参加1+2+1赴美留学的两年半是我第一次离开家这么久这么远，这期间没回过一次家。想家是绝对的，但我从不后悔选择在鲍尔州立大学两年半的学习生活。2008年8月，在父母的依依不舍与对未来的无限憧憬中，我踏上了美利坚合众国印第安那州曼西市的土地。飞机从北京国际机场直飞华盛顿特区，然后转飞印第安纳波利斯（印第安那州首府），最后由鲍尔大学国际项目主任马丁·白尼特用学校大巴接我们到曼西。漫长的旅程看似劳顿却怎么也抵不过我们初到美国的兴奋心情。第一晚大概是时差还没倒过来，凌晨两点都还没睡意。
初见鲍尔，最令我印象深刻的要数那美丽的校园。被印证的第一件事就是：美国的校园真的没有围墙，方向感不好的我在第一个星期里，最担心的就是找不到回宿舍的路。可另一方面，我却因祸得福的感受到美国人的友好与热情。走在校园里，抬头望到湛蓝的天空，白白的云朵悠闲自得的飘着；低头一看，又被绿油油的草坪包围；迎面走来的美国学生都喜笑颜开，鲍尔州立大学的美丽令我折服。
语言课是我在鲍尔学习的第一站，也是学习其他专业课的基础。我需要修阅读，写作，和语法三门，分别由两个美国老师和一个韩国老师教。据说，我的韩国语法老师是语言课老师里唯一的亚洲人。她不是在美国长大，却可以站在美国人的土地上教授他们的语言，怎能不令人钦佩呢。阅读课的Levi每天都带着12万分的美国热情上课，我记忆最深的要数他那曲里拐弯的问候：~~Hello~~被他一折腾，同学们都不得不睁开惺忪的睡眼，好好阅读那些“晦涩难懂”的文章来应对他突袭式的“怪问题。” 语言课上的最辛苦的要数写作了，每次上课不是写作文，就是修改作文。写作老师也是一个赛一个认真：大到逻辑，小到标点符号，一个错误都不放过。每篇都被圈圈点点的批注占满。老师这么认真，我也不敢敷衍了事，只得静下心来好好写好好练。
语言课上完的那天，我大大的舒了口气，心想总算熬到头，谁料想那仅仅是开始的一个小插曲。专业课的全面来袭，才彻底打响了这场战役。坐在课堂里，周围都是美国同学，教授在上面讲得很开心，同学在下面记笔记记得热火朝天。下课时间到，美国同学的笔记记了两三页，而我却只记了寥寥几行，多半还是连蒙带猜的。听不懂课已经够令我苦恼的了，谁知一个大麻烦没解决，却又遭到考试和作业的连续轰炸—一次小考，两次大考，然后期中考；两次小考，两次大考，两份大作业，小组演讲，最后期末考。更经典的是教授第一节课就说：“我的课，不签到不点名。不过如果你真想拿个好成绩，建议你每次都要来听课。”因为最后成绩是基于一学期成绩的累计而并非只是期末考试成绩，原来的考前突击式学习法基本失效。要想学好考好就得经常看书练题。看似简单的考题其实隐藏很多细节的考察。开始上专业课后，第一个要攻克的难点就是对专业词汇和专业概念的理解。这些词汇概念在中文里我们都不太懂，但是现在要从英文的角度来理解它们。Finance445的教授第一节课就说：“我的要求是在这学期你们至少要把课本读八遍。” 但是只靠自己闭门读书经常会差之毫厘，谬之千里。死读书，读死书仍是行不通的。在努力学习的过程中，一定要加强与同学老师的交流，这样才能避免钻牛角尖浪费时间，才能及时改正错误调整方向快速提高。经过在鲍尔两年半的学习，我总结出如下几条学习经验：第一，在课程学得很吃力的时候，应及时与教授沟通。以便教授及时了解你的学习程度而尽量改变教学速度以适应。第二，尽早联系Learning Center(学习中心),寻求帮助。第三，尽量和美国同学搞好关系，这在之后Group Work(小组讨论)和Group Presentation(小组演讲)上都非常重要。第四，大胆发言，说错，或者教授没听懂没听清让你再重复也不要紧。教授和同学知道你是国际学生，绝对不会嘲笑。我最喜欢的是企业战略管理491的Dr. Johnson Douglas。他有在知名企业从事高管的经验,但一点架子也没有。对每一位同学的每一个问题都耐心的分析讲解。他说过的最经典的一句话是：“让我每天的努力工作值得我拿的那份工资。”
在鲍尔总共修了三门金融课，三个教授都是印度人。开始上Finance300(金融基本原理)的时候，觉得怎么这么多公式和概念，一心想赶快修完了事。可是学到Finance445(财务报表分析与评估)时，却鬼使神差的迷上了金融。教授是金融系的系主任Srinivasan Sundaram。他的课上可真不敢松懈, 重点是他并不按课本讲课，所以就算死命K书，也很难抓住他的讲课精髓。唯一的办法：认真听讲。还有一点特别值得一提，Dr. Sundaram很喜欢课堂上临时出题，对他来说各种金融概念与词汇都如信手拈来般轻而易举，所以题目也特别活。记得有一次作业是让我们在华尔街日报上查到当期银行利率来计算折现价值。我翻了5遍华尔街日报才在左下角找到当期利率。而Finance369的实习是让我们和建筑系的同学合作：VeniceProject（威尼斯城市改建工程）。总共三组，每组两名学金融的学生，四名建筑系的学生，一名建筑管理的学生。这个项目做得很细很认真, 建筑系的教授带着他的学生去意大利威尼斯实地考察了一个星期。回来后，建筑系的同学们分组做不同的改建设计。图纸画好后,建筑管理的学生核算改建费用。我们拿到花费数字后，计算个人投资，三十年还贷的实际折现花费。并审核改建设计的经济效益。Finance445和Fiananc369让我感受到了金融与现实生活的紧密联系，大大弥补了之前学习与应用的脱节。
