视她的提问，只倾听美国学生的发言。还有一次，在社会学课参加一个小组项目时，她说自己也受到了冷遇：“他们假装是欢迎你的，但实际上他们并不。”这些遭遇让她印象深刻。“我一辈子都会记着的。”
For example, Ms. Tang, the marketing major, recalls one class in which, she says, the professor ignored her questions and only listened to American students. Also, while working on a group project in a sociology class, she says she was given the cold shoulder: “They pretend to welcome you but they do not.” The encounters left a deep impression. “I will remember that all of my life,” she says.
2011年秋季，肯特•皮埃尔（Kent E. St. Pierre）给35名学生讲授一门中级会计课，其中有17名学生来自中国。几周之内，那些非中国学生中，除了3人之外，其余的全部退选了这门课程。为什么美国学生都跑了呢？皮埃尔回忆道：“他们说课堂上太安静了。”他自视为1960年代成长起来的自由派，完全赞成校园里的多元化。但是，他也认同说：“确实是一滩死水一样。”
Last fall, Kent E. St. Pierre was teaching an intermediate accounting class with 35 students, 17 of them from China. Within a couple of weeks, all but three of the non-Chinese students had dropped the course. Why did the American students flee? “They said the class was very quiet,” recalls Dr. St. Pierre, who considers himself a 1960s-style liberal and says he’s all for on-campus diversity. But, he agrees, “It was pretty deadly.”
在亚洲各地的许多学校中，热烈的课堂讨论只是例外情况。无疑，正如皮埃尔所指出的，如果你把美国学生放到中国课堂上，他们简直就是话痨了。
In many schools across Asia, vigorous give-and-take is the exception. No doubt, as Dr. St. Pierre points out, if you were to place Americans into a Chinese classroom they would seem like chatterboxes.
尽管中国学生要适应陌生的学习方式，但他们在特拉华大学的平均成绩却和其他本科生并无二致。这在某种程度上也可能反映了中国在定量技能方面的有力训练，使中国学生在商科和工程学等强调数学的科目中占有优势。这两个专业最受中国学生欢迎，而且是否精通英语对这些专业而言不那么关键。实际上，有些中国本科生非常优秀，足以进入美国最顶尖的大学。哈佛大学在2010-11学年就有大约40名中国本科生。
Despite the unfamiliar learning style, the average grades of Chinese students at Delaware are nearly identical to other undergraduates’. That may, in part, reflect China’s strong preparation in quantitative skills, which holds them in good stead in math-intensive programs like business and engineering, two of the most popular majors for Chinese students and ones in which mastery of English is less crucial. Indeed, some of China’s undergraduates are strong enough to land spots at the nation’s most se Harvard had about 40 in the 2010-11 academic year.
不过，一些教授表示，他们对教学方式进行了重大改变，以适应中国学生带来的问题。如今，皮埃尔会在进行小测验时要求每个人都把课本留在教室前面，以防止作弊，这种预防措施是他之前在特拉华大学任教20年从来没有采取过的。并且，课堂参与程度在评分时所占的比重也下降了，以免给外国学生的成绩拖后腿。过去，他要求课堂成员在学期当中做2至3次演示报告，如今可能只要求他们做一次。他说：“已经有美国学生来说，他们听不懂外国学生在报告里讲了什么，那很折磨人。”
But some professors say they have significantly changed their teaching practices to accommodate the students. During quizzes, Dr. St. Pierre now requires everyone to leave their books at the front of the classroom to prevent cheating, a precaution not taken during any of his two decades at Delaware. And participation counts less, so as not to sink the grades of foreign students. In the past, he required members of the class to give two or three presentations during the semester. Now he might ask them to give one. “I’ve had American students saying they don’t understand what’s being said in the presentations,” he says. “It’s painful.”
金融和经济学教授罗伯特•史怀哲（Robert Schweitzer）的苦恼在于他得用非常基础的词汇。他说：“有学生说：‘我不知道‘ascending’（上升的）的意思。’他们答错题，是因为不了解授课内容呢还是不懂语言？”
Robert Schweitzer, a professor of finance and economics, frets about using fairly basic vocabulary words. “I have students say, ‘I don’t know what ‘ascending’ means,’ ” Dr. Schweitzer says. “Did they get the question wrong because they don’t know the material or because they don’t know the language?”
