中国留学生不该说中文？杜克大学就教授邮件道歉

Duke University Apologizes Over Professor’s Email Asking Chinese Students to Speak English

纽约时报

Duke University has apologized after a professor cautioned international students against speaking Chinese on campus and urged them to speak English instead.

因一位教授警告中国留学生不要在校园里说中文，并竭力主张他们说英文，杜克大学已致歉。

The professor, Megan Neely, issued the caution in an email on Friday. Professor Neely has since asked to step down from her role as director of graduate studies in the medical school’s biostatistics master’s program, the dean of Duke’s medical school, Dr. Mary E. Klotman, said in a letter to students on Saturday.

该教授梅根·尼利(Megan Neely)在周五的一封邮件中发出这个警告。杜克大学医学院院长玛丽·克劳特曼(Mary E. Klotman)在周六致学生的信中表示，尼利教授已要求辞去医学院生物统计学硕士课程主管一职。

Professor Neely did not respond to email requests for comment on Sunday. A university spokesman confirmed that she remained on the faculty as an assistant professor of biostatistics and bioinformatics.

尼利教授未回复记者周日发出的邮件置评请求。大学发言人证实，她目前仍保留生物统计学和生物信息学助理教授职位。

Professor Neely said in the email that two faculty members had come to her office complaining about students speaking Chinese “very loudly” in the student lounge and study areas. The faculty members wanted to identify the students and write down their names, she said, in case the students sought to work with them in the future.

尼利教授在邮件中称，有两名教员来她办公室，投诉有学生在学生休息室和学习区域内“很大声”地讲中文。她说，教员希望能确定相关学生身份，并记下他们的名字，以防这些学生将来寻求机会与他们合作。

“They were disappointed that these students were not taking the opportunity to improve their English and were being so impolite as to have a conversation that not everyone on the floor could understand,” Professor Neely wrote in the email. “To international students, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE keep these unintended consequences in mind when you choose to speak Chinese in the building.”

“他们很失望，这些学生不利用机会提升自己的英语，却极不礼貌地使用并非人人都能理解的语言交谈，”尼利在邮件中写道。“国际学生们，当你选择在大楼里说中文，请一定一定一定记住这些意想不到的后果。”

She added that she had the utmost respect for international students. “That being said,” she wrote, “I encourage you to commit to using English 100% of the time” in a professional setting.

她补充道，她对国际学生怀有最高的敬意。“话虽如此，”她写道，“我鼓励你在学术专业环境下，100%的时间里使用英语。”

The university confirmed the authenticity of the email, which was widely shared on social media.

杜克大学证实了邮件的真实性，该邮件已在社交媒体上被广泛分享。

In February 2018, Professor Neely sent a similar email, which a university spokesman also verified. In that email, she acknowledged that living and studying in a foreign country was a “tremendous undertaking,” but relayed that faculty members were concerned about students speaking foreign languages in the department’s break rooms.

大学发言人还证实，2018年2月，尼利教授发过一封类似邮件。在那封邮件中，她承认在异国生活和学习是一项“极其艰巨”的任务，但表示教职员工对学生在该系休息室内讲外语表示担忧。

“Speaking in your native language in the department may give faculty the impression that you are not trying to improve your English skills and that you are not taking this opportunity seriously,” she wrote. “As a result, they may be more hesitant to hire or work with international students because communication is such an important part of what we do.”

“在系里说你的本国语言，可能会令教职员工感觉你没有在努力提升英语能力、没有认真对待这一机会，”她写道。“因此，他们在雇用或与国际学生共事时，可能会更加犹豫，因为沟通是我们工作中如此重要的一部分。”

In her letter, Dr. Klotman, the dean, apologized to students and said she had asked the university’s Office for Institutional Equity to conduct a “thorough review.”

院长克洛特曼在致学生的信中道歉，并表示她已要求大学的机构公平办公室进行“彻底调查”。

“I understand that many of you felt hurt and angered by this message,” Dr. Klotman said. “To be clear: There is absolutely no restriction or limitation on the language you use to converse and communicate with each other. Your career opportunities and recommendations will not in any way be influenced by the language you use outside the classroom.”

“我理解你们中的许多人对这则消息感到受伤和愤怒，”克洛特曼说。“需要明确的是：你们在交谈和交流时使用的语言绝对不受到任何限制或局限。你们的就业机会和推荐不会受到在课堂之外使用的语言的任何影响。”

Professor Neely’s emails drew criticism and reflected broader tensions about the way Asian and Asian-American students are viewed in academia. In 2011, a U.C.L.A. student ranted on YouTube about the “hordes of Asian people” at the university and complained about their cellphone use at the library. International Chinese students also face unique challenges, including suspicions that they may be spying for their home country.