最后一学年我搬到了二楼的单人宿舍，离我宿舍不超过50厘米的超近邻居是我们二楼的RA: Carmen. 她主修数学！Richard 也住二楼，在男生那边。只是没想到在生物课150人的大教室又碰到Richard。教授不肯发他讲课的PPT（PowerPoint），以便激发同学们上课认真抄笔记的热情。生物本来就有好些生词怪词，就算我抄上笔记，也不知道记的是什么。加上PPT是按教授的讲课速度一帧帧往下过，对我来说跟光速没啥两样。多亏Richard相助：从笔记到专业词汇理解，没有他的耐心帮忙，我也很难有最后的好成绩。
最后一个学期, 专业课也上到了高阶：企业战略管理491，金融自修与实习369，西方音乐史100等18个学分的课程，彻底忙翻天。周周Group Work（小组讨论），周周考试，10月底和感恩节过后都是论文集中爆发期。12月初各科Group Presentation (小组演讲) 集中爆发。每天最常去的地方就是四楼打印室。Carmen和Richard在四楼Front Desk值班，记得他们对我说的最多的一句就是“Take it easy(淡定), Rui!”虽然是很简单的一句话，但是正因为他们的天天提醒，才让我从每天如临大敌的惶惶不安中镇定下来，耐着性子把事情一件件完成。
西方音乐史是必修的选修课。一节课120多个学生，教授却仍能记住大部分学生的名字，并进行有效互动。每欣赏完一段音乐， 教授会先谈谈他的感想，再请5到8位同学谈谈他们的听后感。虽然课程名字叫西方音乐史，听起来很枯燥，可实际上我们课本的名字是Enjoyment of Music – 享受音乐。教授也说这门课是教我们如何enjoy music，所以一个星期后，助教就列出一张音乐会清单。每去一次音乐会并回答教授的三个问题就可以得到三十分，如果还写了一页的听后感就可再得到20分。这门课拿A的要求是期末时学期累积够1000分即可。两次考试必须参加，第一次满分200，第二次满分150 。如果已满1000分，那么期末考试可以免考。两次大作业必须交，一个是电影《莫扎特传》的观后感写5到10页,150分；另一个是自己挑三首乐曲，hip-hop和rap除外，写三篇赏析与评论，150分。这些作业看起来简单，好像可以轻松拿A，实际上光听音乐会这一项就够磨练我的耐性了。一场音乐会一般两个多小时，中间休息15分钟，再好听的音乐也耐不住连续听这么久，还得注意仪态，适时鼓掌，听过一次，就再没动力听二次。离1000分还很遥远，而我当时唯一能做的就是再多听几场音乐会。不知不觉的地我的态度从忍耐变成了enjoy。当我渐渐懂得欣赏音乐时，我才体会到艺术的无形价值和对人们精神世界的微妙影响。另一方面我意识到有时候真得给自己点时间，耐着性子去适应，能积极的调整以适应新环境真的是好处多多。
出门在外的两年半，让我从最初的毛毛躁躁变得冷静而有耐心；从衣来伸手饭来张口的依赖到渐渐培养出独立生活的能力; 从遇事一惊一乍到从容处事。回来时已是2010年的圣诞节，我满21岁，刚好是美国允许喝酒的年纪，意味着能够对自己的酒后行为负责。对于滴酒不沾的我来说，更多的是要对自己的所作所为更加负责。
Chinese University: Xi’an University of Science and Technology
Major: Business Administration
American University: Ball State University
Time: August, 2008 ~December, 2010
In 2008, I participated in Sino-American 1+2+1 Dual-Degree Program. And on August, the flight to the United States took off, the same as my American Dream. When we arrived Indianapolis, the Ball State’s International programs’ Director Martin Bennett picked up us in the airport, and drove us to Ball State University in Muncie. Within these two years, I have not back home even once. Of course, I got homesick. Nonetheless, I have never regretted about my choice to stay and study in Ball State University for such a long time.