如果说教授们在为理解学生而挣扎，那么，反之亦然。
If professors struggle to understand the students, the reverse is also true.
达蒙•马（Damon Ma）在语言中心所谓的“桥项目”上学，这意味着他的英语已经好到可以选修常规课程，虽然他还没有念完这个语言项目。他非常喜欢在美国念书，这是他自孩提时代起就有的梦想，并且他也清楚中美两国之间在学术方面的差异。
Damon Ma is in the language center’s so-called bridge program, which means his English was good enough that he could start taking regular classes even though he hasn’t finished with the language program. Mr. Ma is very enthusiastic about studying in the United States, something he’s dreamed about doing since he was a boy, and he is conscious of the academic contrasts between the two countries.
达蒙•马说：“在中国，什么都是复制的。他们写一篇25页长的论文只花费2个小时，并且还能得A。”
“Everything is copying in China,” Mr. Ma says. “They write a 25-page paper and they spent two hours and they got an A.”
他对自己选修的第一门大学课程“中国古代史概论”感到有些紧张。已经开学几个星期了，他还在克服语言障碍。他说：“我可能听懂了70%，但我听不懂细节，那些词汇。”
He was nervous about taking his first university class — an introduction to ancient Chinese history — and, a few weeks into the semester, was still wrestling with the language barrier. “I understand maybe 70 percent,” he says. “I can’t get the details, the vocabulary.”
许多中国学生抵达特拉华大学时，以为只需要上几个月的英语课，但结果却在语言学院耗去了一年以上的时间，每期八周的课程要支付2850美元。
Many arrive at Delaware expecting to take English classes for just a few months, but end up spending a year or more at the language institute, paying $2,850 per eight-week session.
查克•徐（Chuck Xu）和爱迪生•丁（Edison Ding）已经在特拉华大学的英语课程学习了整整一年。他们的英语顶多只能算是凑和，连和记者进行基本的交谈都费劲。丁同学说，他向中介支付了3000美元来准备标准化考试、填写申请表并帮自己用英语写申请论文。那篇论文写的是关于什么的？他已经想不起来了。
Chuck Xu and Edison Ding have been in Delaware’s English program for a full year. Their English is, at best, serviceable, and they struggle to carry on a basic conversation with a reporter. Mr. Ding says he paid an agent about $3,000 to prep him for standardized exams, fill out his application and help write his essay in English. What was the essay about? Mr. Ding doesn’t recall.
徐同学刚刚念完了语言课程，现在正在修大一课程。丁同学还没有通过最后阶段的语言考试，他希望能从春季学期开始选修常规课程。
Mr. Xu just completed the program and is now enrolled in freshman classes. Mr. Ding has yet to pass the final stage and hopes to begin regular classes in the spring.
语言课程里大约有5%的学生没能撑到开始念大一课程就被退学。此外，特拉华大学中国学生学者联合会前任主席张成昆（ChengkunZhang，音译）还知道一些学生仅仅是因为丧气而打道回府的。他说：“我认识几个学生，他们来跟我抱怨。他们觉得英语语言学院的课程毫无用处，只会从他们口袋里掏钱。”
About 5 percent of students in the language program flunk out before their freshman year. In addition, Chengkun Zhang, a former president of Delaware’s Chinese Students and Scholars Association, has known students who simply got frustrated and returned home. “I know a couple of students who have complained to me,” he says. “They think that the E.L.I. program is doing nothing more than pulling money from their pockets.”
特拉华大学努力吸引更多外国学生，这是该校校长帕特里克•哈克（Patrick T. Harker）推出的“卓越之路”计划的一部分。当哈克在5年前上任的时候，该校大一班级中的国际学生比例还不到1%。他对于课堂上的挑战有第一手体会，因为他自己每年都会给大一学生开一门课。他说：“他们都是非常好的学生，努力学习着美国习语和美式文化。”哈克说，他了解中国申请人并不总是像他们的申请材料所展示的那样。但是，他指出，这个问题是很多大学都为之头疼的，而不仅仅是特拉华大学。
THE university’s push to attract more foreign students is part of the “Path to Prominence,” a plan laid out by Delaware’s president, Patrick T. Harker. When Dr. Harker came to Delaware five years ago, less than 1 percent of the freshman class was international. He knows firsthand about the classroom challenges because he has taught a freshman course each year. “They’re very good students that struggle with American idiom and American culture,” he says. Dr. Harker says he’s aware that applications from China aren’t always what they seem to be. He notes, though, that it’s a problem lots of universities, not just Delaware, are grappling with.
