LUO Man, Mandy (52640258)
GE1401 University English
TB1
Have you ever thought that your university life is not what you want? Have you ever felt that you are just wasting your time in university? Have you ever realized that there are so many distractions that you cannot focus on one thing at a time? All kinds of questions come when you stop to think about your university life. So how to live a meaningful one becomes an urgent problem to solve.
Despite the fact that companies require potential employees to have a good educational background, many students wonder what universities can teach us, since we seem to learn almost nothing but keep losing the knowledge we already have. This problem is so severe that Jiangxin, a student graduating from Huazhong Science and Technology University this year, spent several months writing a letter of repentance which is more than 14,000 words to warn students not to waste time in university. His article aroused resonance among a great number of university students and their replies show that they encounter similar problems and regret for the time they have wasted.
Why students are acting this way is because they somehow lose themselves in the transitional period from schools to society, and from supervised to self-disciplined. Steps should be taken to help them find the way back. The Independent (Brann, 2012) listed '50 things to do before you leave university' including studying, socializing, organizing activities, etc. Because there are so many options available, we have to be selective. To tackle this problem, three approaches are suggested to achieve a meaningful university life: to concentrate more on studies, to focus more on activities, and to tailor-make a solution according to one's own situation.
University is a place to study, so the first solution is to concentrate more on studies. Nowadays, students are no longer occupied with studies all the time due to various attention-grabbers. They just won't let their mobile phones or laptops out of their sight even if they are doing nothing but kill the time. Some students seldom go to lectures. What's worse, even when they are in the classroom, most of them just play with their mobile phones and won't listen to the professor. We seem to lose our sense of living and thinking abilities. Maxim Gorky, a famous Russian writer once said that 'Books are the ladder of the progress of mankind, the youths' inseparable partner and the tutor for life guide.' So the first step is to get rid of electronic devices and focus on studies at least one hour at a time. We must have a right attitude and bear it in mind that we are doing this for our own sake. University education is mainly about independent learning. Except for attending lectures, finishing assignments, and reviewing from time to time, you can spend more time reading extra materials about the subject you are learning. Instead of watching TV dramas, you may read news, literature, and journals even if they are not related to your subjects because they will make you a better-rounded person. You can also try group studies which can inspire your ideas. What you need to pay attention to is that you should not study alone all the time, which may result in an extremely small social circle and poor communication skills. In this way, you can make a good use of your time.
University is more than just studying. The second solution is to engage in as many activities as possible. According to Lovely Clain (2010), a famous blogger, the college is ‘15% for knowledge in books, 35% for how to behave, 25% for social knowledge and how to deal your relationship with others, 20% for primary arrangement and undertaking a career, 5% for enjoying the college lives’. This means that we need extra-curriculum activities to help us develop management ability, leadership capacity and communication skills, etc. Since we are said to waste our time in meaningless things like computer games and parties, we can occupy ourselves with more meaningful activities. By doing part-time jobs, volunteer works and exhibition helper jobs, you can expand your interpersonal circle and walk out of your ivory tower. Although all these are good for our overall development, we must pay attention to time management in order to maintain a balance between studies and these activities. For example, Chen Zijian, a student from Chinese University of Hong Kong, earned 300,000 dollar in the past two years doing part time job, but failed in most of his subjects, while Li Haiying, another student from Chinese University of Hong Kong who put studies first and did internship at the same time, earned both good grades and fruitful experience.
Provided so many successful examples to follow, how should we choose? Here comes the final solution: to tailor-make a most suitable way after finding out who you are and what you want to be before taking actions. According to Sigmund Freud’s Iceberg Principle, people are only conscious of one eighth of themselves. Digging more of ourselves can help us avoid getting side-tracked. The two solutions listed above are both feasible, but they are designated for different people. The first one is more suitable for those who are more introvert and easier to focus on things. They can take advantage of their strengths to the most. But they may not have a big social circle. On the other side, for those who are more active and better at communicating with people, they may try to spend more time in activity-organizing and socializing. However, they can easily get a low grade due to poor time management. And for those who are in between, they can combine the two methods to different degrees so as to get a tailor-made one. So at first you must find out what kind of person you are. And then you must figure out what you want to be in the future to adjust the way you train yourself in university. For instance, if you want to be a teacher in the future, you may use the former one more since it will make you knowledgeable. However, if you are planning to be a business person, you may prefer the second one because you will need leadership capability and communication skills more. The third solution can give students a great flexibility in plan-making. However, it may not be easy at first to evaluate oneself and may take a long time. Only by finding the most appropriate way can you achieve efficiency.