At first sight of Ball State University, its beautiful schoolyard is very impressive. After teachers in international office led us travel around, I realized there was no wall as boundary between the university and other places in the village. My sense of direction is totally a mess, so during the first week the most thing I concerned about was whether I could go back to my dorm. On the other hand, when I lost and ask about the direction, the local people are very friendly and kindly to help me find my way and even drive me back.
The first stop in Ball State University is English Training in IEI (Intensive English Institute). For me, it is more like a transition before the major courses start. In IEI, I need to study Reading, Writing, and Grammar. My Grammar teacher comes from South Korea, and as far as I know, she is the only Asian teacher in IEI. At the beginning, I’m surprised and worried about learning Grammar from a teacher whose mother language is not English. At last, I do admire her professional and hard work. I still remember that once I got fever and missed her class, she got my address from my friends, and came to my dorm to visit me and talk about the class. I have never had a teacher like that before. Although the Grammar course ended, we became good friends. Levi taught us Reading, and in his class is always full of American passion and jokes. Although each time we confront different “impossible missions,” Levi always has enough tricks to wake up everybody to face the reality (read the article). I can never forget his ridiculous “Hello~” at the beginning of each class. Writing class is the hardest course in IEI. And in this course there are only two things: writing and revising. In addition, delete LAZY in your dictionary. This course makes me understand “practice makes perfect.”
I thought I reached the finish line when I graduated from IEI. Nevertheless, the war was just started and this time I have to fight with major courses. Sitting in the class around by American undergraduates, I felt nerves and excited. Professors were passionate and spoke “so fast” (at least to me), and my classmates took notes very quickly. When the class over, their notes covered 3 to 4 pages, but I just got a half page scrawl. Unfortunately, before I found out ways to overcome the problem with notes, I rushed into all kinds of exams: quiz, tests, midterm exam, projects and papers, group work and presentations, and final exam. At the 1stclass, my Accounting teacher told us: “I won’t check attendance, but if you really want to get a high score, you’d better come to class every time.” As the final score is not only depends on the final exam but the whole semester’s scores of quiz, tests, exams, projects, homework, presentations, and papers, we cannot just study hard until the last moment for the final exam but work hard every day. In order to get a high score, we need to read textbooks many times and do more exercises. Most questions in exams are multiple choices, which seems easy but actually need much more careful analysis before you choose the best answer. For the studying of major courses, the 1stobstacle is the comprehension of those specific technical vocabularies and concepts in different courses. These technical words, pharses, and concepts are the first time I’ve heard about, even in Chinese. I can’t imagine now I have to understand them in English. The Finance 445 professor told us to read the textbook at least 8 times within the semester. Spending more time to read the textbook word by word, line by line in the library is helpful for finishing our homework and passing exams, but it’s still not enough to master the information in books and classes to improve our capabilities. With two and a half years study in Ball State, I figure out several useful tips:1st, when you find it’s difficult to catch up with the class, talk with your professor about your condition as soon as possible; 2nd, you should contact the learning center to look for help. There are tutors for almost every major, and they’ll help you for free. 3rd, never forget to build good relationships with your American classmates, so that at least you won’t be crazy when you have group work and group presentations. 4th, remember that – feel free to speak up both in and outside of class. B.T.Washington once said “no one could degrade us except ourselves.” Dr. Johnson Douglas is the professor of MGT491(Business Policy and Strategic Management), he has a lot working experience in famous firms as a member of the top management team, but he always has patience to explain and answer any student’s specific questions. He has never laugh at, neglect any student’s problems.