但哈克否认了该校在中国的招生活动主要是为了赚钱的说法。他说：“新泽西州来的学生同样要付学费。对我们来说，这确确实实是为了多元化。”
But Dr. Harker rejects the notion that the university’s recruiting effort in China is mainly about money. “The students from New Jersey pay, too,” he says. “For us it really is about diversity.”
然而，在特拉华大学念本科的国际学生中，大多数是中国人。该校招生主任路易斯•赫什（Louis L. Hirsh）说他正在致力于改变这种不均衡现象。他表示，特拉华大学正在努力开拓中东和南美国家的市场。
Still, the majority of Delaware’s international undergraduates are Chinese, an imbalance Louis L. Hirsh, the university’s director of admissions, says he’s working to change. Delaware is trying to make inroads into the Middle East and South America, he says.
对于那些想要迅速走向世界的大学来说，招生活动的天然之选就是在中国。当俄克拉荷马基督教大学决定开始国际招生时，它聘请了3名招生人员，把他们派往中国。该校国际项目主任约翰•奥斯本（JohnOsborne）说：“我们决定要瞄准中国市场，因为它太大了。”自2007年招收了首名国际学生以来，如今该校已经有250名外国本科生，其中有四分之一来自中国。的确，如果高校开始在中国招生原本只是期望得到一小股稳定生源的话，他们其实是挖到了一个金矿。2011年，俄亥俄州立大学收到了将近2900份中国学生的本科入学申请。蒙特霍利约克山学院（Mount Holyoke College）可以用中国学生填满它全部的大一课堂。2011年秋季在北京举办的一场国际大学教育展就吸引到了3万人到场。这个市场的规模之大，探索起来叫人生畏，也很困难。虽然很多美国大学和作为研究生输送管道的中国大学之间长期保持着联系，但大多数美国高校并没有和中国的高中建立起强有力的关系。当只有少数最优秀的学生出国留学的时候，美国大学很容易把重点放在几所精英中学上面。但现在，招生官们必须让自己熟悉成千上万所潜在的学校，来寻找匹配的生源。对于那些每年只访问中国一两次的美国招生人员来说，这太困难了。
For colleges that want to go global, and quickly, a natural place for recruiting efforts is China.When Oklahoma Christian University decided to jump into international admissions, it hired three recruiters and sent them to China. “China was the market we decided to target,” says John Osborne, Oklahoma Christian’s director of international programs, “because it was just so large.” Today, the university, which admitted its first foreign student in 2007, has 250 overseas undergraduates, a quarter of whom are from China. Indeed, if universities turned on the recruiting spigot in China expecting a steady trickle of students, they’ve gotten a gusher instead. Ohio State received nearly 2,900 undergraduate applications from China this year. Mount Holyoke College could have filled its entire freshman class with Chinese students. A single foreign-college fair in Beijing this fall drew a crowd of 30,000. The very size of the market can make it daunting and difficult to navigate. While many American colleges have long-established connections with universities in China, pipelines for generations of graduate students, most do not have strong relationships with the country’s high schools. When only a few of the very best students went abroad, it was easy enough for colleges to focus their efforts on a handful of elite secondary schools, but now admissions officers must familiarize themselves with potentially thousands of schools to find a good fit. That’s tough for American recruiters who only visit once or twice a year.
