Laurence 你好！我知道你之前已经有了很成功的事业，是什么促使你选择到上海交通大学读书的呢？

     Hi Laurence, I know you had a quite successful career before. What made you choose to study at SJTU?

当我2018年9月来到上海时，我完全不会讲中文。在重新开始做事业和学习中文中我选择了后者，于是自2018年9月到2020年1月的三个学期，我成为了交大徐汇校区汉语国际教育中心的一名语言生。学习中文的旅程中充满了各种未知的挑战，我遇到了形形色色的同学们，他们是来自世界各国的杰出的年轻人，有着年轻人身上特有的热情，外向和好学。给我留下最深印象的是优秀的老师们，以及优美的学习环境。交大的徐汇校区是一个开放和充满活力的地方，那里有很多历史悠久的人文景点。课余时间我可以在图书馆附近和同学们一起坐着喝杯茶，感受交大的文化底蕴。通过在交大的学习，我结识了不少朋友，后来我与来自哥伦比亚、日本和韩国的同龄人一起创建了太太俱乐部, 致力于分享中文学习的经验以及美好的探店之旅。

When I came to live in Shanghai in September 2018, I did not speak any Chinese. I  had to make a choice between resuming my career and taking time to learn Chinese, that’s why I enrolled three semesters at Jiao Tong University, International Chinese Education Center for foreigners at Xuhui campus. I have been a Chinese language student from September 2018 to January 2020 and was very grateful to my teachers for their help and support. The journey of learning Chinese was full of unknown challenges, the new part was the classmates: brilliant young people from every country, nice, beautiful as youth can be, open minded…and quick learners. I was most impressed by the teachers and also the surrounding: Xuhui campus is an open and lovely place, full of history and great spots to gather around for either books (libraries) or a cup of tea with my fellow students. Along with some of them from Columbia, Japan and Korea I created the Taitai (Wife’s) Club, dedicated to Chinese studies…and good restaurant hunting.

你是通过什么契机了解到现代中国研究项目的？你现在研究的内容和你之前的学习内容之间有什么关联吗？ 

How did you get to know the Modern Chinese Studies Program? Is there any connection between your current research and your previous studies? 

实际上，我是通过交大的李教授——我们优秀的语法老师才知道这个项目的。过去我曾在法国和韩国学习过人文学科，后来转到了商业领域（MBA）。我很清楚有引导的学习肯定比我自己读一些书更有成效。除了学中文之外，在文化方面我不想自己的认知仅仅停留在游客的层面。所以为了学习更多知识，我决定报考交通大学的现代中国研究项目。

It’s actually thanks to Prof. Li  – our excellent grammar teacher – that I became aware of the program. I had studied humanities in France (MD) and Korea, before taking a business (MBA) turn. Besides, I knew that being led in my studies is definitively more productive than reading some books on my own. Apart from Chinese language, culturally I did not want to stay on the tourist level, so to strengthen my knowledge I decided to enroll in SJTU’s master degree in Modern Chinese Studies.

我从2021年秋季学期起成为了现代中国研究项目的一员。我的同学有来自欧洲和亚洲国家的年轻人，教师团队也有中国老师和外国老师。我的同学们时常令我感到惊喜，我发现他们知识渊博，工作勤奋，可爱并且乐于助人。目前我的主要任务是重新返回到学生的角色中，在规定期限内完成作业和论文。说实话，这对我有些挑战。我学习的原因是为了加深自己的知识。因此，我有时会觉得自己是课堂上的叛逆者。无论如何，我还是非常感谢这样的学习机会。今天我的同学做了非常棒的演讲，我希望自己也能做出他们欣赏的东西。无论我们来自哪些国家和不同年代，无论我们有着怎样不同的人生规划，因为对同个领域有着同样深厚的兴趣，我们被连结在一起。对我来说，能和来自中国、欧洲和亚洲其他国家如此出色和美好的年轻一代共同学习和成长，这让我感到非常欣慰。

I joined the Modern Chinese Studies program in 2021 fall semester. My classmates are young people from European and Asian countries, the teaching team has Chinese and foreign teachers as well. I was positively surprised by my classmates, whom I found knowledgeable, hard-working, adorable, helpful. My principal challenge is to be back in the student’s shoes: homework, essays, deadlines. These are no longer my cup of tea and the reason why I study is to deepen my own knowledge. Therefore…I sometime feel like the rebellor in the classroom! Whatever, I really appreciate very much my studying time: today my classmates made terrific presentations, and I just hope I can produce something they could enjoy too. Whatever the nationality or the generation, whatever our personal agendas, we are bound by the same sincere interest for our field and this is for me very reassuring to study with such a brilliant and benevolent young generation from China, Europe, Asia.

由于我计划专攻历史 (我当然同样也喜欢汉学 )，在教授的指导下，我对历史时期的概览和各个过渡时期有了较为扎实的了解，同时这样的知识体系也通过旁观者在各个时代的反思性观点而变得更加丰富。

出乎意料的是，我发现我对文学课充满了渴望。我已经读过不少中国文学的大作（《红楼梦》《水浒传》《今古奇观》《金瓶梅词话》），但我仍然不知道十九和二十世纪的文学演变。我把这些惊喜的发现都归功于我优秀的老师们。

As I planned to specialize in history, (of course I love both Sinology and History), under our professor’s guidance, I got a solid overview of the historical periods and transitions, enriched by the reflexive perception of China by outsiders through the eras.

Unexpectedly I would say, I realized I was longing for the literature classes. I had already read the big hits of Chinese literature such as The Story of the Stone, Water Margin, Jin Gu Qi Guan, Jin Ping Mei, still I did not know about the literary evolution in the 19th and 20th centuries. I give all the credits of these beautiful discoveries to our excellent teachers.

你觉得线上课程的形式怎么样？有怎样的优点和缺点呢？

How do you like the online courses? Are there any advantages and disadvantages?

如果没有线上课程，那么我就无法参加这个项目，因此它对我来说很有价值。另外，我在通勤方面节省了很多时间。缺点是与教授和同学的距离剥夺了我们面对面谈笑风生和讨论课题的机会。对教授们而言，对班级的管理可能也是个问题。例如，如何平衡文化差异。总体上我认为，现代中国研究的在线课程组织得非常好。如果没有他们的存在，几乎什么都做不了。

Should the online courses not exist, I would not have been able to attend the classes. So their existence is quite important to me. Second, A lot of time in commuting is saved and it is very comfortable. The disadvantages are the distance from the professors and the classmates: no jokes, no passionate discussions. Also, it’s less easy for professors to manage the class. For instance, to balance the cultural differences (as certain cultures and or personalities are more or less prone to speak than others). I want to mention that the online courses are very well organized, and without their existence, nearly nothing could have been done.