该校商学院本科生指导办公室的项目协调人詹妮弗·格里根-帕克斯顿（Jennifer Gregan-Paxton）就是指导老师之一。她说自己对中国学生的职业道德和礼貌印象深刻。他们会经常给她和其他教授带小礼物以表示感谢；最近，在一天之内，她就收到了一把折扇、一条项链和一块丝巾。对于他们想要待在一起，她并不感到意外。她说：“即使有一些中国学生想要冲破小团体，他们也不一定能得到美国人最友好的对待。”

For example, Ms. Tang, the marketing major, recalls one class in which, she says, the professor ignored her questions and only listened to American students. Also, while working on a group project in a sociology class, she says she was given the cold shoulder: “They pretend to welcome you but they do not.” The encounters left a deep impression. “I will remember that all of my life,” she says.

例如，市场营销专业的唐文婷回忆说，在一次课上，教授无视她的提问，只倾听美国学生的发言。还有一次，在社会学课参加一个小组项目时，她说自己也受到了冷遇：“他们假装是欢迎你的，但实际上他们并不。”这些遭遇让她印象深刻。“我一辈子都会记着的。”

Last fall, Kent E. St. Pierre was teaching an intermediate accounting class with 35 students, 17 of them from China. Within a couple of weeks, all but three of the non-Chinese students had dropped the course. Why did the American students flee? “They said the class was very quiet,” recalls Dr. St. Pierre, who considers himself a 1960s-style liberal and says he’s all for on-campus diversity. But, he agrees, “It was pretty deadly.”

2011年秋季，肯特·皮埃尔（Kent E. St. Pierre）给35名学生讲授一门中级会计课，其中有17名学生来自中国。几周之内，那些非中国学生中，除了3人之外，其余的全部退选了这门课程。为什么美国学生都跑了呢？皮埃尔回忆道：“他们说课堂上太安静了。”他自视为1960年代成长起来的自由派，完全赞成校园里的多元化。但是，他也认同说：“确实是一滩死水一样。”

In many schools across Asia, vigorous give-and-take is the exception. No doubt, as Dr. St. Pierre points out, if you were to place Americans into a Chinese classroom they would seem like chatterboxes.

在亚洲各地的许多学校中，热烈的课堂讨论只是例外情况。无疑，正如皮埃尔所指出的，如果你把美国学生放到中国课堂上，他们简直就是话痨了。

Despite the unfamiliar learning style, the average grades of Chinese students at Delaware are nearly identical to other undergraduates’. That may, in part, reflect China’s strong preparation in quantitative skills, which holds them in good stead in math-intensive programs like business and engineering, two of the most popular majors for Chinese students and ones in which mastery of English is less crucial. Indeed, some of China’s undergraduates are strong enough to land spots at the nation’s most selective institutions; Harvard had about 40 in the 2010-11 academic year.

尽管中国学生要适应陌生的学习方式，但他们在特拉华大学的平均成绩却和其他本科生并无二致。这在某种程度上也可能反映了中国在定量技能方面的有力训练，使中国学生在商科和工程学等强调数学的科目中占有优势。这两个专业最受中国学生欢迎，而且是否精通英语对这些专业而言不那么关键。实际上，有些中国本科生非常优秀，足以进入美国最顶尖的大学。哈佛大学在2010-11学年就有大约40名中国本科生。

But some professors say they have significantly changed their teaching practices to accommodate the students. During quizzes, Dr. St. Pierre now requires everyone to leave their books at the front of the classroom to prevent cheating, a precaution not taken during any of his two decades at Delaware. And participation counts less, so as not to sink the grades of foreign students. In the past, he required members of the class to give two or three presentations during the semester. Now he might ask them to give one. “I’ve had American students saying they don’t understand what’s being said in the presentations,” he says. “It’s painful.”

不过，一些教授表示，他们对教学方式进行了重大改变，以适应中国学生带来的问题。如今，皮埃尔会在进行小测验时要求每个人都把课本留在教室前面，以防止作弊，这种预防措施是他之前在特拉华大学任教20年从来没有采取过的。并且，课堂参与程度在评分时所占的比重也下降了，以免给外国学生的成绩拖后腿。过去，他要求课堂成员在学期当中做2至3次演示报告，如今可能只要求他们做一次。他说：“已经有美国学生来说，他们听不懂外国学生在报告里讲了什么，那很折磨人。”

Robert Schweitzer, a professor of finance and economics, frets about using fairly basic vocabulary words. “I have students say, ‘I don’t know what ‘ascending’ means,’ ” Dr. Schweitzer says. “Did they get the question wrong because they don’t know the material or because they don’t know the language?”

金融和经济学教授罗伯特·史怀哲（Robert Schweitzer）的苦恼在于他得用非常基础的词汇。他说：“有学生说：‘我不知道‘ascending’（上升的）的意思。’他们答错题，是因为不了解授课内容呢还是不懂语言？”

If professors struggle to understand the students, the reverse is also true.

如果说教授们在为理解学生而挣扎，那么，反之亦然。

Damon Ma is in the language center’s so-called bridge program, which means his English was good enough that he could start taking regular classes even though he hasn’t finished with the language program. Mr. Ma is very enthusiastic about studying in the United States, something he’s dreamed about doing since he was a boy, and he is conscious of the academic contrasts between the two countries.

达蒙·马（Damon Ma）在语言中心所谓的“桥项目”上学，这意味着他的英语已经好到可以选修常规课程，虽然他还没有念完这个语言项目。他非常喜欢在美国念书，这是他自孩提时代起就有的梦想，并且他也清楚中美两国之间在学术方面的差异。

“Everything is copying in China,” Mr. Ma says. “They write a 25-page paper and they spent two hours and they got an A.”

达蒙·马说：“在中国，什么都是复制的。他们写一篇25页长的论文只花费2个小时，并且还能得A。”

He was nervous about taking his first university class — an introduction to ancient Chinese history — and, a few weeks into the semester, was still wrestling with the language barrier. “I understand maybe 70 percent,” he says. “I can’t get the details, the vocabulary.”

他对自己选修的第一门大学课程“中国古代史概论”感到有些紧张。已经开学几个星期了，他还在克服语言障碍。他说：“我可能听懂了70%，但我听不懂细节，那些词汇。”

Many arrive at Delaware expecting to take English classes for just a few months, but end up spending a year or more at the language institute, paying $2,850 per eight-week session.

许多中国学生抵达特拉华大学时，以为只需要上几个月的英语课，但结果却在语言学院耗去了一年以上的时间，每期八周的课程要支付2850美元。

Chuck Xu and Edison Ding have been in Delaware’s English program for a full year. Their English is, at best, serviceable, and they struggle to carry on a basic conversation with a reporter. Mr. Ding says he paid an agent about $3,000 to prep him for standardized exams, fill out his application and help write his essay in English. What was the essay about? Mr. Ding doesn’t recall.

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