美国波士顿大学数学金融科学蔡语靖毕业典礼演讲

　　又一位中国姑娘，站到美国大学的毕业典礼上。

　　6月9日，她的演讲视频被分享到微博上，获得了5000多次转发。

　　这位名叫蔡语靖的女生，来自南京，是美国波士顿大学2017年的毕业生，取得了数学金融科学的硕士学位。

　　波士顿大学，简称BU，创办于1839年，是美国一所历史悠久的世界顶尖私立大学，同时也是全美第三大私立大学。

　　在长约7分钟的演讲里，蔡语婧首先向在座所有学生介绍她的家乡——南京；随后，她向大家介绍了自己的家人：旅行跨越了半个地球来看他们的宝贝孩子毕业，并用他们不明白的语言演讲。

　　在等待上课时，她最喜欢做的事情之一就是看着商学院大厅挂着的不同的国旗。这也让她意识到学生群体里有这么多不同的文化和民族的代表。

　　在这样一个多元化的群体里，相互理解并不容易，所以她从一开始就努力地让自己适应。但当她适应后发现，“他们的所思所想都与我相似，我又何必再和任何其他人交流？”

　　或许这是很多留学生都曾面临过的问题，而她在一个普通的上课日，认识到了这个问题：

　　“这是一个正常的上课日，我一如既往地在大厅里看着不同的国旗。我看到中国的国旗被加拿大，智利，哥伦比亚和刚果民主共和国的国旗很好看地包围着，突然间我惊觉到我并不认识任何这些国籍的人。我意识到，忽略Questrom这样多元化群体提供给我的多样的经验和观点是多大的浪费！”

　　美国并不代表着完美的自由，在这里她也会因为捍卫自己的信念得到怀疑和厌恶；也会有无法融入的不适感；

　　但这些都是暂时或者不重要的，在这种环境中，培养出的拥抱文化多元的能力才是受益一生的。

 

　　演讲中英文

　　Greetings! Friends, family, faculty and staff. Welcome to Boston University on such a beautiful Friday night.

　　谢谢！ 朋友，家人 ，教职员工 ，欢迎大家在这样一个美丽的星期五晚上来到波士顿大学。

　　My name is Yujing Cai, and I am a graduate of the Master of Mathematic Finance program. I come from Nanjing, China, one of the oldest cities in the world. And right now, my family is sitting somewhere over there.

　　我的名字是蔡语婧，我毕业于数学金融硕士项目。我来自中国南京，世界上最古老的城市之一。现在，我的家人坐在那里。

　　They travelled, literally across half of the world to come here and see their baby girl graduate and talk in a language that they don't understand. Therefore, I am tremendously grateful for this opportunity to share my perspective of 6 years at the Questrom School of Business.

　　他们跨越了半个地球来看他们的宝贝孩子毕业，并用他们不明白的语言演讲。因此，我非常荣幸能够在此分享我在Questrom商学院六年的感悟。

　　One of the things I have always enjoyed doing while waiting for classes was looking at the different country flags in our atrium. And sometimes my friends and I even have a silly competition going on to see who knew more flags, and it often amazed me how many different cultures and nationalities are represented in our community. In a community, so diverse, mutual understanding doesn't come easily, so I tried hard to be adaptive from the very beginning. And soon… I found myself adjusting to the bigger food portions, and railways in the middle of the roads. I even tried fortune cookies for the first time in my life!

　　在等待上课时，我最喜欢做的事情之一就是看着我们商学院大厅挂着的不同的国旗。有时我还会和朋友们傻傻地比赛，看谁认得出更多的国旗。而我时常惊讶于我们的学生群体里有这么多不同的文化和民族的代表。在这样一个多元化的群体里，相互理解并不容易，所以我从一开始就努力地让自己适应。很快，我发现自己适应了这里更大的食量，和马路正中间的铁路。我甚至人生中第一次品尝了幸运饼干！（幸运饼干Fortune Cookie:美式中餐馆提供的打开后有祝福纸条的饼干）And soon… I felt so content with my progress that I gradually built a cozy nest with people of my culture, my age, who thought and acted exactly like I did. Well, why bother talking to anyone else? The job-hunting process in coursework were already so tiring, and meeting outside my circle just seemed so unnecessary and scary.

