|
Education - Extracurricular Activities（第二课堂） 
“Wining at the starting line”，也就是中国人常说的“赢在起跑线上”。这句话让中国的家长们都开始决战校外战场，所以我把这次的题目extracurricular activities称之为第二课堂，而不是课余活动。 学生的一天不会因为学校放学而结束，即使那个学生只有五岁。许多中国父母会在孩子的下午、晚上和周末安排足够的课外课，让他们一直忙到睡觉。这些课程可以在任何地方进行，从平日每天2-5小时到周末每天4-10小时。 Four general types of Extracurricular Activities 四种常见的课外课程 Music 音乐 Music lessons are one of the most popular types of classes. The piano and violin far surpass any other in popularity, with the cello coming in a distant third and most other instruments far behind those three. 音乐课是最受欢迎的课程之一。钢琴和小提琴的受欢迎程度远远超过其他任何乐器，大提琴排在第三位。There can be many reasons behind the piano’s and violin’s popularity, but one leading reason is that Chinese parents prefer their children learn an instrument for which there are many competitions. This accomplishes two goals: 1) their children are able to earn awards, medals, certificates etc. which represent their hard work and/or natural talent, and 2) the parent’s themselves can point to these awards as their own source of pride (ie, “My son won 1st place in the XYZ piano competition”). 钢琴和小提琴的流行背后有许多原因，但一个主要原因是中国父母更喜欢他们的孩子学习一种有很多比赛的乐器。这实现了两个目标：1）他们的孩子能够获得代表他们努力工作和/或天赋的奖项、奖牌、证书等；2）父母自己可以将这些奖项作为他们的骄傲之源（即，“我的儿子在XYZ钢琴比赛中获得了第一名”）。Awards themselves also help students get into better high schools and, if they continue improving and winning awards, into better universities. 奖励本身也有助于学生进入更好的高中，如果他们继续精进、并获得奖励，就可以进入更好的大学。
Art 美术 Slightly less popular than music, students and parents still love to show off their work. The most popular art forms are drawing and painting, once again mostly due to the larger number of competitions. However, sculpting, dance, and Chinese calligraphy are also fairly common. 比音乐受欢迎程度略低，学生和家长仍然喜欢炫耀他们的作品。最流行的艺术形式是绘画，再有主要还是由于有大量的比赛。然而，雕刻、舞蹈和中国书法也相当普遍。
Academic 学业 While one might think that Chinese parents would prefer an academic subject for their children, this isn’t necessarily the case. Music and art classes are enormously popular, mostly because such a broad number of academic courses are usually covered in most Chinese primary (and middle) schools during the day. 虽然有人可能会认为中国父母更喜欢让孩子在在校课程上下功夫，但事实并非如此。音乐和艺术课程非常受欢迎，主要是因为那些大量的在校课程通常在中小学的白天占用了大量的时间。However, for those children who either severely dislike, show little interest in or talent for, music or art, more academic classes await them after school. The most popular among these are computer science, math, and English. 然而，对于那些对音乐或艺术很不喜欢、没有兴趣或天赋不高的孩子来说，放学后还有更多的学业课程在等着他们。其中最受欢迎的是计算机科学、数学和英语。
Sports 运动 If a child isn’t registered for one of the above types of classes, they may end up playing a sport. Programs at most centers focus on learning and improving basic skills, having fun, and appreciating the values of teamwork, while some centers can be quite regimented with more emphasis placed on achieving excellence. A few of the more popular after school sports are swimming, basketball, football, and taekwondo. 如果一个孩子没有注册参加上述类型的课程，他们大概最终会参加一项运动。大多数项目的重点是学习和提高基本技能，享受乐趣，理解团队合作的价值观，而有些中心也是认真训练，更多的努力放在赢得比赛上。一些很受欢迎的课外运动是游泳、篮球、足球和跆拳道。 Camps 营地 Summer (and winter) camps have started to become quite popular over the last decade. There are camps for nearly every interest imaginable, but the most popular camps focus on sports or general activities, with many camps offering English immersion as a bonus. 在过去的十年里，夏令营（和冬令营）开始变得相当流行。几乎每种兴趣都会组织营地活动，但最受欢迎的营地活动集中在体育运动或一般活动上，而且许多营地提供浸泡式英语作为额外的优势。
Parents in many western countries enroll their children in extracurricular activities so it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise to learn this is popular in China as well. 许多西方国家的家长都会让孩子参加课外活动，所以在中国很受欢迎其实也不是件奇怪的事。What seems to be unique in China is how young the students are when they begin these activities, the degree to which they are pushed to excel, and the length of their full day. 在中国，独特之处似乎在于学生们开始这些活动时的年龄幼小程度，他们被教授的优秀程度，以及他们度过一整天的时间长度。Chinese students often begin piano, painting, or English from as young as 2 years old, but more commonly begin around 7 years old. These activities aren’t usually for fun, but instead the children are pushed hard to excel and achieve perfection. 中国学生有的从2岁就开始学习钢琴、绘画或英语，但通常从7岁开始学习。这些活动大都不是为了好玩，而是为了让孩子们努力超越他人并获得完美的成绩。Their full day can clock in at around 12 hours, with more extreme cases reaching a grueling 14-hour day. This can beg the question, why? 他们的一天可以有12小时左右在学习，更极端的情况是一天14小时。那就要引出这个问题了，这究竟是为什么？ In general, one word can sum it up … competition. 总的来说，一个词能概括......竞争。 
Extracurricular Activities 校外课程 Wining at the starting line 赢在起点，不能输在起跑线上 Montessori 蒙台梭利 surpass 超过;胜过;优于 cello 大提琴 show off 炫耀 teamwork 团队作业，团队合作 excel 突出;胜过 nwczvvgnf clock in/clock out 打卡，签到/签出 grueling 紧张的，激烈的；使极度疲劳的 competition 竞争 以上就是今天的内容。欢迎继续关注Metro English。 
五月份，Metro English的主题是Education，一个相对来说非常火爆的话题，现在有孩子的人说教育，没有孩子的人说教育；中国人说外国人的教育，外国人说中国人的教育，几乎全世界都在说教育。所以，我们将在五月份即将播出的20期内容里，努力地把教育说一说，把相关教育，你想表达的内容尽可能的分享一下。希望通过五月份，你可以把你喜欢的、你不喜欢的有关教育的话，大声用英语说出来。 微信朗读打卡群现在开始集结，“Let's go to school”，您可以扫描二维码，每个月25元，即可加入我们，每天有Sally为您纠音，有小伙伴们的同行与激励，马上开始说英语吧！
|
