“愿你真实 不为其它而辜负自己
愿你勇敢 愿你善良
愿你真心 正义 无畏
爱你所爱 行你所行
听从你心 无问西东”
在旅顺小渔村刚捕捉到一丝春天的气息时，万里之外的伦敦也渐渐从冬令时转换至夏令时；在我们数着日子期盼假期时，布鲁奈尔的某个角落也有人在日日夜夜等待着回国的日子。那么，值此“英院人在海外”系列又双叒叕重磅回归之际，我们又给大家邀请到了哪位学霸呢？快来跟小编一探究竟吧！
1
人物简介
于芷霄，英语学院2014级2班学生；中共党员；大一至大三年级总排名第一；曾担任班长，2014级团总支书记，《新月》工作室负责人等职务；现于伦敦布鲁奈尔大学交流学习；香港中文大学（深圳）口译专业研究生预录取。
I strongly believe that you won’t be unfamiliar with her if you follow our official account. (P.S. you can also click “view history” to appreciate her masterpieces. That’s not an advertisement :D) Although this character introduction is not more than 100 words, we can still have a clear idea about how excellent she is. Now, let’s move on to the introduction of this exchange program, and also, her tips to apply for it.
2
项目介绍
简介
“优秀本科生国际交流项目”由国家留学基金委员会设立，每年选派一批本科生赴境外高校或研究机构学习。 英语学院获该项目资助，与爱尔兰利莫瑞克大学和英国布鲁奈尔大学均有合作，着眼于提高英语专业本科生英语语言能力，以培养复合型人才和英语国家国别区域人才为目标，以期提高学生创新实践能力，提升学生对该国社会文化的认识，提高跨文化交际能力，提高学术研究水平。
要求
1.具有中国国籍，热爱社会主义祖国，
2.二年级（含）以上本科生；
3.品学兼优，申请时学习成绩平均分不低于85分（百分制）
4.雅思成绩6.5分以上
5.申请前拿到外方学校的offer（正式邀请信）
tips
Before you decide to apply for this project, I suggest you search for information about it so as to have a basic understanding, and then communicate with your families and professors to consider various influencing factors objectively. For example, if you want to participate in this project in your senior year, you may take a make-up examination for TEM-8 the next year, and you are unable to take part in the Unified national graduate entrance examination. Moreover, you have to communicate with your tutor online and finish your graduation thesis abroad. Plus, the process of applying for a foreign university and also for this program of China Scholarship Council can be fairly complex and arduous, so you would better prepare in advance if you were sure about your decision.
3
学习篇
Since my choice of modules was not so limited, the subject I learned here was “English, TV and Film Studies.”
I was extremely astonished, in my early days, by the teaching mode here: one class in China took us only 1.5 hours, while here, in London, a class = 2 hours screening+ 1 hour lecture+ 1 hour seminar which would take me almost half a day. I always felt totally exhausted after four hours’ continuous brainstorming.
I found it too hard, to be honest, to adjust myself to such a teaching and learning pattern at first. However, I found myself, as time passed, improved more than I had expected:
听
没有字幕的Screening，讲话超快的老师，讨论时口音很重的小组同学.......有时我觉得这比做口译练习听奥巴马的讲话要难一百倍.....然而当你整天都被这种语言所围绕时，慢慢地，你的思维就会被转换成直接用英文思考，当你不需要再把你听到的转换成中文与自己对话时，听别人讲话也就没有那么难了。
说
When I was a new comer, I always kept silent, shyly and nervously, during the seminar. But when you were surrounded by people from all over the world such as Spain, Portugal, Nepal, Korea, Britain and so on, you would find that English, the universally used language, was the only medium for you to communicate. When you speak in English all day long, you will not be surprised to find that your oral English is much more fluent than before, and your vocabulary, at the same time, is also enlarged. It may also be due to the fact that my mode of thinking was gradually transformed to an English one. I do not have to organize what I want to say in Chinese, translate it in my mind secretly, and finally speak out something sounds quite stiff. Hence, I can express myself clearly, logically and quickly to others. What I want to emphasize here is that you have to ignore what other people may think of you, or at least, try to be confident. If you don’t step forward, you are always in the same place.
读
I usually have to finish reading at least one short novel before class each week, which is, I might say, a great challenge. Moreover, writing essays and discussing in seminars also requires a lot of reading work. So many reading materials did raise my reading speed and enrich my knowledge.
写
在这边，一学期至少要完成6篇论文，而这些论文的得分几乎就代表了这门课程的最后得分。老师对学术论文持相当严谨的态度：观点的提出，大量的课外研究，语法和词汇的运用，哈佛参考文献的格式等等，如果写不好，这门课的分数就会让你很失望了；在如此压力下，已经完成了8篇论文的我，似乎觉得写作水平迈了不只一大步。
此外，这也使我的学习态度发生了天差地别的改变。英国的学术氛围极其浓厚，虽然我交流的这所学校在英国并没有名列前茅，但是在这里，无论老师还是学生，对待学业几乎也都是持着非常严谨的态度。每一篇论文和每一次seminar讨论都绝非糊弄一下就可以拿到高分。大大小小的期中期末论文和课前阅读都耗费大量时间和精力，这和我过去三年准备任何一门课感受和受益都不太一样。而老师的反馈也都很用心：第一次惊讶地发现老师给我的评语和修改意见字数甚至超过了我论文字数时，我便下定决心好好完成自己该完成的任务，也因此培养出了比以前还要严谨的学习态度。
还有还有，这边的教学资源和设施很人性化，每节课的课件，录音，作业要求，反馈，书单都可以在学校的blackboard上面轻轻松松的找到，非常方便学生预习和复习；老师们的公共邮箱会非常及时的回复大家的各种问题；让人蒙圈的图书馆也会在你查书时附带一个地图，清楚地帮你标出你要找的书所在书架的位置，借书还书全部靠机器自动操作，可谓大大提高了效率。
由此看来，国外的教学环境可能更加宽松平等且更加崇尚个性的表达与展示，但对学生个体的要求也会更高。而与之同样需要适应并投入大量精力的，还有日常生活。离开了朝夕相处的室友和无微不至的家人，一个人从买菜煮饭到修理电器又是怎么个“道阻且艰”法呢？
4
生活篇
Living alone in a foreign country which is quite strange and exotic, to be fair, is absolutely more difficult than you can imagine.
