在美国的学习生活着实一言难尽，从一开始因没有托福成绩充满压力，到后来的以本届最高分（577分）通过托福，以及经历的各种困难可谓一波三折。相信每个第一次踏出国门的学子都是怀着一颗载满美丽憧憬的心踏上飞往美利坚的航班，我自然也不例外，谁叫人家的电影拍的那么好呢？谁叫宣传册上写的那么诱人呢？都说不识庐山真面目，只缘身在此山中。我并不以为然。在我看来，只有真正来到一个地方，才能真正去了解它，眼见为实。

萝卜青菜，各有所爱。与多数1+2+1学生的美好感受有所不同的是，我对特洛伊大学的总体感觉略显消极。在这里我之所以要强调一个总体感觉，是因为我对校园环境以及学校的部分硬件配置还是比较肯定，贵在知足吗。当然这也是参观了几所美国大学对比后的感觉。

学习

但是说到这里我必须提一下，特洛伊部分教师的素质很让人质疑。这一点已经引起国际学生的一致不满，他们的有些做法有时确实很难叫人接受。我不是人云亦云的人，可是偏偏我就亲身遇到过一次，在我刚到特洛伊的第一学期，由于托福考试差7分而被安排到英语预科班，也叫ESL。我在5级班时遇到一个阅读课老师非常过分，在我没有旷课而且每堂课都积极回答问题的情况下期末给我的评分是F，本应至少拿B的课结果是挂掉了。我实在琢磨不透，便去办公室找他评理。他给出的理由是：“你平时的分数还可以，但是你期末考试考的太差了”，我接过卷子一看，那些主观发挥的题目大家都回答的不尽相同，偏偏他给我的分数比一般人的低很多。但我也有苦难言，毕竟主观题的评分都是老师说了算的。于是我回去后寻思了好久，直到我发现听力老师也给我F我就明白了。我曾因为在听力课上复习即将到来的托福考试被老师发现，本人便与那位老师进行了针锋相对的交涉，我把考试的重要性给她讲的很明确，对于我们国际学生来说，过不了托福就意味着没机会进入专业课程的学习，进而影响毕业的时间。而那位老师坚持ESL的重要性，（至于这个ESL课程我在下文会如实的详细介绍）总之就是因此得罪了一位听力老师。而由于两位老师私交甚好，两个老师课下交流起来对我的印象就大打折扣，于是就一起把我挂了。两门语言课的挂课直接导致了我在接下来的一年内丢掉了本应拿到的一千多美金的奖学金。这个事情让我明白了两个道理：第一，不要试图让那些固执的老师理解你；第二，不要跟任何老师把关系搞僵。

在这里我要强调一下，我不是那种好吃懒做或者贪玩耽误学业的人，这一点相信认识我的人都不能否认。在半年内的第二次托福考试中，我得到577分，也是几百个国际学生中的最高成绩，顺利通过了托福考试并进入专业课的学习。

说起ESL，也就是前面提到过的英语预科班。我必须说一些事实，也是大家都憋在心里不敢说的话。特洛伊ESL的课程真的让人不敢恭维，这个课程根据每个人的入校托福成绩把大家分为1-5个等级，托福成绩越好，等级越高。然而不论1级或是5级，在课堂上的收获可以说是寥寥无几，1级的ESL水平相当于国内的小学英语，而5级不过是初中水平罢了。美国人不过是根据自己对英语学习的理解给国际学生安排了这样一组课程，不想这些课程对我们并没有太大的帮助。况且ESL的学费并不亚于专业课的费用，如此天价却并不计入学分成绩，当然，对那些没有任何英语基础的人来说还是有些效果的。如果非要找出些英语预科班的好处，我只能说的确给了我们一断时间来适应美国语言环境，而这个并不是课程给的，是我们通过日常交流和体会自己慢慢提高的过程。换句话说，即使不上这个语言班，我们一样可以通过生活中的经历以及和各国同学的交流提高自己的英语水平。何必去花几千美金去上这个ESL呢？然而如今ESL已经成为学校规定的托福成绩不合格的国际学生的必修课程，对此我只能无语。当然，大家表面上只能趋炎附势的对这个英语课赞赏有加，但如果有心的话，找几个上过ESL的学长私下打听一下，便可以了解大家这个课程的反感了。这个是毋庸置疑的。如今，特洛伊的ESL已经改为只有5级所有课程至少全部拿到B才能进入专业课的学习，所以希望对特洛伊有兴趣的同学一定确保在国内通过托福考试。否则就只能任人宰割了。

