=======================================

Finally, I have to learn to post blog posts. It is said that Facebook is not easy to use in China, so I chose Sina as my home first. Sina Weibo management page requires a nickname and resume, and my doctoral title surfaced. Since we want to put this title on it, let's say it as a pioneering work.

What does the title of doctor mean? Just put the letter "doctor" before your name! During my study, I asked the greeting "What are you busy with?" It is often "put two letters in front of your name when you are busy." I studied at the University of California, which can be said to be the place where the concept of democracy and equality is practiced in the United States. All teachers, students and staff in the department are called by their first names, and only those students from Asia are called professors or so-and-so doctors, so even in an environment like a school, doctors are not often added before their names. One of my senior sisters, a professor in the English Department of a midstream university in California, suddenly put the letter "Dr." in front of her personal check name to let her go to the supermarket to buy things. As soon as the check was written, the cashier couldn't help asking, what kind of doctor are you? Brain surgery?

This is not an exaggeration, because the average time to complete a doctorate in liberal arts in the United States is seven and a half years, just like a cartoon that was widely circulated when I was at school. A graduated brother was sitting in front of a desk full of books. A voice outside the door shouted "Come out and play", and the man replied "OK, no problem, I will be out in almost seven years"! In the past eight years, I have been almost at the average level, luckier than the 50% who failed to complete their degrees after obtaining the qualification of doctoral candidate.

Because it is a liberal arts, it is difficult to read and write with English-speaking students and earn money to pay tuition fees to support themselves. However, most of them went out as China graduate students and studied science and engineering, which is quite different. The average doctoral degree in science and engineering in the United States is completed in five years, and the labor intensity in these five years is relatively lower than that in liberal arts. To put it simply, they worked on a big project with their tutor, and each student was assigned a small part of the project and then did research in the laboratory. The students have finished their scientific research and their papers have been written (several students' projects are added together, and the tutor's big project is almost finished). All the projects to be done are funded by scientific research. According to the regulations of universities, more than three-quarters of teachers' research funds should be spent on students, so that students can write their own papers in the laboratory and receive research subsidies, so that they can have food and clothing. This kind of life is really not for liberal arts students.

Why put the top schools in the title again? Proud! Hey, that's the price! I went to UCLA and majored in applied linguistics. UCLA can be said to be world famous. When I entered school in 1993, I ranked 24th and 5th in the United States, belonging to TOP 1% (I ranked 5th in the United States in the Reagan era, and now I rank in the 1950s with the economic downturn in California). And my department of applied linguistics, its professional ranking is undisputed first in the United States. With such status and honor, the academic requirements of all aspects of the school have become extremely strict. The school atmosphere can really be said that everyone is fighting for the first place. The American classmates around me and I sleep almost the same time. In order to survive in such an academic environment, it is necessary to stage an academic version of "Living". Long after I entered school, I gradually understood the understanding of doctoral thesis in American academic circles: a qualified doctoral thesis must have some innovative research that has never appeared in this discipline. Only such innovative research can make this paper valuable and qualified. If a big project is established in the laboratory, every specific small project can be a little innovation. But what about liberal arts? That's the hard part. When choosing a topic, students must read all the published articles in the field involved in the topic and write comments. Without this step, readers will not believe that the research in the paper is unprecedented and the paper will not pass. In the place where I studied, this basic concept was strictly implemented, which also made those who wanted to get top professional degrees pay a huge price. Some smaller schools, or schools with average rankings, give priority to students. Perhaps attracting students through such characteristics will make the academic requirements less cruel.

Can I "live" when I was young in China, my understanding of the United States was hearsay. Probably I accepted that American high school students were playing, college students were studying and China high school students were studying, but when I went to college, I was liberated to play. At home, I played ball in college, and each of us lived a life of drunkenness for a year. American high schools don't go directly, so I won't comment. As a college student, I have hardly met any native American students at UCLA. When I arrived at the graduate school, I directly took it as my duty to do scientific research leading the level of all mankind. Everyone was struggling to pursue the doctoral thesis that could only be completed in those years.

After entering such a school, I thought I could live in a central city like Los Angeles and study in the number one major in the United States. I didn't know that "being alive" could be the core issue. There is such an unforgettable detail that can be used as a photo of my first experience.

In that era of correspondence, after I "survived" in the first semester, I wrote home that my study time this semester exceeded the sum of my two years in domestic universities. UCLA is a "quarter system". English learning in China is usually a semester system, that is, two semesters a year. In fact, there are still three semesters, that is, the system of three semesters a year. These two words have different prefixes. ), every year is divided into autumn, winter and spring, plus summer, so each school season is only ten weeks. It takes two years to study in ten weeks, and steel is tempered!