尼利教授的电子邮件招致了批评，也反映出学术界对亚裔和亚裔美国学生的普遍紧张情绪。2011年，加州大学洛杉矶分校的一名学生在YouTube上大骂该校“成群的亚洲人”，还抱怨他们在图书馆使用手机。中国留学生还面临着独特的挑战，包括他们可能为祖国从事间谍活动的嫌疑。

Ken Lee, chief executive of OCA-Asian Pacific American Advocates, said he was disappointed by what he described as an “ignorance and hateful bias against students.”

亚太裔美国人倡导组织(OCA-Asia Pacific American Advocates)的首席执行官肯·李(Ken Lee)说，“对学生的无知和仇恨偏见”令他感到失望。

“Forcing students to repress their heritage language further perpetuates a wrongful culture of fear toward Asian and Asian-American students,” Mr. Lee said in a statement on Sunday.

“强迫学生不说他们的传统语言，进一步加深了对亚裔和亚裔美国学生的一种错误的恐惧文化，”李在周日的一份声明中说。

About 36 of the 54 students in Duke’s master of biostatistics program are Chinese, according to the university. About 10 of the 50 faculty members in that program are Chinese, the university said.

杜克大学表示，该校生物统计学硕士项目的54名学生中，约有36名是中国人；该项目的50名教师中，约有10名是中国人。

More than one million foreign students study in the United States each year, with roughly one-third coming from China. But universities have seen a decline in international student enrollment.

每年有100多万外国学生在美国学习，其中大约三分之一来自中国。但是，大学的国际学生入学人数有所下降。

International enrollment began to flatten in 2016, partly because of changing conditions abroad, but also, college administrators said, because President Trump’s rhetoric and more restrictive views on immigration have made the United States even less attractive to international students.

2016年，国际招生开始趋缓，部分原因是海外形势的变化，但学院管理人员表示，还有一个原因是，特朗普总统在移民问题上的言辞和更加倾向于限制的观点，使得美国对国际学生的吸引力降低。

In a letter dated Saturday, a group of international students at Duke petitioned the university to investigate what happened leading up to Professor Neely’s email, including the actions of the other faculty members.

在一封周六发出的信中，杜克大学的一群国际学生请求该校调查，是什么导致了尼利发送那封电子邮件，包括其他教员的行为。

The group said in a statement on Sunday that the emails showed “an appalling lack of knowledge and understanding about the Chinese culture and community.”

该组织在周日的一份声明中表示，这些电子邮件显示出“对中国文化和社区极其缺乏知识和了解”。

“We wrote the petition to combat the normalization of xenophobia and discrimination against Chinese students at Duke,” the students said.

“我们写这封请愿书是为了反对杜克大学将针对中国学生的仇外心理和歧视正常化，”学生们说。

Yung-Hwa Anna Chow, who advises students in Washington State University’s college of arts and sciences, said international students must already have English proficiency to study in the United States. While students may need to speak English in classrooms and research labs, they should be able to choose which language to speak in social settings, she said.

在华盛顿州立大学(Washington State University)艺术与科学学院为学生提供咨询的英华·安娜·周（Yung-Hwa Anna Chow，音）说，来美国学习的国际学生肯定已经熟练地掌握了英语。她说，虽然学生可能需要在教室和实验室说英语，但他们应该能够选择在社交场合说哪种语言。

“To attack these students and say they have to speak English because it’s good for them and that they need to practice more, it speaks to these professors’ privilege and entitlement,” she said.

“攻击这些学生，说他们必须说英语，因为这对他们有好处，他们需要多加练习，这体现了这些教授的特权和自以为是，”她说。

Ms. Chow, who was raised in Taiwan and began learning English at 12 when she moved to the United States, said speaking a native language allows people to connect with one another, establish a feeling of home and combat homesickness.

周在台湾长大，12岁搬到美国后开始学习英语。她说，说母语可以让人们彼此联系，建立一种家的感觉，并克服思乡之情。

“That’s a really important piece for these students,” she said. “If you were traveling to China and you didn’t speak Chinese, would you want to be speaking Chinese all the time or would you feel more comfortable speaking English with your friends?”

“这对这些学生来说真的很重要，”她说。“如果你去中国旅行，你不会说中文，你想一直说中文吗，还是和朋友说英文让你感觉更舒服？”