包括特拉华大学在内的一些大学已经雇用了海外代理，这种操作方式在美国本土招生中是被禁止的，并且在2011年是美国高校招生顾问联合会内部辩论的核心。海外代理作为大学的代表，在高校教育展上宣传学校并招徕申请人，但这并不保证大学了解申请人的背景以及他们分数的真实性。业内人士越来越担心美国高校还没有真正了解中国市场就进去了。不久前，美国一家大型大学的教务长和Zinch China公司的汤姆•麦彻（ TomMelcher）取得了联系，打算马上招收250名中国学生。在被问到原因时，这位教务长回答说，学校面临着巨额预算赤字。他对麦彻说，为了弥补赤字，该校需要额外招收能够自己掏学费的学生，而中国不缺这样的人选。麦彻说：“我是不是觉得预算缩减在促使大家争着去国外招生呢？不幸的是：是这样的。”
Some universities, including Delaware, have hired agents overseas, a practice that is banned in domestic recruiting, and this year has been at the center of a debate within the National Association for College Admission Counseling. Though the agents act as universities’ representatives, marketing them at college fairs and soliciting applications, that’s no guarantee that colleges know the origin of the applications, or the veracity of their grades and scores. For those on the ground, there’s deepening concern that American colleges have entered China without truly understanding it. Not long ago, Tom Melcher of Zinch China was contacted by the provost of a large American university who wanted to recruit 250 Chinese students, stat. When asked why, the provost replied that his institution faced a yawning budget deficit. To fill it, he told Mr. Melcher, the university needed additional students who could pay their own way, and China has many of them. “Do I think the budget squeeze is driving the rush to international?” Mr. Melcher says. “Unfortunately, yes.”
在特拉华大学，校方在尝试新的策略。他们启动了一个项目，把来自中国和其他国家的国际学生跟指导老师结对，把他们向美国学业生活的过渡变得容易些。此外，英语语言学院为那些课堂上有中国学生的教职员开办了讲习班。其他大学也在反思它们的方法。印第安纳州瓦尔帕莱索大学（Valparaiso University）启动了一门特别课程，给那些处于试读阶段的国际学生提供英语和学习技能方面的额外帮助。也有一些方法可以改进录取程序，包括面试申请人以了解其实际英语能力和考分之外的更多学业背景。包括弗吉尼亚大学在内的几所高校请校友和在校学生面试未来学生，有的在申请人所在的国家进行，有的是通过Skype网络电话。而非营利组织国际教育交流委员会（Councilon International Educational Exchange）已经开始提供面试服务。这些改变受到了业内教育人士的欢迎。北大附中校长助理江学勤认为，面试可以让美国高校更好地了解学生是否为进入美国课堂做好了足够的准备。
At Delaware, officials are trying new strategies. They’ve started a program that pairs Chinese and other international students with mentors to help ease their transition to American academic life. In addition, the English Language Institute runs workshops for faculty members who have Chinese students in their classes. Other institutions are also rethinking their approach. Valparaiso University, in Indiana, has started a special course to give international students on academic probation extra help with English and study skills. There are ways to improve the admissions process as well, including interviewing applicants in person to get a sense of their actual English abilities and to discover more about their academic backgrounds beyond test scores. A handful of institutions, including the University of Virginia, have alumni and students interview prospective students, either in the home country or via Skype, and the Council on International Educational Exchange, a nonprofit group, has begun offering an interview service. Such changes are welcome to some educators on the ground. Mr. Jiang, the deputy principal in Beijing, believes oral interviews could give colleges a better sense of students’ readiness for an American classroom.
还有一些大学聘请了外部评估师来复核成绩单，或在中国设立办公室，招聘当地职员来找出学校会错过的申请材料中的可疑点。但是，由于申请人数太多，对每个人进行面试和细致的评估将会是沉重而昂贵的负担。而对于史蒂文斯这样已经和国际学生打了将近30年交道的大学官员来说，中国本科学生就像一个他还在努力解密的代码：“我们怎样才能触及他们？我们怎样才能让他们真正投入到美国的学习生活？”他说：“那是让我在深夜辗转难眠的事情。”
Some universities, too, are hiring outside evaluators to review transcripts or are opening offices in China with local staff members who can spot the application red flags that colleges are missing. But interviewing and thoroughly evaluating every applicant, considering the deluge, would be an enormous and expensive undertaking. For officials like Dr. Stevens, who has been dealing with international students for nearly three decades, Chinese undergraduates are like a code he’s still trying to decipher: “How can we reach them? How can we get them to engage?” “That,” he says, “is something that keeps me up at night.”