British Cultural Counsellor Michael O’Sullivan on IELTS Test and MBA
英國文化參贊談雅思考試和MBA

Li Xin: With China’s WTO accession, mastering a foreign language, i.e., English, is becoming more and more essential especially for the young people. As British cultural counsellor and a native speaker, what suggestions could you offer to them?

李昕：中國加入世貿(mào)之后，掌握一門外語，比如英語，顯得越來越重要了，特別是對年輕人。作為英國文化參贊和以英語為母語者，你有什么建議嗎?

Mr. Counsellor: Well, I think it’s hard for me to tell how to improve English teaching in China. In fact if I can presume to give advice, I think the “Gaokao” needs even more reform to give more emphasis on communication skills. There needs to be substantial changes in the next few years to the ways in which English is taught in the classroom.
I think it’s interesting that many many Chinese people seem to achieve very good level of English, despite old--fashioned methodology. They have learnt English for several years, but have no functional command of English. But we have the same problem in UK. The British kids study French at school but often can’t actually speak French when they graduate from middle school. We are making big reforms and are achieving somewhat better results now. It takes a long time to develop effective ways of teaching people to speak a foreign language.

參贊先生：我想，我很難講如何提高中國的英語教學。其實，如果我可以冒昧建議的話，那我想高考需要進行更多改進，更多側(cè)重于交流的技巧。而且今后幾年里，需要對課堂的英語教學方式實行重大改革。
我覺得很有意思的是，盡管采用的是老式數(shù)學法，許許多多的中國人似乎英語已達到很高的水平。他們學了好幾年英語，但一點也不會運用。而在我們英國，也有同樣的問題。英國孩子在學校里學法語，但當他們從中學畢業(yè)時, 常常并不真能講法語。我們進行了重大改革，也多少有些成效。要想開發(fā)出行之有效的教人說外語的方式得花很長時間。

Li: Since more and more trans--national corporations are setting up offices in China, MBA is getting hotter. Going to study in your business schools is one of the top choices of Chinese students. What do you think of this trend?

李：由于越來越多的跨國公司在中國設辦事處，MBA（工商管理碩士）也隨之成為熱門。去貴國商學院求學成了我國學子們的首選之一。你對此趨勢有何看法?

Mr. Counsellor: Yes. MBA is very hot at the moment. We certainly noticed that many many Chinese students want to do MBAs in the UK. What I would say about MBA is that I think some students in China want to do MBA too early. My personal opinion is that an MBA programme is more suitable for people with some work experience, for example, three to four years. And many MBA programmes in the UK will only accept students that have some work experience. I think that it’s quite difficult for students who have never worked in any kind of business or public organization to understand the meaning of management theory. And MBAs usually have a lot of management theory content. So I wonder whether it is a good idea for so many young Chinese to want to do their MBA first.

參贊先生：是的。MBA目前很時興。我們當然注意到許多中國學生想去英國讀MBA。關于這點我想說的是，我覺得有些中國學生想讀MBA的時機還太早了點。我個人的看法是，MBA課程更適合有些工作經(jīng)驗的人，比如說有三四年的工作經(jīng)驗。再說，英國的許多MBA課程，只接收有一定工作經(jīng)驗的學生。我認為，從未在任何商業(yè)或公共機構(gòu)工作過的學生是很難理解管理理論的意義的。而MBA通常含有許多管理理論方面的內(nèi)容。所以，我不知道那么多的中國學生想先選讀MBA這好不好。

Li: What kind of assistance could your council provide to Chinese students wanting to study in UK?

李：貴文化處向那些想留學英國的中國學生提供什么幫助呢?

Mr. Counsellor: Well, we are very happy to advice Chinese students. We get very large number of Chinese students going to UK every year and the number is increasing very quickly. This year--2001--I estimate that about 16,000 new students will go to the UK. That’s an increase of 1/3 on last year’s number. Many of these students will go for several years in the United Kingdom. They enter British universities to take an undergraduate degree. Some remain to do a master’s degree.
We welcome the students, but also we hope that they will choose the programmes carefully to meet their personal needs. They are always welcome to talk to my staff in British Council in China. We can give them free advice to help them decide what they want to do. In many ways we are trying to help these self--financed students to make good choice.

參贊先生：哦，我們很樂意向中國學生提供咨詢。每年都有大量中國學生到英國留學，而且這數(shù)字還在快速增長。今年，即2001年，我預計約有1.6萬名新生將赴英留學。這數(shù)目很大，與去年相比增加了1/3。他們中很多人要在英國待好幾年。他們進入英國的大學讀學士學位，有些接著讀碩士學位。
我們歡迎這些學生，但也希望他們仔細選擇適合自己的課程。我們駐華文化處的工作人員隨時樂意與他們交談。我們會向他們提供免費咨詢，幫助他們決定自己想做什么。我們盡量以多種方式幫助這些自費學生做出好的選擇。

Li: It is said that the living cost and tuitions are very high in UK. How do you think of it?

李：據(jù)說英國的生活費用和學費很高。這你怎么看?

Mr. Counsellor: We think the main attraction of studying in UK is the quality and variety of education. But we think sometimes people exaggerate the price. However, I've also emphasized that we don’t expect to rely on low prices to attract more students from China. Choosing your study abroad is a very big decision. It costs you a lot of money and a lot of time and it may determine your future life. For most people, it’s a turning point. Probably it’s one of the two big decisions you make in your life, the other one might be getting married. Usually, people don’t marry someone they met yesterday. So it’s generally not a good idea to make a study abroad decision in one day either.