I have three Finance courses in Ball State, and all my Finance professors are Hindu. Finance 300 was about basic financial principals, and it including many formula and concepts. At that moment, the only thing I wish was finishing it as quickly as I could. However, I found finance was very fascinating when I took Finance 445, which was about financial statements analysis and valuation. Professor Sundaram is the dean of finance department. In his class you’d better try your best to concentrate and catch up with him, he’ll ask questions at any time about anything in his topic. Once our homework was finding out the current interest rate in Wall Street Journal to calculate the present value of debts. In order to find the interest rate, I’ve checked the WSJ for 5 times. Finance 369 is a professional practice as an intern in an approved program with a banking institution, business firm, or government agency for pay under the supervision of the finance department. This time, we have cooperated with undergraduates majored in architecture and construction management. It is about city reconstruction in Venice and so called Venice Project. In order to get the real data, the architecture professor Michele led his students traveled around Venice as a field trip to do more research. After they come back, they have to design different reconstruction blueprint, the construction management student calculate the basic costs, and we calculate the expected rate of return of private investments for this reconstruction. In addition, we have to analysis and valuated this project’s efficiency and profitability. This intern just made up what I lack: the connection between the real world and my classes.
The last academic year I moved to a single room in the dorm on the 2ndfloor, and our RA (Residence Assistant) Carmen was my closest neighbor – her room was less than 50 cm away from mine. She is amazing because of the combination of 2 facts: 1st, she is American; 2nd, her major is mathematics! She’s very smart, and beautiful. Richard lived on the boys’ side on the same floor. Unexpectedly, I saw Richard in Biology’s 150-student class. Our professor want everybody pay attention and take notes in his class, he wouldn’t give us his PPTs. It’s difficult for me to take notes and catch up with the fast passing slide of PPTs. What’s worse, even I took notes, I totally have no idea of those words on my notebook. Thanks to Richard, without his help of extra explanations for those wired technical vocabularies and concepts, I could never get such a high score.
The last semester, my major courses entered a higher level: MGT491 (Business Policy and Strategic Management), FIN369 (Internship in Finance), PSYSC213 (The Psychology of Human Adjustment), MUHIS100 (Introduction to Music), etc, and added up to 18 credits. Too much pressure and busyness almost drive me crazy. Each week was full of group works and tests. Most of those papers were due at the end of October, and many group presentations were gathered at the beginning of December. I need to go to the 4thfloor’s lab (there are computers and printers) to print out PPTs, articles, and tons of materials offered by my professors. Carmen and Richard worked at the front desk (on the 4thfloor), and every time they would say: “Take it easy, Rui!” Although it is as simple as it is, their words helped me calm down and finish everything step by step.
MUHIS100 (Introduction to Music) is a university core curriculum course. There were more than 120 students in class, but professor McConnell could still remember most students’ names and faces, and communicate with us effectively. Every time after listening a piece of music, he would told us his feelings and let us join his conversation and share our thoughts. Although the course name is Music History, sounds monotonous. In fact, our textbook named Enjoyment of Music. Dr. McConnell also said that this course was going to teach us how to enjoy music. A week later, his assistant e-mailed us a list of concerts on campus during that semester. We can gain 30 points by attending one concert and answering 3 questions from our professor. If we write about the concert and use several technical vocabularies we learnt in class, we could gain an extra 20 points. At the end of the semester, if your points add up more than 1000, you could get an A! There are two mandatory tests, the 1stone 200 points, the 2ndone 150 points, and all questions are multiple choices. If you already got 1000 points before final, you could be exempted the final exam. There are two homework are mandatory to submit: one is a 5 to 10 pages paper about the movie Amadeus; the other one is writing a 4 to 5 pages listening guide of 3 pieces of music, you can choose any piece of music except hip-hop or rap. It seems easy to gain 1000 points. Nevertheless, I do need more perseverance and patience to deal with those concerts. One concert usually lasts for 2 hours, and there is a 15 minutes break in the middle of the concert. I admit each piece of music is very beautiful and joyful to listen, but I just cannot stand to listen that for almost 2 hours each time. At that time, I was still far away from 1000 points, and the only thing I could do is attending more concerts. I force myself to go to concerts, and generally, my attitude changed from passive listening to positive enjoy. On the way I’m trying to enjoy music, I started realizing art’s invisible value and its subtle effects to human mental health. In addition, I realize sometimes we do need to give more time and patience, and push ourselves to adapt to the new environment or requirement. The process may not comfort, but we’ll glad with the results.
The two and a half years’ experience of studying aboard changed me from imperious to be more patient; it let me grow up from a parasite who always relies on parents to an independent person. When I back home, I’m already 21years old, which is the age allowed to enter bars and buy alcohol in the United States. For Americans, 21 means they have to be responsible for their drunken behaviors. For me, it would be the time to shoulder the responsibility for my own behavior.