College is the best and probably the last time for you to learn things under less pressure. Doing what you are asked to or even simply doing nothing will definitely not guarantee you a better future. And copying others' success stories is not applicable for everyone. Sometimes it will turn out to be a waste of time. So in conclusion, the best way to achieve a meaningful life in university is to tailor-make your own way after a thorough evaluation of oneself. Not everyone has the same definition of ‘meaningful’, so individual’s definition is important and should be taken into consideration in the solution-making process. If you make good plans and hold on to them, you will have a quite meaningful life in university.
Reference
BRANN, O. (2012, July 02). 50 things to do before you leave university. The Independent. Retrieved April 12, 2013 from http://www.independent.co.uk/student/student-life/50-things-to-do-before-you-leave-university-7903402.html
Clain L. (2010, August 03). [Web log message]. How to arrange for your college life to be joyful and meaningful? Retrieved April 12, 2013 from http://www.articlesbase.com/college-and-university-articles/how-to-arrange-for-your-college-life-to-be-joyful-and-meaningful-2955444.html
Mathis, M. (2005, December 05). [Web log message]. Freud’s Iceberg Theory. Retrieved April 12, 2013 from http://mhspsychology.blogspot.hk/2005/12/freuds-iceberg-theory.html
XU, J. (n.d.). 兼職大學生，工作學業兩難全？（translation: university students with part-time job lost both studies and experience?). U-Beat Issue, (92), 11-12. Retrieved April 12, 2013 from http://www.com.cuhk.edu.hk/ubeat_past/091192/parttime.pdf
(2013, April 2).大學生寫萬言“懺悔書” 大學四年經不起揮霍 ( Translation: University student wrote a letter of repentance of more than ten thousand words: University is not that long). Retrieved April 12, 2013 from http://news.xinhuanet.com/edu/2013-04/02/c_124532568.htm
GE1401 University English
TB1
Have you ever thought that your university life is not what you want? Have you ever felt that you are just wasting your time in university? Have you ever realized that there are so many distractions that you cannot focus on one thing at a time? All kinds of questions come when you stop to think about your university life. So how to live a meaningful one becomes an urgent problem to solve.
Despite the fact that companies require potential employees to have a good educational background, many students wonder what universities can teach us, since we seem to learn almost nothing but keep losing the knowledge we already have. This problem is so severe that Jiangxin, a student graduating from Huazhong Science and Technology University this year, spent several months writing a letter of repentance which is more than 14,000 words to warn students not to waste time in university. His article aroused resonance among a great number of university students and their replies show that they encounter similar problems and regret for the time they have wasted.
Why students are acting this way is because they somehow lose themselves in the transitional period from schools to society, and from supervised to self-disciplined. Steps should be taken to help them find the way back. The Independent (Brann, 2012) listed '50 things to do before you leave university' including studying, socializing, organizing activities, etc. Because there are so many options available, we have to be selective. To tackle this problem, three approaches are suggested to achieve a meaningful university life: to concentrate more on studies, to focus more on activities, and to tailor-make a solution according to one's own situation.
University is a place to study, so the first solution is to concentrate more on studies. Nowadays, students are no longer occupied with studies all the time due to various attention-grabbers. They just won't let their mobile phones or laptops out of their sight even if they are doing nothing but kill the time. Some students seldom go to lectures. What's worse, even when they are in the classroom, most of them just play with their mobile phones and won't listen to the professor. We seem to lose our sense of living and thinking abilities. Maxim Gorky, a famous Russian writer once said that 'Books are the ladder of the progress of mankind, the youths' inseparable partner and the tutor for life guide.' So the first step is to get rid of electronic devices and focus on studies at least one hour at a time. We must have a right attitude and bear it in mind that we are doing this for our own sake. University education is mainly about independent learning. Except for attending lectures, finishing assignments, and reviewing from time to time, you can spend more time reading extra materials about the subject you are learning. Instead of watching TV dramas, you may read news, literature, and journals even if they are not related to your subjects because they will make you a better-rounded person. You can also try group studies which can inspire your ideas. What you need to pay attention to is that you should not study alone all the time, which may result in an extremely small social circle and poor communication skills. In this way, you can make a good use of your time.