參贊先生：我們認為在英國學習的主要吸引力是教學質(zhì)量和眾多的教學種類。但我們覺得有時候人們把費用夸大了。然而，我也強調(diào)過，我們并不打算靠低價來吸引更多的中國學生。選擇出國留學是個很重大的決定。要花掉你很多錢和許多時間，而且它還可能會決定你未來的生活。對于多數(shù)人來說，它是個轉(zhuǎn)折點。它或許是你一生中做的兩個重大決定之一，另一個或許就是結(jié)婚了。通常，人們不會與他們昨天剛認識的人結(jié)婚。所以一天就作出出國留學的決定，一般說來也不是個好主意。

Li: Last year we had an interview with consul officers in your embassy and were informed that a streamlined visa process would be in effect. And now one year has passed, how is it doing in practice?

李：去年，我們采訪了貴國使館的領事官員，獲悉一套簡化的簽證手續(xù)將開始實行。如今一年已過去了，它實行的情況怎么樣呢?

Mr. Counsellor: We have, I think, a very good visa process for students going to the UK. Normally applicants can get an interview within one or two weeks. And in many cases the decision can be made in one or two days. In some cases the decision has to be made in London and it’ll take four or five weeks. So it’s quite efficient.

參贊先生：我覺得,我們吸收中國學生赴英的簽證程序是非常好的。通常，簽證申請人可在一兩周內(nèi)就獲面談。在許多情況下，審批決定可在一兩天內(nèi)做出。有些申請的審批決定得在倫敦作出，這就要花四五個星期。所以說，這種效率是很高的。

Li: The British Council conducts many examinations in China, such as IELTS, BULATS, and so on. While IELTS is the most popular one among Chinese students wanting to study in UK, could you make a brief introduction of it?

李：英國文化處在中國舉行許多考試，如雅思、職業(yè)外語水平考試等。鑒于雅思在想去英國留學的中國學生中最為流行，你能簡要介紹一下這種考試嗎?

Mr. Counsellor: Yes. We are directly involved in IELTS and BULATS. IELTS is very hot at the moment. Last year about 23,000 to 24,000 people took the IELTS test in Mainland China. This year, we estimate that about 50,000 will take this test. Now the British universities are attracting large number of Chinese applicants. I think they mostly tend to insist on good IELTS scores. But the test is also very widely used by students going to study in Australia, New Zealand and Canada and even in the USA. Maybe most people in China don’t know that the majority of American universities accept the IELTS scores.

參贊先生：好的。我們直接參與雅思和職業(yè)外語水平考試。雅思目前很熱門。去年，中國大陸地區(qū)就有2.3萬至2.4萬人參加雅思考試。今年，我們估計大約有5萬人要參加這一考試。而今，英國的大學正在吸引著大量中國的入學申請者。我想它們大都傾向于堅持雅思考試的高分。這項考試還廣泛適用于那些想去澳大利亞、新西蘭、加拿大甚至美國學習的學生。實際上，在中國，也許大多數(shù)人并不知道美國的大多數(shù)大學也接受雅思成績。

Li: From the results of the exams that your Council conducts, what do you think are the most common weak points of the test takers in China?

李：從貴處舉行考試的結(jié)果看，你認為中國考生最常見的弱項是什么?

Mr. Counsellor: It’s quite common to find candidates’ writing skills are quite weak and less developed than other skills. It’s also quite common to find candidates whose reading is good but too slow, and that will affect their marks in the reading test. I think when the Chinese students study English, they spend a lot of time doing intensive reading, but reading speed is sometimes a problem. These are important skills if you are going to study in the UK. You need to have good writing skills to pass the course and you need to read quickly to keep up.

參贊先生：很常見的是，與其他技巧相比，雅思考生的寫作技巧很弱而且不成熟。還有很常見的一個是，考生閱讀能力不錯，但速度太慢，而這會影響他們在閱讀考試中的成績。我認為，中國學生學英語時，他們在精讀上花了大量時間，但閱讀速度有時很成問題。而這兩項對于想去英國留學的人來說是很重要的技巧。你得有良好的寫作水平才能通過一門課程；你得有快速閱讀能力才能跟得上。

Li: What improvements will you make to IELTS this year?
李：你們今年將對雅思做些什么改進?

Mr. Counsellor: To ensure the security of the test we’ll make improvements to it each year. And this year there will be more standardization of the speaking test to make the marking reliable. The speaking test is carried out by our trained interviewers. They must be native speaker; they must have ELT or applied linguistics qualification at postgraduate level and English teaching experience. Those are the basic qualifications for examiners of the writing and speaking test. They also have to be certified as IELTS examiners after carrying out some trial marking and receiving training. For the writing and speaking test, the marking has to be made by qualified examiners to ensure that the marking is reliable and the test takers get the right mark in IELTS test.

參贊先生：為了確保這一考試的安全性，我們每年都對它加以改進。今年，我們對口語考試將有更多的標準化措施，使評分更可信。口語考試由我們經(jīng)過培訓的考官進行。他們的母語必須是英語；他們得有研究生水平的英語教學或應用語言學資格。他們一般都須有英語教學經(jīng)驗。這些都是當雅思寫作和口試考官的基本條件。他們還得進行試驗性評分并接受了培訓后才能合格。就寫作和口語考試來說，評分必須由合格的考官給出，以保證所打的分數(shù)是可信的，雅思考生的得分是正確的。