说我固执也好，愤青也好，我就是觉得有些时候应该勇敢的把事实摆在阳光下。

生活

生活在这个亚拉巴马的小城市最大的优势就是生活方便且实惠，物价与诸多大城市相比要低许多，房租自然也便宜一些。因此我们生活上的压力相对比较小一些。在第一年过后，我们3个好朋友在离学校比较近的一个小区租了一栋房子，三人一共310美金一月，也是特洛伊市最实惠的住房了。相信全美也很难找到如此廉价又舒适的居所。平均下来我们每人每月只需100多美金的房租，加水电和网费也不超过150美金。这就为我们的旅行和娱乐腾出了一大笔开销。每逢节假日，尤其是长假，我们就会结伴开车去长途旅行，一路的风景，还有回归自然的心情让人极为畅快。几个比较有名的旅游城市比如纽约，洛杉矶，拉斯维加斯，还有奥兰多等等都很值得去看一下，毕竟是一种人生的履历。

除了假期外出旅行之外，平时上学期间我们最大的乐趣便是逛逛沃尔玛超市了。毕竟在特洛伊这个小城市也没什么娱乐活动，学校内组织的各种活动大多不会引起人的兴趣。学校的橄榄球比赛往往是倍受新生的青睐，但是看两场以后也就觉得没趣了。其实多数人除了周末和中国同胞小聚一下，大多时间还是在家对着电脑无聊。这点相信90%的人都不敢否定。这也就造成了许多同学慢慢的开始沉迷网络游戏。我还算比较幸运，因为搬出学校后，楼上有个美国男生。我便经常上去找他聊聊天，喝点啤酒，出去吃点东西，也算是互相解解闷吧。记得一次，我的车钥匙锁在了后备箱里，没办法只能找他帮忙，他用他的AAA会员卡帮我找了拖车，并且帮我配了备用钥匙，我给他钱，他告诉说会员是免费的，当时感激不尽。当然，他的车坏了，我也义不容辞的放下自己的事情，把他送到1个小时车程的工作地点，我们就这样互相照顾，乐此不疲。他一直想叫我一起去巴拿巴城的海滩和酒吧玩，但是由于第二年我的课程比较难应付，他也有自己的兼职工作，一直没能如愿，有点可惜。但是有这份友情在，我就已经很高兴了。毕竟在有着如此文化差异的情况下，我们能够建立友谊，难能可贵。

体会

两年的留学生活的确让我得到了很多锻炼，毕竟要比国内的大学环境好很多，经历的也多。很多同学在美国慢慢学会了自己打理生活中的琐事，以及好多为人处事的方式。对我来说，在外的两年让我真正体会到的是那种独立的感觉，这也为以后的独立发展奠定了扎实的基础。而且美国课程对能力的要求较高，尤其是商科需要具备足够的表达能力。于是大多高级课程都需要学生进行总结演讲，以及好多配合幻灯片的演讲。这不仅锻炼了我的心理素质，也使我的英语演讲能力大幅度提升。现在演讲能力已经逐渐成为了我的强项，在一门课上，我的卓越表现把日本和韩国甚至美国的多数学生完全比下去，之后和另外两个班上的美国同学一起被教授请到家中享用晚餐。这也是我在美国学习中最有成就感的一次。

一些建议

总体上说，中教国际的1+2+1项目还是不错的，我也希望中教国际将来能够联系到更多的学校，使大家的选择范围更广，迟早1+2+1的同胞将遍布美国以及世界的各个角落。

My name is Zhang GuangYuan. I was born on January 3, 1988. I come from Xi'an University of Science and Technology and took part in 1+2+1 program in August 2007 to Troy University of United States to study International Business. Within two years, I smoothly finished the courses of U.S. and returned to China on August 6, 2009.