University is more than just studying. The second solution is to engage in as many activities as possible. According to Lovely Clain (2010), a famous blogger, the college is ‘15% for knowledge in books, 35% for how to behave, 25% for social knowledge and how to deal your relationship with others, 20% for primary arrangement and undertaking a career, 5% for enjoying the college lives’. This means that we need extra-curriculum activities to help us develop management ability, leadership capacity and communication skills, etc. Since we are said to waste our time in meaningless things like computer games and parties, we can occupy ourselves with more meaningful activities. By doing part-time jobs, volunteer works and exhibition helper jobs, you can expand your interpersonal circle and walk out of your ivory tower. Although all these are good for our overall development, we must pay attention to time management in order to maintain a balance between studies and these activities. For example, Chen Zijian, a student from Chinese University of Hong Kong, earned 300,000 dollar in the past two years doing part time job, but failed in most of his subjects, while Li Haiying, another student from Chinese University of Hong Kong who put studies first and did internship at the same time, earned both good grades and fruitful experience.
Provided so many successful examples to follow, how should we choose? Here comes the final solution: to tailor-make a most suitable way after finding out who you are and what you want to be before taking actions. According to Sigmund Freud’s Iceberg Principle, people are only conscious of one eighth of themselves. Digging more of ourselves can help us avoid getting side-tracked. The two solutions listed above are both feasible, but they are designated for different people. The first one is more suitable for those who are more introvert and easier to focus on things. They can take advantage of their strengths to the most. But they may not have a big social circle. On the other side, for those who are more active and better at communicating with people, they may try to spend more time in activity-organizing and socializing. However, they can easily get a low grade due to poor time management. And for those who are in between, they can combine the two methods to different degrees so as to get a tailor-made one. So at first you must find out what kind of person you are. And then you must figure out what you want to be in the future to adjust the way you train yourself in university. For instance, if you want to be a teacher in the future, you may use the former one more since it will make you knowledgeable. However, if you are planning to be a business person, you may prefer the second one because you will need leadership capability and communication skills more. The third solution can give students a great flexibility in plan-making. However, it may not be easy at first to evaluate oneself and may take a long time. Only by finding the most appropriate way can you achieve efficiency.
College is the best and probably the last time for you to learn things under less pressure. Doing what you are asked to or even simply doing nothing will definitely not guarantee you a better future. And copying others' success stories is not applicable for everyone. Sometimes it will turn out to be a waste of time. So in conclusion, the best way to achieve a meaningful life in university is to tailor-make your own way after a thorough evaluation of oneself. Not everyone has the same definition of ‘meaningful’, so individual’s definition is important and should be taken into consideration in the solution-making process. If you make good plans and hold on to them, you will have a quite meaningful life in university.
Reference
BRANN, O. (2012, July 02). 50 things to do before you leave university. The Independent. Retrieved April 12, 2013 from http://www.independent.co.uk/student/student-life/50-things-to-do-before-you-leave-university-7903402.html
Clain L. (2010, August 03). [Web log message]. How to arrange for your college life to be joyful and meaningful? Retrieved April 12, 2013 from http://www.articlesbase.com/college-and-university-articles/how-to-arrange-for-your-college-life-to-be-joyful-and-meaningful-2955444.html
Mathis, M. (2005, December 05). [Web log message]. Freud’s Iceberg Theory. Retrieved April 12, 2013 from http://mhspsychology.blogspot.hk/2005/12/freuds-iceberg-theory.html
XU, J. (n.d.). 兼職大學生，工作學業兩難全？（translation: university students with part-time job lost both studies and experience?). U-Beat Issue, (92), 11-12. Retrieved April 12, 2013 from http://www.com.cuhk.edu.hk/ubeat_past/091192/parttime.pdf
(2013, April 2).大學生寫萬言“懺悔書” 大學四年經不起揮霍 ( Translation: University student wrote a letter of repentance of more than ten thousand words: University is not that long). Retrieved April 12, 2013 from http://news.xinhuanet.com/edu/2013-04/02/c_124532568.htm
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