I described in my family letter at that time that I only slept for one or two hours every day, and I didn't have any social entertainment activities for ten weeks. I didn't turn on TV (at that time, the Internet had not penetrated into life), but there was only one sports activity, probably tennis for more than an hour.

At that time, I was 26 years old and made such efforts by burning my life.

My major in applied linguistics focuses on human language learning and education. My first class was about reading, and I discussed the speed of reading. According to relevant research, American college students must reach the speed of 400 pages per hour in order to effectively achieve the purpose of surviving in the academic field. After class, the teacher said that the homework after class is mainly reading (we are liberal arts), and the amount is not large. An hour or so every day is enough. Then recommend articles and bibliography, about 400 pages. I have three classes in the first semester. Each class has classes twice a week, and each class has homework, which is about 400 pages of reading. In this way, I have to face 2400 pages of reading a week!

How fast can I read? When I was a child, I competed with my classmates and playmates. China's novels are about one page per minute. When I was in college, everyone took turns waiting to read martial arts novels. The speed should be 60- 100 pages per hour. What about English? Never tried. So, with the excitement and anxiety of the first day of studying in the United States, I finally collected all the things I should see from the library and other places, and opened my posture to measure the reading speed: per hour 14- 15 pages!

Vivre！ ? I study hard, hoping that the speed will improve, and then I can solve the dilemma I face. I haven't eaten or slept for more than ten or twenty hours, and the speed has stabilized to 16- 17 pages; A school season is about 30 pages, which is far from meeting the requirements of survival. (As for later, it reached more than 100 pages a year later, and it was really 400- 1000 pages three years later. That's another story. )

So, I must eat or sleep, I must have no activity and read! Read as much as you can! If you don't read, discuss in class, and you will be completely dismissed. That's embarrassing. This one to two hours of sleep every day is still divided into several times. I really can't stand it. Sleep for 20 or 30 minutes, or take a shower and wake up. Don't eat, because my stomach is full and I will feel sleepy, so I will eat something in bits and pieces and cook it. This is really burning with life. When I was a child, I always remembered that Napoleon was very powerful, slept very little, and often took a nap in a chair. I was envious. That's all. I can do it, too. Isn't the university in China interesting? I play ball every day. My university, thank you for laying an excellent body for me!

The library of UCLA is one of the best libraries on the west coast of the United States, with a large scale. Coupled with the complex computer retrieval system, it is difficult to find books and documents on our own. Then the department expressly stipulates that all handed-in assignments and articles must be printed, and the format and typesetting can refer to the whole book according to the specific requirements of the American Publishing Association. In addition, as a non-English major, I must ask someone to proofread my homework and articles in English in advance, because the student code of the department clearly stipulates that "professors will help students learn academic content and will not accept assignments with English language problems". And a computer. At that time, it was still a "sacred" thing to touch the computer in China before going abroad. It has never been used. At the beginning of school, basic word processing such as composition tabulation from typewriter was "blind". The typing speed can be imagined. Son, this is all you have. Burn it. I can't catch my breath until the first ten weeks are over.

Can I survive? After the final paper is handed in, the score will be entered into the computer system and checked by telephone. I gasped, and a few days later, I found that all three subjects were "A". Take a breath: I survived! Of course, according to this "burning life", I got a unified "A" in all my courses in the first three years and several "A+" that rarely appeared in the whole school system. Of course, there is another key point here, that is, my work experience as a second language teacher before going abroad gave me the strength to compete professionally, and I will write it later.

My courses are mainly concentrated in the first three years. By the second half of the third year, my reading speed has steadily exceeded 400 pages per hour, and my writing has also increased from the initial four hours per page to one hour to complete a page, and my typing speed has directly reached the level of a professional typist. There is only one lingering worry, that is, what I write must be proofread by language. Compared with when I was in the Chinese Department at home, with the advocacy and encouragement of my tutor, I often flaunt that I don't need to modify everything after writing, which is a huge contrast. The school provides related free tutoring services, but because students are all working part-time, it is no problem to deal with the simple homework of undergraduates, and it is difficult for them to revise the articles I have done in-depth research in the field of liberal arts (or linguistics). Later, I paid my classmates seven dollars an hour to take a look at it for me.

With the gradual completion of the course, it is necessary to prepare the opening report and apply for degree candidates. At this time, I don't know if I can really realize the ultimate proposition: "read all the published documents in this field" is in front of me.