我曾在出国前无数次幻想，出了国会是什么样子，也许没有想的那么可怕吧，我也自己一个人去了中国很多地方，从小就很自立，英语也可以正常交流，可是当我在首都国际机场，告别妈妈，转身发现自己已经是只身一人面对未知的时候，我才发现我可能并没有自己想的那么坚强，才发现自己心里有些慌。也正因为经历过，我才由衷的敬佩每一个独自在外闯荡的人。他可能不会让你知道他经历的苦，但他也绝对不只是表面看起来那么风光。
我至今仍清楚地记得刚到伦敦希思罗机场的那个晚上，一个人出了海关，拿着两个28寸的大箱子，1个电脑，1个背包，在下着雨的冷清夜晚，战战兢兢的给当地出租车司机磕磕巴巴拨出了第一个电话........刚步入伦敦的我发现，这里没我期待得那么好，在这陌生的环境里，初来乍到的我经常因为害怕和不适应偷偷流眼泪，又怕家里人担心而不敢诉苦，一切都憋在心里，刚来的一周内，我说的最多的一句话就是：我想回家。
However, along with my adaptation, I found myself “clearer” and more powerful. And what I should appreciate is just such kind of “loneliness”. I have experienced a sense of loneliness that was unprecedented at home in the past twenty years. What people do at home almost have nothing to do with me. I was writing my paper when you were celebrating New Year; I was having classes while you were enjoying family reunion during the Spring Festival. And those foreign friends I made here were just a speaking acquaintance.
我慢慢静了下来，在国内朋友都睡了的时间，我不受打扰，当只有我自己的时候，我会反思很多，会不断不断地去思考我在国内没有想过的事情。我会用这种规律的生活坚持养成一些习惯，每天早睡早起，每天睡前阅读，每天写日记，自己买菜做饭刷锅洗碗，生病了就吃药，东西坏了就修，所有问题都自己解决，有时候我甚至觉得自己强大得像个女汉子........而这些，都是我在国内没有经历过的，这些也都在让我飞快地成长和独立。而在这远距离中，我也更懂得了对父母家人的挂念，懂得了朋友“理所当然”的守候是如此的珍贵。
当然了，我也利用不上课的假期时间和小伙伴一起去苏格兰旅行，结交了很多新朋友，听到了很多故事，也用一种独特的方式学习到了英国特有的历史和地理知识。并且最让我开心的是，很多大家喜爱的英剧的取景点和纪念馆散布在英国各个角落：哈利波特，唐顿庄园，神探夏洛克，彼得兔等等，给留学生活增添了无比大的幸福感！
Also, after living for more than half a year in London, I found that cultural difference is something you have no choice but to accept and respect. I live in the student dormitory and most of my roommates are local students. During my daily conversations with them, I found that our values and opinions on the same question were, most of the time, different. For example, British people highly admire freedom and individual rights. They think people have their rights to do anything they want and should not be interfered by the others. Once we have quarreled for whether they should hold party in the kitchen at midnight, but I compromised at last, for we can’t persuade each other at all, so all we can do is trying to understand and give more tolerance.
至此，相信大家对学姐学习与生活的方方面面，也对“优本”项目的具体情况有了更加深刻的认识。除却这些，她还有更切身的体会与感悟想分享给大家。
5
个人感悟
当你发现欧洲未必比你想象得发达，大把外国人数学比你强，厕所有100种不同的叫法时，你绝对不会后悔出国留学带给你的那些豁然开朗的瞬间。
有句非常俗的话——世界那么大，我想去看看。我觉得一点错都没有，能看看就多看看，能学学就多学学。用自己的眼睛去检测原来的认知，让美好的际遇使自己热泪盈眶，去看看国外的月亮到底是圆是扁，看看综英课本的作品中提到的大大小小的街道，让文化多样性告诉自己，英国人原来不是CBI课本里讲的那样reserved。
In all, studying abroad is definitely more than just getting a degree or learning professional knowledge. It is absolutely a catalyst for self-growth. You’ll never regret for making this decision to allow yourself to experience this period of time, in which you grew more powerful and faster than any other year in the past when you recall these valuable memories in days to come.
Yvonne
其实作为老于的挚友之一，本编可谓是相当了解她的动态了。从出行前的兴奋、忐忑与不舍，到最初抵达英国时各个方面的不适应，再到后来渐渐融入并享受国外的生活，以及近期望着“回国倒计时”暗暗激动的各个时刻，我都算是跟着一起体验了一把。在国外学习与生活确实不易，但它也正因为这份不易而显得更加珍贵，也更加值得。
“You know some birds are not meant to be caged, their feathers are just too bright.”这句话影响我很久，也真心希望有过这一珍贵经历的老于能变得更加强大，能“特别美丽，特别平静，特别勇敢，也特别温柔”。当然啦，虽然文字的表达能力有限，但也希望读到这里的各位能对更大更未知的世界充满探索的欲望和勇气，能真的“走出去”看一看，也能在自己选择的道路上坚定无比地走下去。
(于芷霄 童嘉逸)