The study and life in the United States are really hard to describe. I was full of pressure in the beginning since I did not have a TOEFL score, and later on I grabbed the second chance and presented the highest score (577 points) of all international students. The whole processes and difficult experiences can be described as twists and turns.

I believe the first step for every student is like a freshman with a heart full of beautiful imaginations and looking forward to flying to the wonderful United States. I am no exception; I guess the points are their films have been shooting so well, and the stuffs written in brochure looks extremely attractive. People Say that the reason why one does not know the truth, is because he got himself involved. However, I do not think so. In my opinion, if you have not been there, then you will never get to know it, seeing is believing.

To each his own, different from most 1 +2 +1 students which have great evaluation about troy, I look Troy University in a slightly negative way. Generally speaking troy is good, because most of the hardware and the campus configuration do make me in contentment, and it is my true feeling after compared several U.S. universities.

Studying

I can not help to say that, some teachers in troy do have some problems. This has aroused unanimously dissatisfied of all international students. I am not a parrot person; I will never believe unless it happened on me, and it does. Due to the poor TOEFL (seven points short) in the first TOEFL test, so I was placed in preparatory classes, also known as ESL. I was in Level 5, and a teacher who taught reading class was very excessive. I never absent a class and usually interact with him during the class. I would say I deserve a B at least, but finally got an F, which means, I failed. I can not accept it, so I went to his office to figure it out. His said: "you usually do well, but your final exam killed you" I took a look at the test papers, all of us which in his class have similar answers, but he just gave me the lowest score which is much lower than the average. I have no way but swallow this; after all, the teacher makes the decision of how to evaluate all those subjective questions. I went back and wondering for a long time, understood until I found that the teacher of listening giving me F, too. I was caught by the teacher of listening when I was studying TOEFL in her class, then I had a conflict with her at which is more important: ESL or TOEFL. I tried to explain that, for us international students, not passing TOEFL means no access to the academic courses, thereby affecting the length of time to graduate. However, that teacher who insist on the importance of ESL (As to the ESL program, I will honestly describe it in the following paragraph). Anyway, I left her a bad impression, maybe even made her mad. Since the two teachers are personally close, they just share their views about me and both failed me. Two stupid English courses directly made me losing over a thousand dollars of scholarship which I fought for a long time. I got 2 tips from then on: First, never try to make those stubborn teachers understand you; second, never do something which may leave a teacher bad impressions.

I must emphasize that I am not lazy or a kind of playboy, I believe those people who know me will not deny this. In the second TOEFL test, I got 577 points, also the highest score in hundreds of international students. After successfully passed the TOEFL exam I entered the academic courses, and took part in the study of International Business.

Speaking of ESL, which has been mentioned earlier, is the English preparatory. I must tell the truth that someone else dared to say. These courses are really sucks. All international students will be put into 5 Levels according to their Entry TOEFL score. However, even the highest Level improves few of your English, just like the English class of our primary school in China. Americans based on their understanding of learning English to arrange these classes for international students. Moreover, tuition fees for ESL are no less than the cost of the academic courses, the credit earned will not be counted in academic record either. Of course, those who had never been taught English did learn something during the class. If I have to find some of the benefits of those preparatory classes, it indeed gave us a break time to adjust to the U.S. language environment, but it is not the courses that gave us the environment. We gain mostly from our daily communication and living environment. In other words, we don’t need those costly ESL courses. Why do you want to spend thousands of dollars to go to the ESL? Now, ESL has become the required school for international students who did not pass the entry TOEFL test. I don’t understand why so many Chinese students flattered those ESL classes when they abuse them in private. Maybe they do not want any trouble, I would say, the reason why most Chinese are lack of cohesion is that they are selfish. Only when you talk to those students privately, you will get to know their resentment at the ESL courses, about which there is no doubt. However, the rules of ESL have currently been changed to that only when all five classes received at least a B average to enter academic courses. So I suggest those who are interested in Troy must ensure your passing of the TOEFL domestically. Otherwise, it can only be your heavy burden or even misery.

