美語情景對話 第726期:Public or Private 公立大學還是私立大學

Todd: Hello, I'm here with Frederick. Now Frederick, you went to university in Canada?

託德：大家好，今天我要和弗雷德裏克聊聊。弗雷德裏克，你是在加拿大唸的大學？

Fred: That's right, Todd.

弗雷德：是的，託德。

Todd: OK, and you have very strong views about universities in Canada. Can you please explain?

託德：好，那你很瞭解加拿大的大學。你能介紹一下嗎？

Fred: OK, well, let me just give you a generAl idea of how education works in Canada. We don't have private universities in Canada. They're all public. Now what that means is that the universities are owned by the government, so there is the Ministry of Education that's in charge of creating the curriculum for the universities and so there's not much room for flexibility and since it's a government operated institution, things don't move very fast. If you want something to be done then their workers do not have so much incentive to help you because he's a worker for the government, and so I think it's not very efficient, however there are certain advantages of public universities, such as the fees being free, you don't have to pay for your education and so it's open for everybody and that's also one of Canada's main idea is to provide free education to everybody, but the system is slow. It is inefficient and does not work that well.

弗雷德：我來介紹一下加拿大的教育情況。加拿大沒有私立大學，全是公立大學。這表明所有大學都是政府運營的，加拿大教育部負責大學課程的設置，大學是政府運營的機構，所以靈活空間有限，事情進展的速度不會太快。如果你想做件事，工作人員沒有太大的積極性去幫助你，因爲他是政府工作人員，我認爲這樣就導致效率不太高，不過公立大學也有優點，比如學費免費，你不用交納教育費用，公立大學面向所有人開放，加拿大教育體系的核心內容之一就是爲所有人提供免費教育，不過這種體系效率不高。不僅效率低，而且效果不太好。

Todd: But, yeah, I can see your point but in the United States we have many private universities and I think they're large bureaucracies also and maybe people don't act that much differently because somebody working for a private university, it's the same thing. They get paid for their job. I don't know if they're that much more motivated to help people. Also, we have a problem in the United States that usually only wealthy kids go to the best schools and it's kind of a problem actually.

託德：我明白你的觀點，我們美國有很多私立大學，我認爲私立大學也是龐大的官僚機構，而且工作人員的行爲看起來沒什麼不同，因爲爲私立大學工作沒什麼不一樣的。他們通過工作獲得薪水。我不知道他們在提供幫助時是否有積極性。美國的問題是，只有有錢人家的孩子才能去好學校，這是問題所在。

Fred: I agree with you. I think that it is a problem because you're not giving the same equal access to education to everybody, only a few selected people can go to the best and the others go to the maybe less good universities. I agree with you that it's not easy but having only public universities might not be the best solution. Perhaps providing public university but also private university such as Japan for example where they have a system of private and public universities. Now, in Japan public university are considered to be the best and private universities are considered to be less good than public universities.

弗雷德：我同意你的看法。我認爲這的確是個問題，因爲這樣沒有讓所有人享有同等的受教育權利，只有特定的少數人才能去好學校，而其他人只能去一般的學校。我同意你的觀點，這個問題不容易解決，不過我覺得只有公立大學不設置私立大學可能並不是最好的解決方法。也許像日本這種既有公立大學又有私立大學的教育體系是種解決方法。日本的公立大學被認爲是最好的學校，而私立大學則不如公立大學好。

Todd: Right. It's the exact opposite in the States.

託德：對，這與美國的情況完全相反。

Fred: So, as you see, it's hard to see which one is better.

弗雷德：可見，很難說哪種體系更好。

Todd: Right, good point.

託德：對，你說的沒錯。

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重點講解：
1. in charge of 主管；全面負責；統領；
例句：He's the chief,in charge ofthe whole show.
他是主管，負責全盤工作。
2. such as （用於舉例）例如，像，諸如；
例句：I know many of them,such asJohn, Peter, and Tom.
我認識他們當中的很多人，例如約翰、彼得和湯姆。
3. agree with 同意；贊成；意見一致；
例句：I am inclined toagree withyou.
我同意你的看法。
4. for example 例如；比如；
例句：For example, in a climate approaching a tipping point, the weather tends to look more similar day to day leading up to the big change.
比如說，在接近轉折點的氣候中，天氣在發生重大變化之前往往一天天顯得越來越相似。