Before going abroad, I was teaching in a university. I once heard a senior colleague introduce his experience of studying abroad. He should be studying history or education at Yale, but he is a liberal arts major. At that time, he said that he finally got the doctoral qualification, so he could breathe a sigh of relief and go back to China to visit relatives. I didn't know how important this candidate qualification was at that time. Aren't you a candidate when you are studying for a PhD? Anyway, I remember him saying that in order to pass the examinee qualification examination, he should read 100 books specified by the tutor in detail, and also read 200 widely read books. By the day of the exam, I had these 300 books in my chest, so I took my wife and another friend as my assistant. He wrote an article on the topic given by his tutor in one room, and his assistant helped the typewriter in the next room. He spent the whole day writing exam articles. At that time, I just thought it was novel, so I couldn't understand the hardships.

Doctoral students are a special position, generally called ABD (all except dissertations = all except theses). UCLA and many other schools have also set up a transitional degree called C. Phil. By the way, my doctor's degree is called Ph.D. = Doctor of Philosophy, all of which follow philosophy, probably starting from ancient Greece. With ABD, you can no longer register at school to pay tuition fees, you can finish your thesis independently, and you can go out to find a job to support your family. This degree can also be clearly filled in the resume, which is a degree higher than the master's degree.

To qualify as a candidate, you need to complete the assigned courses, meet the credit requirements, complete the opening report and pass the oral test. This opening report should not be underestimated. First, to cover all published literature in the field of reading, write a book review (equivalent to the part of reading 300 books described by my predecessor). We should also demonstrate the methods used in the thesis research from the perspective of methodology, and then do a small-scale practical research and obtain preliminary results to prove the feasibility and value of the research. The process of preparing this opening report takes one to two years, during which "thesis preparation" can be used as a course, and you can get 12 credits every semester, which can guarantee the identity of full-time students. In fact, the biggest event for graduate students is the oral examination of candidates' qualifications, because once they pass the oral examination, students will become ABD and will fade out of school activities to write their own papers.

The courses in the first few years of burning life mentioned above are all set around the preparation of the opening report. Technically speaking, it is to meet the relevant credit requirements of the school. From the content point of view, it is teachers who combine their own research results to introduce relevant theories, methods and articles in this field into students' field of vision. This is called laying the foundation. In the three or four years required to complete these assigned courses, the title and outline of my thesis, as well as which tutors to follow, will gradually take shape.

We are a tutor committee system, which requires three professors in our department, one in linguistics and one in foreign languages department. I invited the then head of the Department of Linguistics and a Japanese professor from the Department of East Asian Studies. The Department of Linguistics at UCLA has also ranked second in the United States for many years in a row (because of Chomsky's existence, MIT's first position is unshakable), and the Department of East Asia is also famous because we are located on the Pacific coast. Well, it's ranked high anyway, which will bring the highest price. Let's see how the professors behave.

Our oral examination is not a centralized examination method, but a process of continuous discussion with the professors of the tutor Committee. Every time I feel almost ready, I call a meeting of the Committee members (in fact, it is to coordinate everyone's time, and the teacher is very kind and easy to chat with the students). Half an hour to an hour, review whether my opening report can pass. Of course, they all got the manuscript of my report in advance. The top majors are all professors of Taishan Beidou. They can't ask students to come up with something. I did it many years ago when my peers watched it. So where can these mentors face? Therefore, some Members will ask me, have you read the article entitled "What was published in what year"? Nature is not in the book review section of my report, and I haven't read it either. Well, what's the point of this article? I went back to read it and wrote it in the book review. Other members are also very knowledgeable. I'm also knowledgeable when I listen. I can't let other members look down on me. So he said, who else? Did you see anything? Ok, this is another pile of articles! Read it again and write it again. I don't know whether this is a lofty honor, a proud defense, or a display of knowledge, asking the members of the Committee to meet again after this month. Anyway, I will get back many articles and bibliographies. In this information-based modern society, it is difficult to read all the research documents related to any research field.

During this time, how much I miss the teaching of a professor in China (also a famous Chinese department): there are many plagiarism in the world, and plagiarism has made progress! I don't want to copy here: I want to read all the previous studies and write them down, and then put forward my own new things on this basis. There is no soil for plagiarism at all. After my thesis is finished, there are dozens of pages in the citation list alone, which is actually the value of a doctoral thesis, sorting out a detailed database for peers and younger generations.

When all the tutors think that my opening report can be passed, we will set a date for the oral exam. This step is just a formality. The logic of this arrangement is "humanization": as long as students work hard enough and keep learning from their tutors, they will certainly pass. But you see, in such a high-ranking environment where I study, this is a bottomless pit, and they will raise their hands to let me pass until they think that I have been "rubbed" to the point of being inhuman. Have you read all the documents? I really don't know. But there is a saying, I can stand up straight and say loudly, at that time, no one will read much more than me in the categories below the topic of my thesis! This, at least, is the first major to bring out students' self-confidence!