You can look me as a young cynic or stubborn or else. Whatever, I just consider that sometimes we should put focus on the facts, and should not be afraid of talking about the truth.

Life Experiences

The biggest advantage of living in this small city of Alabama is the reasonable cost of living and driving. The prices are much lower than many bigger cities, and the rents are much cheaper, too. Therefore, our stress in living is relatively less. After the first year in student dorm, I moved in a recent off campus apartment with two of my good friends. The total rent is 310 U.S. dollars per month which is the most reasonable housing in the city of Troy. I believe it is difficult to find such a cheap and comfortable accommodation even in the nation of U.S. It is just about 150 dollars per month on average for three of us, plus utilities and network costs. It saved us a lot of money for our traveling and entertainments. Every weekend, especially during the holiday, we would get together to make a long-distance travel by car. It is so good experiences not only the scenes outside the window but also the feelings of returning to the nature. We traveled most of the well-known cities such as New York, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Orlando, and so on. Anyway, all those are my precious unforgettable experiences.

Other than holiday travel, our greatest pleasure is to walk around the big Wal-Mart. Obviously, this small city of Alabama is lack of entertainment; various activities organized by schools can not grab most people's interest. The school football game is often been in favor of freshmen, but two years later they feel dull. In fact, apart from most fellow Chinese get together on weekend, most of their times are bored in front of computer in their rooms. I think the word bored will get 90 percent of Chinese students’ agreement. Boring just gradually lead to so many of my classmates became addicted to online games. I am pretty lucky, since moved off-campus, there was an American guy living upstairs. We used to talk, smoke, and drink beer, and eat together. Once, the keys of my car was locked into the trunk, I have no idea but go upstairs to try to get some help, he used his AAA membership to find me a trailer, and made a spare key. I tried to give him some money and then so grateful he told me it is free for Membership. Of course, when his car is broken, I was also duty-bound to take him to his place of work which is an hour by car. We never tired of help each other from then on. He always wanted to ask me to go to Panama City along the beach and bars to have some fun, but since my classes of second year became more difficult to deal with and he has his own part-time work, this never been able to fulfill. But I had been very happy with our cross-boarder friendship. After all, with cultural differences, we can still build up such a friendship which was especially valuable.

Individual Conclusions

Two years life in U.S indeed improved me a lot, and relatively much better than the domestic university environment. Many Chinese students gradually learned how to take good care of themselves in the United States, as well as their way of dealing with the society. For me, the most important experience is the process of understanding the feeling of independence which had laid a solid foundation for my future development. And the courses of America focus on our real capacity. Especially, the adequate expression for commercial need is very necessary for Business major. So most advanced courses require students to summarize a speech, as well as a lot with the PowerPoint presentation. It not only improved my mental quality, but also made my English speaking ability improved significantly. Within 6 months, speech had already become my strength. In a particular class, my excellent performance completely beat not only the Japanese and South Korean, but most of Americans. I was treated for dinner in the professor’s house along with 2 American students in our class. That was the best experience I have ever had such a sense of accomplishment.

Some Suggestions

Generally speaking, the Sino-American 1 +2 +1 Dual-Degree Program is brilliant, I hope that CCIEE will be able to contact more U.S. Universities, so that our native students could have a wide range of options. Sooner or later, our 1+2+1 compatriots will be all over the United States and even all over of the world.