　　很快，我满足于自己的进步，于是我逐渐建立一个充满了与我的文化背景，年龄相仿的人的舒适的窝。他们的所思所想都与我相似，我又何必再和任何其他人交流？学校的课业和找工作的过程已经让人疲惫不堪，跨出我自己的圈子去和其他人交往看起来是那么的不必要甚至可怕。

　　Then one day this changed. It was a normal school day, I was in the atrium looking at the flags as always. I saw that the flag of China was surrounded nicely by the flags of Canada, Colombia, Chile and DR Congo，and suddenly, it struck me that I didn't know anyone of those nationalities. What a waste it was for me to ignore the diversity of experience and opinions that the community had to offer!

　　而这一天一切改变了。这是一个正常的上课日，我一如既往地在大厅里看着不同的国旗。我看到中国的国旗被加拿大，智利，哥伦比亚和刚果民主共和国的国旗很好看地包围着，突然间我惊觉到我并不认识任何这些国籍的人。我意识到，忽略Questrom这样多元化群体提供给我的多样的经验和观点是多大的浪费！

　　I was determined to change, but it wasn't easy. I experienced the awkwardness of having to explain a joke that nobody understood, the nervousness of asking questions about other cultures that seems so obvious and silly, the anger of defending my own beliefs only to get suspicion and aloofness in return. But fortunately, these discomforts were soon taken over by something else such as the amusement of teaching my classmates to pronounce my last name, Cai, using a part of their tongue that they didn't know existed, the excitement of promoting our Math Finance culture awareness events in the Questrom Graduate Council, the satisfaction of knowing all the authentic secret restaurants around Boston and the astonishment of seeing the world and myself in a way that I could never have imaged before.

　　我决心要改变，但这并不容易：我经历了不得不解释一个没有人理解的笑话的尴尬，对于别的文化提出问题但担心问题过于明显和愚蠢的紧张感，以及捍卫我自己的信念却只得到怀疑和厌恶时的愤怒。幸运的是，这些不舒适的感受很快就被别的事情替代了：比如当我教会我的同学们发音我的姓氏“蔡”，他们使用到了自己以前都没注意到的小部分舌头的时候的快乐; 当我向Questrom研究生学生会宣传我们金融数学项目的文化活动的时候的兴奋，当我知道波士顿周围所有最地道正宗的餐馆的时候的满足，以及当我以自己从未想象过的视角去看这个世界，和自己的时候的惊奇。

　　Over the past 2 years of graduate school and 4 years of undergraduate before that, I have been so proud to see that our school grew from School of Management to Questrom School Business, and that our community is growing stonger and more vibrant each year, and this could not have happened without the efforts of everyone here, to share, to inspire, and to embrace each other. Let's now think about the future. 20 years from now, what kind of chanllenges are we going to face, as family members, as business owners, as human beings. Nobody knows. And to cope with that amount of uncertainty, we will need a diverse set of skills and knowledge, and most important of all, an open mind to learn. That's why we have been so lucky to be part of the Questrom community that cultivated such freedom of an open mind. So congratulations, class of 2017! For when you walk outside that door today, you are already equipped with one of the most critical skills to succeed in the future, the ability to embrace diversity. Thank you so much!

　　在过去两年的研究生院和再之前四年的本科生活中，我很自豪地看到，我们的学院从管理学院成长为Questrom商学院，而且我们的学生群体每一年都越来越强大，愈发有活力 。而这样的进步，如果没有这里的每个人努力地去分享，激励和接纳彼此，是不可能发生的。现在我们来思考未来。 20年后，作为家庭成员，作为企业总裁，作为人类，我们将面临什么样的挑战？没有人知道。为了应对如此大的不确定性，我们需要储备多样化的技能和知识，而更重要的是，要有一颗开放和包容的思想去学习。这就是为什么我们非常幸运地成为Questrom群体的一部分，因为它培养了开放思想的自由。所以，恭喜在场的2017届毕业生！因为当你们今天走出那扇门时，你已经具备了未来成功的关键竞争力之一，即拥抱文化多样性的能力。非常感谢！